Students and faculty from the Child Development department drove to Sacramento for the 24th annual public policy symposium at the Sacramento Convention Center, last Wednesday.
The convention educated child development advocates about quality child care and taught them how to gain legislative support for policies that enhance the supply of quality child care and development services to California’s children.
The event was sponsored by the California Association for the Education of Young Children, which is the largest membership organization in California devoted to promoting excellence in early childhood education.
A top priority of CAEYC is its advocacy for public understanding, support and funding of high quality programs for young children and their families.
“Public policy is such an important path that we need to take,” CAEYC President Sharon Hawley said. “If you have an idea that you want to be a child advocate, start at the local level,” she said.
A highlight of the conference included a march to the Capitol and a rally on the Capitol steps, where CAEYC provided entertainment by the Children’s Discovery Center and an awards ceremony dedicated to public figures and organizations that have demonstrated a significant commitment to children.
According to Pat Dorman, CAEYC public policy consultant, 100 legislators have signed SB993, a bill that would provide a one-time 25 percent cost-of-living adjustment totaling $230 million to center-based subsidized child care and developmental problems. This would be reflected in an increase in the standard reimbursement rate and adjusted in the future by cost-of-living adjustments equivalent to that granted to K-12 education.
She encouraged advocates to gain support from legislators within the Capitol building.
Executive Director of the California Resource and Referral Network Patty Siegal said, “When you go out, have a story time.”
She said that like children enjoy stories, so do legislators. “Talk about what you actually learn. Think about the stories that children love. Adults are not that different. Tell them your stories …” she said.
Siegal suggested making them connect and understand what is available.
She illustrated the following example:
“As more parents find jobs, their children need safe, nurturing places to go while their parents work. But child care is in short supply.”
According to Siegal, licensed child care meets less than one-fourth of the estimated need for care for children under five with working parents. Thus, many parents turn to informal, license-exempt care, where quality varies.
But, according to the Resource and Referral Network, many parents cannot afford quality child care. They say that the average cost of care for one infant at a licensed child care center consumes 17 percent of the wages of a family earning California’s media income. “For families with more than one child, child care sometimes costs more than rent or food each month,” Siegal said.
John Head, the President of the National Economic Development and Law Center, suggested that when advocates visit their legislators to tell them that child development is closely related to the economy. Besides saying that child care programs allow parents to work, he said, “child care is an industry worth looking at.” He said that if it was an industry, there would be more support. He said that as an industry, there would be more jobs such as teaching, janitorial, nursing, print and publishing that are directly supported by child care.
He said that child care programs allow parents to work and that quality child care means fewer worker absences and greater productivity. He said that child care is key for people transitioning from welfare to work.
According to Head, child care, like any other industry, generates “gross receipts” revenues that circulate through a community. He said that while the size of the industry varies from county to county, the numbers are significant. For example, licensed child care in Los Angeles county is a $1.381 billion industry. Head said that in Santa Cruz county, gross receipts total $35.5 million.
In Kern county, revenues reach $125.8 million. These totals can then be compared to other industries in order to show how important child care is to local communities, Head said. Also in Kern County, Head said that child care is larger than than the carrot industry, and almost as large as the cotton industry. He said that child care, meanwhile has not received the same economic development support as these other, more “visible” industries.
“This is a powerful level of industry … How is licensed child care different from telecommunications? I think that child care is more important,” Head said. “The ability to compare child care to other industry enables to talk to the corporate community to gain more support.”
“This provides an economic base to our district…They [legislators] like to talk dollars. [Tell them] that we are talking about an industry in the long run … There would be a great number of progress if we move these issues forward,” he said.
De Anza child development student, Julie Cittadino, said, “It takes a while to become educated on issues and then to take legislative action. Legislators don’t have common contact with issues that normal everyday people have.”
