CA Budget: Statement on Afterschool Funding
from Youth & Family Advocates

$50M funding increase will keep afterschool programs afloat temporarily,
but falls short of sustainable funding to fill growing demand from families in need

June 27, 2019 — Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the California State Budget for Fiscal Year 2019-20, which included an additional $50 million in ongoing funding for the After School Education and Safety (ASES) program. The California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance issued this joint statement in response:

“Today is a critical step toward helping children succeed in school and supporting working parents who depend on our state’s afterschool programs for quality child care. We applaud the legislature for their leadership on behalf of children and families by providing a modest increase in funding for California’s afterschool programs.

“While this much-needed funding will provide a temporary fix, it falls short of sustainably funding high-demand programs that working families depend on. This funding will help afterschool programs keep their doors open this year, but these programs have endured years of underfunding, forcing them to cut their services and the number of students they serve. The increase this year is less than half of what programs need to comply with the state’s minimum wage as of January 2020. As minimum wage and the cost of living continue to grow without further funding from the state, afterschool programs will be forced to close their doors and deny access to children and families. To continue providing high-quality services for the over 400,000 students and families who depend on them every day, ASES programs need both adequate and sustainable funding.

“We call on the legislature and Governor to make a commitment to the future of California’s afterschool programs: by signing into law a long-term solution to sustain ASES programs for the children, families, schools, and communities who count on them. If passed, Assembly Bill 1725 (Carrillo) will ensure that future increases in minimum wage and cost of living are reflected in the annual funding for ASES programs.

“We thank Assembly and Senate Leadership (Speaker Rendon and pro Tem Atkins), Budget Chairs (Asm. Ting and Sen. Mitchell), Education Subcommittee Chairs (Asm. McCarty and Sen. Roth), and Asm. Carrillo for their dedication and leadership, as well as our other champions in the legislature.

“Californians overwhelmingly support publicly funded afterschool programs. We are grateful to the more than 17,000 supporters—cities, school districts, law enforcement, child and family advocates, and children, families, and youth workers of afterschool programs—statewide who have raised their voices to advocate for afterschool programs. We know this work is not over and, together, we will keep pushing to get the funding needed to maintain and, eventually, grow these valuable programs so that all children, regardless of where they live or their family’s income, have access to the skills, experiences, and support to succeed in school and prepare for the jobs of tomorrow.

“By keeping kids learning and keeping parents working, afterschool programs are an important piece of our state’s strategy to alleviate poverty.”

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 Afterschool Network; California School-Age Consortium; California State Alliance of YMCAs; California Teaching Fellow 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; The Children's Initiative; Think Together; Woodcraft Rangers; YMCA of San Diego County

Background

• Championed by leaders in both houses, including Gov. Newsom during his term as mayor of San Francisco and during his gubernatorial campaign, California’s publicly funded afterschool programs serve hundreds of thousands of 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.

• ASES was established in 2002 by Proposition 49. Since implementation in 2007, there is no COLA or other funding mechanism to increase funding for ASES as operations costs or state revenue grow.

• Afterschool programs have been stretched to their breaking point after years of rising costs. Each time the state minimum wage has increased without sufficient funding from the state, afterschool programs have sunk deeper into deficit. Since 2007, the state minimum wage will have increased 62.5 percent (as of January 2020), but funding for afterschool will have only increased 17 percent, including this year’s increase.

• A $112.8 million budget request for FY 2019-20 to sustain afterschool programs was before the legislature, as well as two bills: AB 1725 (Carrillo) and AB 1085 (McCarty).

• Following recommendations for additional funding from the legislature ($100 million from Prop. 98 funding by the Senate; $80.5 million from Prop. 64 funding by the Assembly), the Budget Conference Committee and the Governor agreed on a $50 million increase from Prop. 98.

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