CA Budget: Devastating Cuts Place
Thousands of Children & Families at Risk
Proposed cuts to afterschool programs threaten vulnerable children and families
already disproportionately affected by the current crisis.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 14, 2020 — Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom released his revised state budget proposal. The California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance issued this joint statement in response:
“We thank the Governor for his leadership in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and appreciate the difficult decisions involved with balancing the budget in the current climate. In his statement today, Governor Newsom rightly pointed out the need to mitigate learning losses, provide social and emotional support to students, and keep our public education system strong. However, his proposed cut to afterschool programs is inconsistent with this statement, and would be a huge setback for children and families in California who are already disproportionately affected by the current crisis. These families depend on afterschool programs to provide critical care and support for their children, which will be even more vital as parents go back to work and students are likely on adjusted school schedules. With the proposed cuts, many programs will be forced to scale back services for students and may be forced to close altogether. One thing is clear: fewer students and families will be served at the very moment they need these programs most.
If afterschool programs, which serve almost 400,000 students every day, are cut by the proposed $100 million, we expect that:
62,563 children will lose their afterschool program
Each of these children will miss out on 540 hours of learning time, child care, safety, and social-emotional support
Over 5 million meals that vulnerable children depend on will not be served
Afterschool programs, like child care programs, are essential to the economic recovery of our state, and are critical to keeping low-income parents in the workforce, which is more important than ever given the COVID-19 recession. Not only do afterschool programs enable hundreds of thousands of parents to keep working by providing a safe and supportive place for their children, they also employ a workforce of over 30,000.
When students return to school, they will have faced unprecedented levels of social disconnection, physical and mental health challenges, and learning losses as a result of this pandemic. Afterschool programs, proven to advance students’ social, emotional, and academic well-being, are critical in providing a consistent connection with caring adults to help students overcome these obstacles. We serve families who have been hit hardest by COVID-19 and our programs are built to address education, health, and safety concerns that have been heightened in this crisis.
The Governor understands this need, as was evident in his statements on April 30: “Child care is economic development…[We] can’t have a workforce unless [parents] are taking care of their children and are confident in the quality of that care.” But afterschool programs were already struggling to keep the doors open with ongoing rises in the minimum wage. California currently spends less than $3.00 an hour for care for our most vulnerable students. This budget would cut the number of vulnerable children who are able to access care, meals, and learning time. We need to ensure that we can pay staff at least the minimum wage, provide the support children need, and enable parents to go back to work and help restart the economy. We appreciate the one-time funding to address learning loss, as afterschool and summer programs are proven to help mitigate these losses, but programs will be hard-pressed to sustain these gains when base funding is cut by 15%, setting them back to 2014 funding levels despite increases in cost of living and minimum wage. We call on the state legislature and the Governor to act to keep this vital safety net intact.
California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance Members
A World Fit For Kids; After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles; arc; Bay Area Community Resources; Boys & Girls Clubs of Carson; California School-Age Consortium; California Afterschool Network; The Children's Initiative; California Teaching Fellows Foundation; Community Youth Ministries; EduCare Foundation; Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; Heart of Los Angeles; LA's BEST Afterschool Enrichment Program; Partnership for Children & Youth; Sacramento Chinese Community Service Center; Think Together; Woodcraft Rangers; YMCA of San Diego County
Background
Championed by leaders in both parties, including Gov. Newsom during his term as mayor of San Francisco and during his gubernatorial campaign, California’s publicly funded afterschool programs serve 400,000 students daily.
Publicly funded afterschool programs operate in communities with the highest levels of poverty. They improve school attendance and graduation rates, develop workforce skills, prevent crime and substance abuse, and enable low-income parents to work by filling a critical child care need.
The current crisis is disproportionately affecting the children and families who attend California’s publicly funded afterschool programs:
84% of children in afterschool programs in California are economically disadvantaged.
9/10 children in afterschool programs are children of color.
1/3 children in After School Education and Safety (ASES) programs are English learners.
25% of California’s homeless students depend on our state’s afterschool programs.
Afterschool programs were already stretched to their breaking point after years of rising costs. Each time the state minimum wage increases without additional funding from the state, afterschool programs sink deeper into deficit. Since 2007, the state minimum wage has increased 62%, but funding for afterschool has only increased 18%. California currently spends less than $3.00 an hour for care for our most vulnerable students.
About the California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance
California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance (CA3) is the statewide voice for expanded learning (afterschool and summer) programs. It is the coalition behind the Save Afterschool Campaign and represents the interests of the half a million children, youth, and their families that rely on publicly funded expanded learning programs throughout California each day. www.saveafterschool.com
Contact
Stephanie Pollick, stephanie@partnerforchildren.org, (510) 830-4200 x1616