Los Angeles rally calls for state funds to pay for child care
As part of the nationwide A Day Without Child Care campaign, moms, child care providers and city leaders gathered in Reseda Monday to call on the state to help pay for the essential, basic need of child care.
The rally comes the day after Mother's Day when all moms are celebrated. Those in attendance held signs that read "This Mother's Day, give working moms what they really want: Child care with homework and school transportation support."
The call for support for working moms is matched by the cry for help from child care providers, with many saying inflation is keeping them in poverty.
"I have given my blood, sweat and tears to this workforce because I love what I do, but I don't know how much longer I can work in poverty. I don't know how much longer I can keep my doors open," Wendy Bonavilla, child care provider said.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman joined the rally, as a working mother of young children.
After asking if one day, Mother's Day, is enough to celebrate all that moms sacrifice for their children, Raman said she would give up that one day for more help from the state.
"I would gladly give up that one day if my government, if my state government were to tell me that we are going to fully fund the cost of child care for every single working parent that deserves it here in the state of California," Raman said.
"We are one of the only rich countries in the entire world that expects families to carry this burden all on their own… and to me that is shameful."
The rally is directed at Governor Gavin Newsom to address the challenges working moms face, including child care costs, long waiting lists for child care facilities, and low wages for providers.
"I want to make sure that I am here to lift up voices of working parents across this entire city to ensure that we are all going to stand up and ask for what we need, so that we can serve other people here in this city and serve our families the right way," Raman said.
