Licensed Child Care Providers Launch Protest Against Assemblyman Manuel Perez

Marisela Garcia
La Prensa Hispana

Avery vocal and spirited community group of licensed child care providers and accredited teachers came together in Indio to protest more significant state cuts to come for the Early Childhood Education program. The protest in front of Assemblyman Manuel Perez office drew many honks of support but unfortunately, not much of a response from Assemblyman Perez office other than, “the Assemblyman is not here today and we have nothing to say about the matter”. They have not returned phone calls or emails on the matter.
Rosalinda Garcia and Rosalina Bobabilla, two of the group’s spokespersons said they were frustrated and incensed with the fact early childhood education has suffered a Billion dollars in cuts in the last three years and the governor along with Democrat leaders are preparing for an additional 30% cuts. In terms of children served, childhood education has already lost 100,000 slots due to cuts and they are about to lose another 72,000 childcare slots.
Licensed child care providers are also upset with the fact Assemblyman Perez originally voted in favor of AB101 which would channel child education funds through unions instead of paying for services direct to providers. Governor Brown vetoed the bill and now Assemblyman Perez office contends he was against the bill. He voted for it before he was against it. Providers do not want to pay unions part of their earning in order to provide childcare. This aside from all the fees and license requirements.
The Licensed child care providers group contends a voucher system being considered leads to fraud because there will be no safeguards on who will ultimately be providing the child care services only who will be collecting for the services and there is a great concern providers will not be licensed. Early Childhood Care is now defined as from birth to 5 years and many fear unlicensed providers would only put kids in front of television sets and the quality of care would suffer greatly. Statistics have shown that negligent early child care can lead to school drop outs, gang involvement and poor health. Bracing for a significant drop in the quality of California Child Care Services, protestors vowed to keep pestering Assemblyman Perez until he responds to their child care inquiries.