SACRAMENTO, CA – The over 60,000 family child care providers in California represented by Child Care Providers United (CCPU) responded to Governor Newsom’s May Revision 2025-26 budget proposal released today with this statement from Max Arias, CCPU’s Chief Spokesperson and Chair: 

“Today, Governor Newsom missed a key opportunity to keep his commitment to child care in his proposed budget. Instead, he is using the Trump Administration’s devaluing of early education as an excuse to maintain a broken system that keeps child care providers struggling to keep their doors open and working parents struggling to find quality, affordable care.

“Child care providers, a primarily women-of-color led workforce, work around the clock to serve families and lift up our economy, but are left taking on crushing amounts of debt while our state rises to the fourth largest economy in the world. They deserve better from California.

“Despite state law finally requiring that providers earn the true cost of care, this proposal shows the public what child care providers have heard in recent months at the bargaining table from Newsom’s Administration: child care is no longer a priority. The Administration continues to expect child care workers to go into debt each month just to keep their doors open and for working parents to face cuts to their child care or shoulder the rising costs of care. The Administration’s response to talented, trained women asking for what they’re worth has been to threaten taking away health care and retirement benefits that workers spent years fighting to win and proposing pay that would decrease current reimbursement rates, effectively destroying the state’s child care system.  

“California’s working families do not have the privilege of ‘choosing’ to prioritize care. And while families are still struggling to find care, taking away needed child care slots is completely unacceptable. Without safe, quality early learning environments for their children, our state’s frontline workers can’t do the essential jobs that keep our state running – janitors, hospital workers, grocery clerks, and delivery drivers.

“Governor Newsom, we heard you on being proud about the work we’ve accomplished on child care. It’s time to finish the job. We urge you to accept our proposals and come to an agreement that will stabilize our workforce. The caregivers who’ve dedicated their lives to this work have the expertise to fix a system that’s broken. The families we serve and the Legislative Women’s Caucus stand alongside us, committed to meeting the promise the state made to us in our last contract to realize the true cost of care.

“We now turn to our allies in the legislature who have stood with providers in committing to pay providers for the full cost of providing care and call on them to once again stand with providers as they finalize the state’s budget. The state cannot thrive without the support of family child care providers and our budget must reflect that.”

CCPU began bargaining for their next contract with the State of California in December 2024. Their current contract with the state expires July 1.

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Child Care Providers United brings together more than 60,000 family child care providers across California and is a partnership of SEIU Local 99, SEIU Local 521, and UDW/AFSCME Local 3930.