California Parents on Waitlist for Subsidized Childcare Anxious Over Proposed Budget Cuts

But after adding almost 130,000 slots, the state paused the expansion for three years with a commitment to resume the roll-out in the 2026-27 fiscal year. But instead of sticking to the plan, Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing to cut funding for slots as part of a push to eliminate the state deficit even after his term ends.

The state Assembly opposes the cuts, and the Senate wants to add 44,000 new slots. As state leaders negotiate a budget deal by June 30, parents like Perez are pushing for more childcare support, especially as President Donald Trump’s domestic policy bill, H.R. 1, threatens their access to basic needs.

“As the federal government forces work requirements on CalFresh and Medi-Cal, this is when we are supposed to be doubling down on childcare, so that families can not only work, but have their food security, have their health security,” said Mary Ignatius, executive director of the advocacy group Parent Voices California.

Julia Forte Frudden, a policy analyst at Child Care Law Center in Berkeley, called Newsom’s proposals, which also include reducing a cost-of-living adjustment for childcare providers, a major setback.

“What we see is the governor not recognizing that childcare has a high return on investment,” she said. “So this could actually help the state’s financial strains that it’s dealing with right now, not add to it.”

The Newsom administration initially proposed in January to cut funding for 4,200 “general childcare” slots in licensed centers and homes when it projected a $2.9 billion shortfall. But in a revised budget released last month, it proposed cutting 6,800 slots —mostly vouchers for home-based childcare arrangements and some childcare center slots. Newsom said, despite a recent surge in tax revenue from the booming A.I. industry, he proposed further cuts to balance the budget for two years.

Administration officials say the cuts are necessary to offset more than $86 million in reductions from the federal Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and Proposition 64, which sets aside a portion of the state’s cannabis tax revenues for early childhood programs. They say the cuts wouldn’t affect families currently receiving subsidies for childcare. Instead, they’re taking back funds that were not spent by community-based agencies responsible for enrolling eligible families and reimbursing providers.

The justification doesn’t make sense to Cristina Alvarado, executive director of Child Care Alliance Los Angeles, which represents 10 agencies that altogether have more than 22,000 kids on waitlists for childcare vouchers.

She said sometimes agencies that don’t fully spend their funds by the end of the fiscal year can transfer the money to others to enroll as many families as possible.

“No L.A. agency has offered any additional funding,” she said, because of the high demand for slots.

An analysis of state spending over the last five years shows California dedicates only about 2% of its total budget to childcare. While the additional slots initiated by Newsom have helped tens of thousands of families afford childcare, the California Budget & Policy Center estimates that only 16% of eligible children are enrolled in subsidized childcare programs.

In Marin County, Perez’s son, Dyson, is among nearly 680 children eligible for subsidies who are on a waitlist because there’s no more funding for new slots, according to Aideen Gaidmore, CEO of Marin Child Care Council.

The promise of additional funding gave Perez hope that she could go back to work and catch up financially.

“If you are in the water and somebody is trying to take you out, but then they push you into the water again, that’s a game. That’s not fun. It’s playing with their feelings, playing with their mental health,” she said.

Desperate for relief, she joined Parent Voices to advocate for more funding in Sacramento. At a state Assembly budget hearing in April, she held her babbling boy in her arms while testifying about her mounting credit card debt.

“My husband makes $800 a week, and we live in Marin. Everything is expensive. We barely make … afford the rent,” she said.

Perez’s voice began to crack as she wondered how she could “work more to take some pressure off of my husband” and afford extracurricular activities, maybe a trip to Disneyland, for her kids.

When we met at a park near her home recently, Perez said she tried to hire a nanny so she could provide in-home care to an elderly person. But she couldn’t keep up with the nanny’s $35 per hour rate.

She said she resorted to taking Dyson to her gig job and strapping him to her back, but when he cried out of frustration, her employer told her not to come back until she finds childcare.

She dreams of obtaining a Certified Nursing Assistant license so she could find a good job providing eldercare. Marin County has the largest elderly population in the Bay Area, and there’s a future in that career.

Perez said waiting for an open childcare slot brings back bad memories of when her eldest son, who is 14, waited for a slot for 10 years until he was too old to qualify for a subsidy. She said she paid neighbors to care for him and enrolled him in preschool part-time. But that arrangement became too expensive, and she eventually pulled him out.

“He went straight to kindergarten, and it was so hard,” she said. “He struggled with reading and math, and I can still see the hard work he has to do by himself.”

Her daughters, on the other hand, are doing well in school, Perez said, because preschool helped them prepare for kindergarten.

She fears Dyson may have the same struggle as his older brother if he doesn’t get off the waitlist.

“I think it’s very important to invest in the children and provide childcare for all, because a lot of families are on the waiting list,” she said.