By Sara Steffens
TIME STAFF WRITER
Posted on Sun, Oct. 24, 2004
Universal preschool may be a noble goal, but it's unlikely to be reached anytime soon, said legislators who spoke at a Saturday forum on young children's issues in Contra Costa County.
"Unless something dramatic changes in the budget, I just don't see universal child care being a realistic option in the next year or two," Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla, D-Pittsburg, told the crowd.
Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, agreed, saying the last several state budgets have required legislators to shift funds, borrow money and "cut as much as you can stomach."
"We're going to be lucky if we can keep the schoolhouse doors open, folks, not provide more opportunities," said Hancock.
"We will get there in the next decade or so, but not in the next year or so."
The forum, organized by the Local Planning Council for Childcare and Development and held at Pleasant Hill's Play and Learn Preschool, attracted more than 100 parents, educators and children's advocates.
Audience members asked the local lawmakers on the panel whether they support universal preschool, the subject of both an abandoned ballot initiative and a vetoed state bill this past year.
"That's an easy one," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo. "Aren't we all for universal preschool? The question is, how do we pay for it?"
Tauscher said parents willing to pool their tax money for early childhood education should lobby at the local or county level.
"Don't send the money to Washington; it never comes back whole," she warned.
Other questions centered on how to provide affordable child care for families and simultaneously raise child care workers' abysmal wages.
In Contra Costa County, the average child care worker makes $20,582 per year, less than half what studies say a single parent with one young child needs to earn to live here.
"Child care workers are subsidizing everybody else right now," said Hancock.
County Supervisor Millie Greenberg said cities and towns can help by imposing a child care impact fee on all new development.
The resulting money can be used, as it has been in Danville, to help build new child care centers, which are then supported by parent fees, she said.
Or communities can follow the lead of the San Ramon Valley School District, which collaborated with cities and a local nonprofit to build child care centers on the elementary school campuses.
Increasing calls to re-examine the current child care and preschool system grow from a dramatic shift in social norms, said county Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier.
In 1964, only 14 percent of mothers with children under age 6 worked outside the home, he said. In 1994, that number was 74 percent.
"A lot of what we're struggling with in this room, and across the country, is how do we adjust to that?" he said. "We need infrastructure for child care."
A first step, DeSaulnier suggested, would be to create a countywide group to coordinate the efforts of various agencies that serve young children -- including school districts, child care councils, county officials, and Contra Costa's First Five Commission.
Parents, especially, need to get involved, he said.
"We need you not just to have these meetings but to become a little bit angry about it, to say, 'This needs to be a priority for us.'"
Sara Steffens covers social services for the Times. Reach her at 925-943-8048 or ssteffens@cctimes.com.