515
Signatures as of 11/4/2024
Accepting Signatures!
Let the Governor know:
State budget cuts cannot come at the expense of our kids!
State budget cuts cannot come at the expense of our kids!
Overview
This letter to Governor Gavin Newsom calls for a robust commitment to preserving and prioritizing funding for children’s programs in California’s 2025-26 budget. It opens by recognizing California’s national leadership in progressive policies but highlights the state’s failure to put children at the forefront of its budget priorities. The letter addresses cuts to essential services like childcare, health, foster care, and education in recent budget cycles and urges the Governor to break this trend. By safeguarding these areas, California could better support the well-being and development of its children, ensuring they receive the resources they need to thrive.
Citing concerning statistics—such as California’s ranking of 35th in child well-being and its low rates of routine health checkups for kids—the letter underscores the dire need for improvement in funding and policy for youth services. California’s high tax burden should translate into adequate support for the next generation, but the state’s approach has fallen short, impacting educational performance and health outcomes. The letter implores Governor Newsom to prevent further cuts and instead make children a top priority in the budget, reflecting a commitment to securing a brighter future for all young Californians.
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The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor
State of California
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, California 95814
Don’t Cut Kids in the 2025-26 Budget
Dear Governor Newsom,
Our state takes pride in its role as a national leader, crafting dynamic and impactful policy solutions that spark waves of change across the country. Yet when it comes to supporting our kids, we instead trail far behind too many other states. California’s state budgets for too long have sacrificed children’s well-being in favor of other priorities, instead of asserting our commitment to kids and our collective future.
As you prepare next year’s budget proposal, we call on you to truly prioritize kids and end the constant cycle of putting them on the chopping block: Preserve full funding for childcare, kids’ health, foster care, and education (pre-K through higher ed) and don’t cut kids in the 2025-26 budget.
Committing to our kids is especially critical given the alarming reality that California ranks 35th among all states in child well-being. Our inputs are poor — we rank well behind our tax burden in terms of per capita spending on kids — and so are our results. We are 3rd worst in both percentage of kids who receive a routine health checkup and who suffer from tooth decay or cavities. 77% of our 8th graders are below proficient in math, and over two-thirds of our 4th graders are below proficient in reading. This is unacceptable for a state that ranks so high nationally on per-capita spending on most other government programs.
We call on you to stop repeating the mistakes of our past. This includes the 2024-25 budget cycle, where draconian cuts were proposed to programs impacting all facets of child well-being, including youth mental health and youth in foster care whom the state is legally responsible for. Even in difficult budget years, California must prioritize our children – kids should be the last ones forced to sacrifice and the first to receive new additional dollars. We must prioritize where we are behind other states and where it’s most critical to our collective future.
It is time for California to ensure that every child can thrive and succeed. We urge you to prioritize our children. Don’t cut kids in the 2025-26 budget.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned Organizations