Child Care Providers United (CCPU) released the following statement from CCPU Chairperson, Max Arias, after Governor Newsom announced new child care investments in a Mother’s Day tweet:
“The announcement of funding for 100,000 children to access quality child care alongside increased investments in California’s child care infrastructure is a good first step to address the lack of affordable childcare for California families. We appreciate that the Governor heard the voices of child care providers who proposed an increase in child care access for families as part of the bargaining that has taken place for their first union contract over the past six months. But consistent to what CCPU has proposed, we urge Governor Newsom to consider adding even more slots given that the need for affordable childcare in the state is significant.
“As part of the collective bargaining process, we have put forward dozens of solutions to address the issues that childcare providers face along with the lack of access to quality affordable childcare for thousands of families in California. Child care providers from across California, primarily Black and brown women who care for California’s most vulnerable children, see these needs firsthand and themselves struggle to keep their doors open and support their own families. These providers have worked overtime to sit down with the state and propose solutions from firsthand experience over their decades of work as early childhood educators. However, the first time we received any sort of indication of the state’s funding direction was in a Sunday morning tweet on an issue critical to California’s child care infrastructure. We call on Governor Newsom to come to the bargaining table prepared to work, respecting our rights both as a union and as frontline workers, and work with us in good faith to find long-term solutions that benefit all California families.”