Dear Editor,
As a licensed Family Child Care Provider for the past five
years, I would like to urge the community to examine the proposed
budget presents by Gov. Schwarzenegger, especially the proposed
cuts and changes to the child care subsidy programs.
Dear Editor,
As a licensed Family Child Care Provider for the past five years, I would like to urge the community to examine the proposed budget presents by Gov. Schwarzenegger, especially the proposed cuts and changes to the child care subsidy programs.
As a child care provider, I work 12- to 16-hour days so that the working parents of our community can work eight hours. The children I am responsible for will be all grown up pretty soon and it is my responsibility to make sure that they are physically and emotionally healthy while their parents are at work. Like so many other of my colleagues, I also provide pre-school readiness such as teaching them the ABCs, colors and shapes.
What the governor proposed last year included cutting child care funding by $165 million, lowering our reimbursements to approximately the 50th percentile of the market rate. He also proposed switching to income requirements based on national poverty guidelines versus the current state guidelines which would have disqualified tens of thousands of children from receiving child care. We all know that the cost of living in California, especially in this county, is much more expensive than almost anywhere else in the country. Besides, some of us already make as little as $3 per child per hour.
Considering the emotional and physical strain we endure, as well as the educational training and certification required of us, this is definitely a labor of love. Luckily, these proposals were rejected by the Assembly and the budget sub-committee last year. Unfortunately, we believe that he will attempt to do the same this year.
So please contact your local Assembly member and tell them not to support the proposed unfair cuts and changes to the programs that so many of us rely on and which will effect those of us who have opened our homes and hearts to support working families.
Esperanza Mendoza, Gilroy
