California Advocates Want Newsom to Fulfill Promise to Fund Childcare Spaces

On the ground floor of a new affordable housing complex in Redwood City, workers are in the middle of constructing a childcare center.

Peninsula Family Services plans to enroll 36 infants and toddlers when the center is scheduled to open next year, using state funds awarded to the nonprofit to provide free or low-cost childcare to income-eligible families.

But the fate of that plan will depend on state budget negotiations over the next several weeks.

Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting funding for about 4,200 subsidized childcare spaces — money Peninsula Family Services will need to run the new center. The move would save $98 million, but advocates say it would roll back a pledge he made to expand access to childcare for working families.

“Newsom really championed and campaigned on being the early learning and care governor, and I think that there are many promises he made as part of that that have not been fulfilled,” said Nina Buthee, executive director of EveryChild California, which advocates for publicly funded childcare programs.

When Newsom presented his spending plan for the next fiscal year in January, the state projected a nearly $3 billion shortfall. The Legislative Analyst’s Office recommended cutting funding for “general childcare” spaces because they hadn’t been spent yet and therefore won’t affect families currently receiving subsidized childcare.

But Buthee said at least 16 childcare providers across California haven’t spent the money because they’re still in the process of building or renovating facilities, but meeting state licensing standards and getting approval, especially for the care of infants and toddlers, takes time.

“Depending on where you are in California, licensing could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to up to six months or nine months,” she said. “Really, the state is not helping contractors expedite the process.”

Some of the affected contractors include Children’s Paradise, a childcare provider in San Diego County, which planned to open two locations in childcare “deserts” — areas where options are too few to meet the demand. The locations would have been large enough to serve 470 children, according to EveryChild California.

Peninsula Family Services was awarded $2.7 million to serve nearly 80 children at two new centers, said its CEO, Heather Cleary. If funding from the state goes away, she said, the agency might have to consider charging private tuition.

“That’s not our intent. We really want to do everything we can to bring a subsidized program to this county, and that involves the state,” she said.

Advocates are hoping the slots will be spared when Newsom presents his update to the proposed 2026-2027 state budget, known as the “May Revision,” on Thursday. The plan will set off a busy period of negotiations leading to a final budget that the Legislature must pass by June 15.

State Senate leaders have indicated they would not only reject cutting childcare slots, but that they’d rather increase funding to subsidize 44,000 spaces.

In 2021, Newsom pledged to add more than 200,000 subsidized childcare slots, both in contracted centers and in the form of vouchers for low-income families. His administration has funded 130,000 of those slots while making other huge investments in early childhood education and care, like expanding access to transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-old children and allowing in-home childcare providers who receive the subsidies to unionize. The move has led to healthcare and retirement funds for a workforce that has historically been underpaid, and the state is slowly working toward improving their wages.

“We’ve had the most significant childcare expansion subsidies in the United States. Should be better known. It’s not,” Newsom told MSN in a January interview.

Between 2019 and 2024, enrollment in subsidized childcare programs grew by 63%, according to an analysis by the California Budget & Policy Center.

Laura Pryor, a research director at the center, said while the Newsom administration deserves credit for making unprecedented investments in early childhood education, it has fallen short in some areas — like the slots.

She estimates that about 1.77 million children qualify for subsidized childcare, but are not enrolled in these programs.

“For every individual that gets access to a space, it’s thousands and thousands of dollars saved that expands their budget,” Pryor said. “If our goal is to fund all children that are eligible, we are moving in the right direction.”

“If there’s this additional cut, we’re not only walking back on the progress, but walking back on this positive trend that we’ve been seeing in the past several years,” she said.