This article originally appeared in the January-February 2002 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Children's Advocates Roundtable

Child care subsidies restored

Child care advocates claimed victory December 5 when the Davis administration agree to release $24 million it had been holding back from the program of child care subsidies to families that recently left welfare for work ("Stage 3"). Many of these families had already received notices that their child care subsidies would end in January.

The day before the funds were released, Parent Voices held a vigil at the state building in Oakland, asking for full funding for the child care subsidy program. On December 5 they met with the governor's representatives and held a press conference at the state Capitol. Later that day, the governor's office announced the funds would be released.

The legislative Women's Caucus, the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, and other child care advocates had also been pushing for a release of the funds. Many child care supporters testified at the Women's Caucus's hearings in Oakland and Los Angeles.

The San Francisco Family Day Care Association (SFFDCA) and Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth had initiated a postcard campaign supporting child care subsidies-"parents, child care providers, teachers, students, faith-based groups, businesses, community-based organizations, and unions from up and down the state" send postcards to the governor, reports Rosie Kennedy, president of the SFFDCA.

In November many California newspapers ran articles reporting on the letters sent to parents warning that their child care would end.

Child care advocates will continue to press for child care subsidies for all families that qualify. Meanwhile Gov. Davis will continue to push for limits on the child care subsidy system, along lines recommended in last spring's "administrative review." (See Child care turning point, Nov.-Dec. 2001)

For more information, contact Parent Voices, 415-882-0234, www.parentvoices.org.

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On the March 2002 ballot

Prop. 40: The Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act

A measure on the March 2002 ballot would provide $460 million to create and improve city parks in California, with an "emphasis on underserved communities." Proposition 40 would allow the state to sell a total of $2.6 billion worth of bonds to pay for a wide range of environmental and open space projects.

In addition to money specifically earmarked for urban parks, the measure would provide another $372.5 for regional and local parks. Other projects funded by the measure include improvements to state parks; restoration of landmark open spaces including the Santa Monica Mountains, Lake Tahoe, and the coast; and measures to reduce air and water pollution.

California recently approved two park bonds, Propositions 12 and 13 in March 2000, which provided $25 and $90 million to clean up California waterways. Before that, California had not approved a park bond issue since 1988.

Supporters: include the League of Women Voters and the California League of Conservation Voters. They say such a large bond measure is necessary because the state's resources are drastically underfunded and the money from Prop. 12 and 13 has already been spent or appropriated. In a mid-October statewide poll taken by the California Conservation Campaign, 60 percent of those polled supported Prop. 40.

Opponents: No opposition has surfaced so far, but analysts predict that the vote may be close because of economic pressures. 

For more information: California League of Conservation Voters, 510-271-0900

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Environmentally safe school sites

The Childproofing Our Communities campaign of the Center for Health, the Environment, and Justice (see Tackling health hazards at school, Sept.-Oct. '01) will release a new report January 22, focusing on decisions about where to build new schools.

For six states, including California, the report will include:

• A map of the state with locations of public schools and superfund sites
  
  
• A description of how and why children are more vulnerable than adults to environmental health hazards
  
  
• Model recommendations, school board resolutions, and clean siting policies.

California groups co-sponsoring the release of the report are: Physicians for Social Responsibility, Los Angeles; California Public Interest Research Group; Center for Environmental Health; Committee for Safe School Sites; Los Angeles Safe Schools.

For more information, contact CHEJ at 703-237-2249, www.chej.org.

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California Budget Project: "Making Ends Meet" Conference

The California Budget Project will host a one-day conference, "Making Ends Meet: Balancing Budgets in Difficult Times," as a follow-up to its recent Making Ends Meet report. The report (see Children's Children's Advocates Roundtable, Nov.-Dec. 2001) estimates the true cost of living for California working families in different parts of the state. As a statewide average, it concludes that a working family raising two children would need an annual household income of $52,034. The conference will bring policy-makers and advocates together to explore the issues and consider policy options. February 12, 2002 at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Losing Ground

Declining Medi-Cal Enrollment After Welfare Reform: This new CBP report shows that families leaving welfare for work are losing Medi-Cal benefits even though their incomes are still low enough to qualify. The report's recommendations include:

• Encouraging counties to make maintaining health coverage for those leaving welfare a high priority
  
  
• Increasing outreach efforts into bilingual communities, especially through schools and community clinics
  
  
• Simplify Medi-Cal application procedures
  
  
• Improving training of welfare caseworkers.

California Budget Project, 916-444-0500, www.cbp.org

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California legislators graded on children's issues

The Children's Advocacy Institute has released its 2001 Legislative Report Card, giving California legislators numerical grades (0 to 100) based on 23 key votes in 2001.

The 21-page report also includes CAI's summary of developments on children's issues in the 2001 legislative session. 

For more information or copies of the report, call 619-260-4806 or go to http://www.caichildlaw.org

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Cuts to this year's state budget in the works

The State of California could be $4.5 billion in the red at the end of the current fiscal year (June 30, 2002), according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. Tax revenue is far less than experts predicted when the state made up the budget last summer, because of recession, unemployment, and drops in stock prices.

So Governor Gray Davis announced in November that the state government would cut spending in the current year and plan a 2002-03 budget that calls for 15 percent less spending next year.

Governor Davis needs the legislature's consent to make most of these cuts. He has called a special session of the legislature for January to discuss the proposed cuts.

Here's a sample of the governor's proposed cuts in the current year's budget, excerpted from the Children's Advocacy Institute report, November Reality Check.

Education

Healthy Start-cuts $38 million of the $39 million for new sites

K-12 equalization-suspends $40 million for equalizing spending between districts

Before/after school expansion-delays spending $29.7 million for program expansion

Low-performing schools-delays implementation of the $197 million for new programs to improve low-performing schools

Beginning teacher support-reduces from $104.6 million to $84.6 million a program for mentoring and support for new teachers

Peer assistance and review-reduces from $134.2 million to $84.2 a program for mentoring veteran teachers.

Health

Expanded access to primary care-reduces from $31.2 milion to $21.2 million for public clinics for care for the uninsured

Healthy Families-delays until 2003 the expansion of Healthy Families to parents.

Child Support

Local administration incentives-eliminates $40.5 million to local child support agencies.

Child Welfare

Transitional emancipation-reduces from $6.5 million to $1.5 million a program of ongoing support to emancipated foster youth in education or training programs

Child Welfare Services training-reduces from $3.3 million to $2 million a program for training child welfare social workers.

Housing

Multifamily housing loans-reduces from $89 million to $45.1 million a program of loans that encourage the construction and rehabilitation of affordable multifamily housing units. 

For a copy of the Children's Advocacy Institute report on the budget cuts, call Lupe Alonzo at 916-444-3875.

For the complete report of the governor's proposed cuts, go to www.dof.ca.gov

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Health insurance for parents

The 100% Campaign, the Pacific Institute for Community Organization (PICO), and other advocates for children and families are pushing for California to expand its Healthy Families program to include parents in families with incomes up to 250 percent of the poverty line, or $42,625 a year. Healthy Families now provides low-cost health insurance to children in families with incomes up to 200 percent of the poverty line.

In December 2000, California asked the federal Health and Human Services (HHS) Department for a waiver to allow it to extend the program to parents. In the July 2001 budget, the state earmarked some of California's tobacco settlement money to pay the state's share of the cost. The federal government pays $2 for every $1 the state puts in.

HHS has not yet acted on the request. Now Governor Gray Davis says he wants to put off extending the program to parents until July 2003 because of current pressures on the state budget.

Throughout December, PICO campaigned to send 100 hand-written letters a day to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, urging him to approve the waiver in time for the holidays. Assembly Speaker Robert Hertzberg (D, Van Nuys) joined PICO in a Dec. 3 press conference to kick off the campaign.

Meanwhile the 100% Campaign, a coalition of the Children's Defense Fund, Children Now, and the Children's Partnership, is asking supporters to contact state representatives "to urge them to support health coverage for low-income working parents as a priority program."

"Every week that California does not implement parental coverage in Healthy Families, the state is missing out on approximately $1 million in federal matching funds," according to PICO.

• PICO, 916-447-7958; 100% Campaign, 510-663-3224

More on children's health insurance: Last year the state adopted an "express-lane eligibility" program that provides easy access to health insurance for children who participate in the school lunch or food stamp programs. For information on implementation of express-lane eligibility, go to www.childrenspartnership.org or call the Children's Partnership at 310-260-1220.

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