| | | | |  | | By Blake Jones | Presented by CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund | BRACING FOR A RAID: California's long-awaited, longer-pursued rollout of universal pre-k finally began Monday as a handful of school districts kicked off the academic year. For the child care industry, the timing couldn't have been worse . Like other states, California is spending part of a record budget surplus to offer free pre-K to tens of thousands more children. Families will be spared costly child care tuition. Up to 35,300 public school jobs will be created over four years. But child care leaders, whose operations were decimated by the pandemic, warn of a troublesome spillover effect. They fear that as districts offer better benefits to early education workers, qualified child care employees will flee for public schools. "The biggest threat" to child care ranks is pre-K expansion, said Sarah Soriano, a Long Beach child care center director who has already lost two employees to California's expanding pre-K program. "The school districts are going to start — I jokingly call it — raiding our programs." So what? Child care industry staff, who are disproportionately women of color, may now realize greater economic mobility after years of working long hours at low wages. The problem: Child care centers can't find enough employees as it is amid a nationwide labor shortage. They're already struggling to hold onto workers. If their ranks dwindle more – child care staffing is down 11 percent from pre-pandemic levels nationally – child cares will be able to serve even fewer kids. That's as families are already failing to find care, advocates say. The experiences of other states could forecast what's to come. Advocates and child care operators in Maryland, New Jersey and Michigan all say preschool expansion in their states have caused staff to leave for public schools. A raid on child care staff is also only one piece of the threat from pre-k expansion. Centers typically rely on tuition from four-year-old children to offset the higher costs of caring for toddlers and infants. When older children are pulled out and put into public schools, it will become even harder to sustain operations, just as nearly 16,000 centers and home cares across 37 states have shuttered since the pandemic's onset . HAPPY TUESDAY AFTERNOON! Welcome to California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check of California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to katymurphy@politico.com or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open!
| | A message from CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund: LEGISLATORS AND GOVERNOR NEWSOM - THANK YOU FOR WORLD-LEADING INVESTMENTS IN THE JOB-CREATING CLEAN VEHICLE INDUSTRY! The electric vehicle industry - especially the burgeoning electric truck sector - is a crucial pillar supporting California's economy. You can support good jobs, infrastructure build-out, and clean air by protecting investments for equitable clean electric car and truck programs including established programs like HVIP, Clean Cars 4 All, and the new SB 372! Learn more: www.InvestInCleanAir.com . | | | |  | WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY | | PELOSI IN TAIWAN: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taiwan on Tuesday despite threats from China and a state media commentator's suggestion it might shoot down her plane, making her the highest-ranking U.S. elected official to visit the self-ruled island in a quarter century. The California Democrat's arrival confirmed reports that she'd scheduled the stop , after her office declined to officially verify them. It also evoked a swift reaction from China, which claims Taiwan as Chinese territory. In the hours after Pelosi landed, China surrounded the island with warships to conduct "targeted" drills and missile tests, and the website for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's office went dark after an alleged cyber attack, POLITICO reported. The Pentagon also deployed four U.S. warships to the waters east of Taiwan, after Biden administration officials insisted for days that a Pelosi visit should not escalate U.S.-China tensions. | | ON THE BEATS | | KAISER MENTAL HEALTH STRIKE: The union representing about 2,000 mental health workers at Northern California Kaiser facilities today called for an open-ended strike starting Aug. 15 over their longstanding contract dispute with the health care giant. The National Union of Healthcare Workers has been negotiating for more than a year, and the employees — psychologists, therapists, chemical dependency counselors, and social workers — have been working without a contract for more than a year. Major sticking points include high clinician workloads and long wait times for patients. Kaiser has long been under scrutiny over its behavioral health services, including a $4 million fine in 2013 over patient access problems . In May, based on complaints, state regulators launched a "non-routine" audit of its mental health services. Given the toll the pandemic and other issues have taken on our collective psyche, mental health is needed more than ever. A strike — especially one with no end — would worsen an already short supply of practitioners. But the union says it's time to take a stand for workers and patients. At least bargaining sessions haven't come to a standstill; the next one is scheduled for Friday. — Victoria Colliver DOLLA DOLLA BILLS: More than $70 million in contributions flowed to the campaigns behind rival sports betting ballot measures over the last week as Native American tribes, online sportsbooks and casinos jockey to control the future market. The largest chunk of that spending came from a group of gambling companies — Penn Interactive, Fanatics, FanDuel, DraftKings and BetMGM — that gave around $50 million in support of Prop 27, which would legalize online sports betting in California and create extremely high hurdles for businesses hoping to enter the market.
The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria contributed $20 million to a ballot committee opposing Prop 27 and backing Prop 26, a measure that would allow in-person sports betting at reservation casinos and horse racing tracks.
The sports betting measures are expected to be the two most heavily financed of the seven initiatives on the November ballot. — Alexander Nieves
| | | | A message from CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund:   | | | | | AROUND CALIFORNIA | | " Farmworkers will march 335 miles through California's Central Valley. Here's why ," by the Sacramento Bee's Melissa Montalvo and Matthew Miranda: "By expanding voting options, the bill intends to make it easier and safer for farmworkers to cast their votes in union elections, according to the UFW. It also aims to provide workers with additional privacy and reduce the possibility of intimidation or interference from employers, according to the union." "Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar bill last year, citing "various inconsistencies" and "procedural issues" in the legislation, just as the UFW had commenced a similar march then." " 6th Street bridge: A civic wonder that reflects L.A.'s promise and its simmering problems ," by the Los Angeles Times' Rachel Uranga: "Eastsiders are worried about gentrification creeping in from downtown, transit advocates are upset over the unprotected bicycle lanes, and lowriders don't want the racers on the bridge. Everyone wants to enjoy it in their own way." "Since it's opened, it's become overwhelmingly clear that the community not only needs a functional bridge for cars to move across, but that there's also a very real need for community public space," said Betty Avila, executive director of Self Help Graphics, a nonprofit arts institution in Boyle Heights." Compiled by Sakura Cannestra
| | A message from CalETC and the Environmental Defense Fund: World-leading investment in clean vehicles in this year's budget will help relieve all Californians of the soaring costs of gasoline and diesel by helping them transition to electric cars, trucks, vans, and buses. Budget funds for programs like HVIP, Clean Cars 4 All, charging infrastructure investment, and the new SB 372, which help all Californians acquire these pollution-free electric vehicles, must be protected.
Pollution from cars and trucks has a disproportionate impact on low-income communities and communities of color, having suffered generations of systematic marginalization . Helping all Californians and our businesses cut pollution from these vehicles will save lives. As we finalize our state's budget, our legislators must defend hard-fought investments in these important clean electric vehicle and infrastructure programs!
Learn more at www.InvestInCleanAir.com. | | | | | MIXTAPE | | — " A man rode BART for 7 hours. He was declared dead at the end of the line ," by the San Francisco Chronicle's Joshua Sharpe. — " 'Pattern change': Great white shark populations grow as Monterey Bay waters warm ," by the SFGate's Andrew Pridgen. — " LA Explained: How To Swap Out Your Thirsty Lawn With Drought-Friendly Plants ," by the LAist's Caitlin Hernández. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Ottawa Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | | |
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