From swalter at wested.org Thu Feb 2 15:25:15 2012 From: swalter at wested.org (Sandi Walters) Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2012 14:25:15 -0800 Subject: DEC-California =?utf-8?q?OPPOSE_Governor_Brown=E2=80=99s_Proposal?= =?utf-8?q?_to_Decimate_California=E2=80=99s_Child_Development_System?= In-Reply-To: <1236992135.1461248.1328126391876.JavaMail.root@zimbra-store4.wested.org> Message-ID: <1543702927.1471189.1328221515044.JavaMail.root@zimbra-store4.wested.org> Hello California DEC members, We are urging you to get involved in advocacy to protect early childhood programs in California. Please see the information below regarding the proposed cuts to funding for young children and the proposed shift of all early childhood programs except State funded preschool from the Child Development Division to County Welfare agencies. This could be harmful to our early childhood programs across the state. Please ACT NOW on behalf of children, families, and early childhood professionals in California! Sandi Walters Cal-DEC President info at cal-dec.org ----- Original Message ----- ----- Original Message ----- Click to view this email in a browser rc-c-tl.gif spacer.gif rc-c-tr.gif spacer.gif The Water Cooler Bubble Up Report Date: February 1, 2012 Hello Early Learning Advocates! We urge you to oppose the devastating cuts proposed to early childhood education. Below we provide a few options for how you can protect our youngest learners. Please feel free to copy and paste the text of one of the letters below, attend one of the upcoming budget hearings in Sacramento, or click on the links to send an email urging your local legislator to oppose balancing the budget on the backs of children. Working stronger together, we can protect young children and early learning in California! RE: OPPOSE Governor Brown?s Proposal to Decimate California?s Child Development System FROM: Advancement Project, California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, Children Now, Preschool California, ZERO TO THREE Please write to the California State Legislature to urge them to oppose Governor Brown's proposed decimation of our state's child development system. Below you will find a joint letter submitted by Advancement Project, California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, Children Now, Preschool California, and ZERO TO THREE to the legislature this week. Additionally these three links will allow you to send a pre-prepared letter to the legislature: Children Now's Letter Template Preschool California's Budget Letter Template Preschool California's Transitional Kindergarten Letter Dear Early Learning Stakeholder, We are writing to express our strong opposition to Governor Brown?s proposal to cut child development programs by $517 million, eliminating at least 62,000 children from vital early care and education programs. It is unacceptable to balance the budget on the backs of low-income infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Early care and education programs have already lost a staggering $1.2 billion since 2008, resulting in the loss of spaces in vital programs for over 100,000 children. This current drastic proposal would add another half a billion dollar cut by: 1) Slashing program eligibility ? lowering family income levels; requiring stricter CalWORKS work requirements and denying some recipients access to child care 2) Reducing reimbursement rates to providers ? for both contracted and voucher programs In addition to the dramatic cut in access for low-income children, the Governor proposes to decimate California?s system of high-quality early learning programs by shifting all but one program to County Welfare agencies, dismantling the early learning system that was designed to ensure a level of quality for low income children throughout the state. Block granting child care funds also opens the door for elimination of these services for families. Early care and education is crucial to the long-term economic viability of the state. H igh-quality early learning programs for low-income children significantly narrow the achievement gap, reduce the high school dropout rate, and produce savings from lower costs in special education, welfare, recidivism/prisons and crime. Eliminating the programs requiring an educational component and focusing only on the work support element of child care is ineffective. We strongly urge you to oppose the Governor?s proposed cuts to child development. Thank you for supporting California?s youngest learners! RE: Tell the Legislature: Preserve Smart Investments in Young Children FROM: Children Now State Budget 2012, Email Header v.2 Governor Brown?s 2012-2013 budget proposal would severely damage the state?s early learning system for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. This system helps ensure California?s youngest children have the strong developmental foundation they need to succeed in elementary school and beyond. The high returns on investment in early learning programs are clearly established, from improving the state?s financial outlook to closing the achievement gap to bolstering lifetime academic achievement. Yet, already, early learning has lost $1.2 billion in funding since 2008, resulting in 100,000 fewer slots for the state?s young children who need them. On top of that, the Governor is now proposing adding another half-billion-dollar cut, which would keep 62,000 more young children from gaining the early social and cognitive development experiences that are critical to their lifetime well-being. Additionally, the Administration wants to eliminate funding for Transitional Kindergarten. This would deny another 40,000 young children access to school. Making matters worse, the Governor?s proposal would stall out recent successful efforts to ensure program quality throughout the system by taking responsibility for these programs away from the Department of Education, which has quality controls in place. Denying young children access to quality early learning is clearly the wrong direction for California. California begins with kids.? RE: Protect California's Youngest Learners and Testify on Their Behalf at Upcoming Budget Hearings FROM: Preschool California -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: