For Immediate Release
May 14, 2026
Contact: Maya Polon
Newsom’s May Revise Proposes Cutting Already Meager Funding for Child Care
SACRAMENTO, CA – The more than 70,000 family child care providers in California represented by Child Care Providers United (CCPU) responded to Governor Newsom’s January 2026-27 budget proposal released today with this statement from Max Arias, CCPU’s Chairperson and Chief Negotiator:
“Governor Newsom spent this morning talking about California’s ‘dominance’ while pulling the rug out from under child care providers who keep working families afloat and are the backbone of California’s economy. The Governor’s proposal fails to ensure providers earn the true cost of care and slashes a COLA proposed in January that was already failing to keep pace with the actual cost of living and providing care.
“The numbers tell a brutal story: 73% of child care providers cannot take home a salary. More than two-thirds cannot meet basic needs — utilities, healthcare, housing. Nearly half rely on public assistance programs just to survive. These are the educators shaping the earliest years of California’s children, and they are being pushed to the brink.
“In a year with $16.5 billion in new, unanticipated revenue since January, the Governor has chosen to reduce the cost-of-living-adjustment earmarked for these providers—most of whom cannot afford to save even $400 for an emergency. That’s to say nothing of the fact that COLAs are a bandaid on a gaping wound. The real problem is that providers are still being paid for only a fraction of what it actually costs to provide care, based on a formula from the 1980s. We won a path to full cost-of-care reimbursement in our last contract. But a contract promise without funding is just words on paper — and right now, California’s providers are hemorrhaging.
“The consequences extend far beyond providers themselves. Years-long waitlists are leaving working families with nowhere to turn. Every provider who shuts their doors is another family forced to choose between their job and their child’s safety, wellbeing, and education. Additional voucher slots would keep family child care homes full and parents able to make it to work and continue contributing to California’s economy.
“While we commend Governor Newsom for proposing a fair share revenue solution to ensure long term stability of the general fund and funding for child care, providers are struggling to keep their doors open now.
“We cannot allow the final budget to fail to meet this moment. We will be working alongside our allies in the Senate and Assembly and with the Governor to make sure working families are not left behind when the final 2026-27 budget is signed. We need a real, funded path to payment for the true cost of care – not next year, not eventually. Now. The doors that close this year may never reopen.”
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Child Care Providers United brings together more than 70,000 family child care providers across California and is a partnership of SEIU Local 99, SEIU Local 521, and UDW/AFSCME Local 3930.
