POLITICO California Playbook PM: Pre-K expansion is on the clock this budget season

Your afternoon must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State

May 31, 2022 View in browser   By Blake Jones and Juhi Doshi UNIVERSAL PRE-K: A bid to offer free preschool to all 3- and 4-year-old Californians has enjoyed a nearly frictionless path through the statehouse. But as a season of intraparty budget haggling falls over Sacramento, it's likely to get rockier. State Sen. Connie Leyva, who brought Senate Bill 976, wants to remove requirements that students be low-income or otherwise disadvantaged to enroll in free state preschool, and allow community child care providers like in-home day cares to tap into state funds. The Chino Democrat's proposal is on the clock , though, as a June 15 deadline to pass a state budget looms. If its annual cost — estimated to be in the high hundreds of millions to the low billions — isn't accounted for when legislative leaders and the governor's office strike a deal, SB 976's advancements through two committees and the Senate floor will be rendered moot. That's because an amendment that Leyva made to the bill would make the pre-K expansion contingent on state funding. Leyva says her universal preschool proposal will: Stabilize a child care industry that Leyva said is "on the brink of collapse," in part by ensuring child care workers subsidized by the state make more than minimum wage — a requirement laid out in the bill.  Allow working parents to drop their kids off at day care early and pick them up late, an option they don't get at the part-day transitional kindergarten programs offered across the state.   Expand child care and early-education access writ large, by waiving fees for state pre-K programs and allowing all children to participate, regardless of their family's income.  Her bill could be competing with a wide array of proposals for a chunk of the state's record budget surplus, including others in the early-education arena. SB 70, from state Sen. Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) and Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), for example, would require that all California students attend kindergarten, raising operational costs for schools. And that's not to mention the $8 billion Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to send public schools through one-time grants. Most negotiations will unfold behind closed doors, though, leaving the fate of expanded pre-K, and so many other budget requests, in limbo. 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. We'll go Monday to Thursday through June 9 before returning in August for the legislative homestretch. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to katymurphy@politico.com and bjones@politico.com or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open! WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY POWER STRUGGLE: Assembly Democrats have been embroiled in a public speakership fight this afternoon — days after Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister)( had secured commitments from the majority of the caucus to become the next leader of the Assembly. He communicated as much to the current leader, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, who has not yet commented publicly. The dispute spilled onto the Assembly floor on Tuesday as Rendon and Rivas loyalists clashed in a vote over whether to hold a private conference off the floor. As of roughly 3 p.m., Democrats had been caucusing for about an hour. Applause audibly broke out twice toward the beginning. — Jeremy B. White ON THE BEATS CHILD ABUSE AUDIT: The state's Child Abuse Central Index is meant to be a comprehensive database of substantiated child abuse cases in California. But it is so inaccurate and incomplete that it may be leaving children at risk, according to a damning state audit report released today . The report found the database did not contain about half the child abuse cases — more than 27,000 — reported by county child welfare agencies from July 2017 through June 2021. Moreover, it said, the index inappropriately contained unsubstantiated reports of abuse. A major cause of the errors? Miscommunication among county staff and a lack of tracking from the Department of Justice, the auditor found. People "cannot depend on the database to protect children when they are making decisions about hiring individuals to work in day care centers or group homes, or about whom they can entrust with the care or custody of a child," acting state Auditor Michael Tilden wrote in a letter to the governor and legislative leaders. The report calls for the state to give the DOJ direct access to the system that counties use to record the results of their child abuse investigations, among other proposed fixes. — Victoria Colliver FIREFIGHTER SHORTAGE BILL: California does not have enough firefighters, and state Sen. Mike McGuire has a proposal to deal with that shortage as the state enters the worst of what has become a year-round fire season. McGuire's Senate Bill 1062 would require the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to maintain a minimum staffing level of three firefighters per engine, which McGuire says is equivalent to adding 356 firefighters to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection's ranks. SB 1062 would also fund 16 new fuel crews, to be staffed by 768 firefighters, and make Cal Fire produce a long-term staffing plan. California has historically relied on prison inmates to fill staffing shortages, but even that practice is strained: According to SB 1062's legislative findings, the state inmate fire camp program has shrunk from 4,200 inmates a decade ago to just over 1,400 last year. — Colby Bermel AROUND CALIFORNIA "Democrats dominate fierce fight in California insurance commissioner's race," by the LATimes' Melody Gutierrez: "California voters will soon choose a leader for the state agency that wields significant power over home, auto and other insurance policies purchased by millions of consumers, filling an elected post that will be particularly influential in helping homeowners in wildfire-prone areas maintain their insurance. "Nine candidates are vying to be California insurance commissioner, a regulator with the authority to approve or reject rate increases and investigate fraud. The top two finishers in the June 7 primary will face off in the November general election. Incumbent Ricardo Lara, a Democrat from Los Angeles, is looking to hold on to his seat amid a fierce challenge from a Democratic opponent, San Rafael Assemblymember Marc Levine." " In this Central Valley city, a growing community of Afghan refugees say they feel forgotten, abandoned," by SF Chronicle's Deepa Fernandes: "More than 2,900 refugees evacuated from Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal have landed in Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose and Turlock, where the IRC has its Northern California offices. The vast majority have transitioned into some form of permanent housing that they must pay for while rebuilding lives from scratch and navigating immigration requirements. "But 148 remain in temporary living quarters, and 93 — 63% — are in Turlock, where frustrated refugees level complaints of neglect against an overtaxed IRC office that says it's doing the best it can under difficult circumstances. "People on the ground say the situation reflects a collision between California's housing crisis and a nation that is returning to its refugee-friendly ideals after four years of refugee-hostile government policies under the Trump administration that caused more than 100 resettlement agency offices to close nationwide." Compiled by Juhi Doshi MIXTAPE — Private colleges want to change rules for how police respond to trespassing; however, students are fearing the proposal could lead to racial profiling. (CalMatters) — The ACLU is calling out the Irvine Unified School District board's policy for suppressing public comments. (Voice of OC) — Santa Clarita's school district is replacing its counselors with social workers. (EdSource)   Follow us on Twitter Katy Murphy @katymurphy POLITICO California @politicoca   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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