With all the cuts in the proposed 2004 California state budget, the plan to cut subsidized child care for low-income families just wasn’t getting headlines.

But then on April 13, on the eve of an important hearing in Sacramento, a coalition of parent, child care provider, and advocacy groups staged a coordinated statewide media event from Eureka to San Diego.

The next day the Eureka Times-Standard ran a front-page story about the need for subsidized child care, the San Jose Mercury News ran a child care feature, and parents and providers were on TV in Santa Rosa and Sacramento, ex-plaining how cuts in child care would hurt their families.

Proposed cuts include lowering the income “ceiling” for child care subsidies, limiting child care for former welfare families and for student parents, lowering rates paid to providers, increasing family fees, and more.

The provider view

Sandy Smith, a member of the Humboldt Family Child Care Association, the United Child Care Union, and her local child care planning council, couldn’t get to the Capitol. “It’s six hours for me to drive to Sacramento one way,” she says.

So instead, she opened her home and business to local reporters. Smith, a family child care provider for 14 years, explained to reporters that providers would really be hurt by lower rates. “We’re only allowed to have so many children at a time. It’s not like we have the doors open and all these customers coming in.”

“The governor said he wasn’t going to raise taxes,” she added, “but then he doubled my license fee!”

A parent’s story

Melinda Beyers, a Santa Clara single mother of two boys, ages two and four, makes $10 an hour as a receptionist. “What I make from my job exactly equals my child care expenses,” she told reporters. “There is no way I could afford child care” without a subsidy.

Beyers also emphasized how much better she feels after leaving welfare. She’s determined to find ways to continue child care subsidies. “We could sell cookies!” she says. “I’ll do anything! I know in my heart that we can come up with something better than abolishing the program. I’m just hoping the state wants to back us up!”

Appeal to the public

The coordinated media event was a new tactic for Parent Voices, the United Child Care Union, and the other participating groups, including Children Now and the Labor Project for Working Families. To prepare for the media event, parents and providers

• learned about the budget cuts
• thought through how the cuts would affect them and their families
• used Children Now’s lists of reporters interested in children’s issues
• faxed the reporters press releases, followed up with phone calls.

“Honestly, I’m not a voter,” Beyers says. “I’m not someone who believed that politics was for the average person. I didn’t believe in the system. But if we can save this program, that will restore my faith.”

For info on ongoing child care advocacy:

• Parent Voices, 415-882-0234
• Children Now, 510-763-2444
• United Child Care Union, 866-236-4444