People around the state are mobilizing to “preserve and protect state programs from budget cuts” as part of the California Partnership’s BOLT campaign, says Campaign Coordinator Kim Kruckel.

The campaign is calling on legislators to enact a “California Recovery Plan” that would create and preserve jobs, preserve the safety net for families, and maximize federal dollars. “The campaign is working with legislators who want to find budget solutions, and not rely only on cuts,” she adds.

The Budget Organizing Leadership Team (BOLT) campaign is developing 200 grassroots leaders in 12 organizations around the state—including child care, community, and immigrant groups. These leaders will be “like lightning bolts…poised to testify, speak with the media, mobilize their communities to have a say in the budget process,” says Kruckel.

Looming budget cuts

California faces a $20 billion budget deficit. “Half of the funds” to close the gap could “come from [cuts to] programs for the poorest people in the state,” says Kruckel. “[But] economic security and stability in the community is one of the most important things we can give a child,” she adds.

Threatened programs include Healthy Families, CalWORKs, and CalWORKs child care. These cuts would also come at a time when an increasing number of families are enrolling in safety net programs because of the recession, says a recent California Budget Project report.

Campaign off to strong start

Partner organizations held press events in 11 cities around the state to kick off the campaign. Parents and community members testified about how proposed cuts would hurt children and families (see below: Take action for kids). They ran the events, did press interviews, and encouraged more people to join.

The campaign also held a press event at Senator Feinstein’s office, asking her to support legislation that would continue subsidized job programs for families on CalWORKs. After the meeting, says Kruckel, Senator Feinstein signed onto a Senate support letter.

Parents plan to meet with legislators—many of whom also oppose the cuts. “When you cut child care in a recession, you eliminate the ability for parents to work and pursue education,” says Assemblymember Sandré Swanson (D-Oakland). “For families to survive, we should be increasing funding for child care. I’ve said to parents, ‘Continue your advocacy. It’s important for you to speak out.’”

“California is the wealthiest state, but state investment in children is so low,” adds Senator Denise Moreno Ducheny (D-San Diego). “The more people who are active, the better the [budget] dialogue will be.”

Action for children and families

“I am single mother [with] four children,” says Fremont mom Gina Jackson—“two in public schools, [two] uninsured [college] students. One has a disability.” She is active with Parent Voices and MomsRising—“it was a relief to find other parents like me,” she recalls. “I’m not the only one suffering and struggling.”

Jackson attends legislative hearings, passes out flyers, and goes to “any rally she can, whether child care, health care, disability, or education.” Her story is an effective tool for talking to legislators, she says, because her family feels the cuts on different levels.

“[The state has] cut some of the food program, transportation for people seeking jobs,” adds Gloria Roberts, a Compton mother of four and family child care provider. She recently became an activist through the Child Care Workers Alliance (CCWA)—now she hosts meetings on the cutbacks and budget proposals.

“Every year child care or [other programs are] on the chopping block,” adds Bellflower family child care provider Tonia McMillan, who has attended CCWA leadership trainings. “I’m not going to sit with my mouth closed as the budget gets cut. No more!”

Mobilizing communities

Children’s advocacy organizations are partnering with community and immigrant rights organizations “to build collective power for families in communities,” adds Kruckel. 

Partner organizations held trainings to get people ready for budget activism in January and February. For example, Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaca in Fresno held teach-ins on the state budget at its five offices. The teach-ins “explain things so people think ‘[the budget] is important and can affect me.’ I encourage people in my neighborhood to attend,” says Fresno mom Virginia Velazquez.

Speaking out

The California Partnership and other organizations are holding community forums in several cities in March, which will be attended by local legislators. The campaign will also mobilize people to attend budget hearings and action days in Sacramento. Events might include “Budget Bake Sales and Mock Child Care Centers to highlight the impact of the cuts,” says Kruckel.

“I would like to say to legislators: ‘[The cuts will] worsen our society,’” says Velazquez. “[Uninsured] children will get sick more often, miss more school. What future [will our children] have if these programs are cut?”

Meeting legislators can be the most powerful part of being involved, adds Jackson. “I bring pictures of my children. Look at my children’s beautiful eyes. They want a future and you’re cutting child care. You want them to go home by themselves! Not my child!”

How budget cuts hurt families

“Can you imagine not having $300 worth of food?” asks Gina Jackson, a Fremont mother of four. “My son smashed his finger in the door, and we’re going to have [to come up with $300] to pay for that.” Jackson worries that budget cuts to basic services would hurt more families.

Fresno mom Virginia Velazquez says her seven-year-old daughter could lose her low-cost state health insurance if Healthy Families’ income requirements are changed so that fewer families qualify. “[Now] we pay $21 monthly and a $10 copayment. When she needed stitches, we didn’t have to worry about the hospital bill.” But it would cost $480 a month to add her daughter to her work’s health care plan. “We don’t know where the money [would] come from,” she says. Her husband, a farm worker, already has no health insurance.

Tonia McMillan, a Bellflower family child care provider, worries about cuts to CalWORKs child care funding. “Where does my [client who is a] single mother with four kids go? She’ll have to drop out of school, and it will cut my program in half. [And] the kids here are learning—we are doing such valuable work.”

Take action for kids

BOLT Action days in Sacramento. April 26 and 27. For more information, contact Astrid Campos, 213-385-8010 (for more advocacy events, see Children's Advocates Roundtable)

For more information about the campaign, contact Kim Kruckel, California Partnership, 510-301-1456, kkruckel@communitychange.org or visit www.california-partnership.org

Campaign pushes for change

More state revenues—by expanding the sales tax to more products, reinstating top income tax brackets, and closing corporate loopholes. See “10 Ways to Raise $20 billion,” from the California Tax Reform Association, http://caltaxreform.org/?p=211

Passing state budgets with a simple majority vote—the legislaure is considering a measure for the November ballot. Californians for Democracy is collecting signatures for a similar
measure, https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6110

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin

• The Califoria Budget Project offers fact sheets by subject on the local impact of the proposed budget cuts:
  
  
  • California's Public Schools (by school district and by county)
    
    
  • CalWORKs Program (by county and by legislative district)
    
    
  • Children's Health Coverage (by county and by legislative district)
    
    
  • Also: Proposed Budget Cuts Come at a Time of Growing Need reports on how families affected by the recession would be impacted by the proposed cuts
    http://www.cbp.org/
    
    
• Early Education Investments Boost Economy, from America's Edge (a business leaders organization), finds that for every dollar invested in early care and education in New York, $1.86 is generated in additional spending within the state. Also finds that fully funding child care for every child in the state would create 80,000 new jobs. Online at http://www.americasedge.org/
  
  
• Parents tell their stories, from Crystal Stairs, is a flyer that describes how parents would be affected by proposed budget cuts to child care programs. Includes stories from parents and ideas for getting active to protest the cuts. Online at http://www.crystalstairs.org/pub_pdfs/publications/2010%20%20FInal%20%20budget%20cut%20flyer%203-31-10.pdf
  
  

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