On February 7th, thousands of Americans will pick up the phone to call their Members of Congress and tell them to stop the automatic cuts to education, Head Start, early learning, and child care that kick in on March 1st.
We need you to make the call too!

We have the power to make sure that our elected officials hear from us, and hear the real stories of what funding cuts to education, early learning and child care will do to all of us.

Call the number below to be connected to the offices of Senators Klobuchar and Franken and your Member of Congress and make your voice heard about the impact these cuts could have to families and providers here in Minnesota.
Call 1-866-426-2631 on Feb. 7th
Tell them that the best way to reduce the deficit is to create jobs and close tax loopholes for the rich and big corporations —not to cut care and education for our kids.
Call 1-866-426-2631 on Feb. 7th to say NO cuts to our children’s future.

Money from the federal government is by far the single largest source of revenue for state and local governments. So what Congress does matters a lot for the services our communities most rely on.

We need you to:

• Ask members of Congress to stop these cuts.
• Join with others to support services our communities depend on.

Please keep child care services in the spotlight by:

• Making child care an important point in recess meeting with members of Congress
• Collecting–and publishing–child care stories on your web site, in LTEs–and share them nationally.

Proposed cuts include:

• Child care services parents rely on so they can work and children need to succeed in school
• Funding for our schools
• Health care for seniors and low income working families
• Services for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities

Visit http://www.seiu.org/vital-services/ for more information, important tools to get the word out and stay in touch with regular updates.

Today, the court rejected the cynical approach of corporations and Republican extremists who consistently have put profits and politics ahead of working people and whose cold and bitter vision for America is simply that “we are all on our own.”

“The fact is, the various lawsuits that resulted in this being taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court were politically motivated and brought by Republican Governors and corporate interests. SEIU Healthcare Minnesota’s nurses, doctors, and caregivers know, firsthand, there’s no room for such extreme politics in the overall governance of our healthcare system,” says Julie Schnell, president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota (HCMN).

“The decision today is vitally important for working people trapped in the toughest economic crisis in a generation,” said Schnell.  “Justices made a decision that now is not the time to slow down the benefits of the law that is making healthcare more affordable.”

“Our members worked tirelessly on behalf of all Minnesotans and played a critical role in the original passage of the Affordable Care Act. Their strong advocacy has, two years later, meant we’ve seen Americans of all ages and backgrounds now have greater access to affordable health coverage,” said Schnell.

Schnell says today’s ruling does not make the health care insurance crisis disappear in this country. She says the freedom to make choices over access to health insurance and healthcare should be a right in America, not a privilege.  “Americans will continue to be squeezed by higher premiums, more and more people will lose coverage due to high costs they won’t be able to afford and access to healthcare will be further limited as a result.”

2011 Minnesota Statistics

Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/CDC:

• Number of Minnesotans with Medicare who saved money on prescription drugs thanks to health care reform: 57, 610. Savings: $33,963,871
• Number of Minnesotans with Medicare that Received Preventative Services thanks to health care reform: 424,007
• Number of Minnesotans who now no longer have a lifetime limit on their health care insurance due to reforms: 3,547,000
• Number of Minnesota young adults (to age 26) have gained health care insurance under their parents’ plans: 32,189
• How many Minnesotans gained coverage in 2011 under the pre-existing coverage protection under the new reform? 789

Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday vetoed the one bill to emerge from this session’s debate over unionizing child-care workers.

The Republican-backed bill would have prohibited union dues and fees from being deducted from state child-care subsidy payments. The DFL governor said in his veto message that the bill is “unnecessary because no union representation of child care providers exists in the state of Minnesota.”

“I will not support such a misguided and unnecessary effort,” he said.

The bill was a response to a union drive among in-home child-care providers, which has stalled. Dayton’s order calling for a union election among providers caring for children receiving subsidies was thrown out by a Ramsey County judge.

“Now that we’ve organized our union, I feel we’re being heard and as workers we feel more like a cohesive group. We’ve also made some inroads expanding benefits available to our part time co-workers. The coolest thing about organizing is seeing the power in taking a stand, as individuals and especially as a group.”

Louise Miller
Activity Supervisory, Hopkins Kids and Company

In the West St. Paul Schools, we won changes so that staff who work as both school paraprofessionals and child care staff can combine hours across programs for better health insurance and other benefits. Supporting these staff members is a win for the students and the learning process. The real, human relationships I build with kids in a child care setting really help when I work with them academically.

Mark Krey
Special Ed Paraprofessional, West St. Paul School Age Care

Now I feel like I have a voice in the district’s decision regarding my benefits, wages and hours. As a union steward, I like to help get others engaged with the negotiation process.

Amanda Reineck
Bright Start Instructor, Wayzata Home Base

Patty Busse | Stillwater Patch | February 14, 2012

Rep. Nora Slawik announced introduction of the Child Care Affordability Act Tuesday in the home of a St. Paul day care provider.

“How can we look at funding the Vikings stadium for $300 million and we can’t find the money for kids down at the Capitol?” said Slawik (DFL-Maplewood). “We need to make sure there’s high quality, affordable childcare.”

The bill, HF2219, would restore the 2.5 percent rate cut made to subsidized child care providers in the 2011 legislative session and eliminate the waiting list for child care assistance, which is now 7,000 families long, Slawik said.

Child care provider Sharon Born, of Waseca, said she’s had to start working evenings and weekends to make up for the money she lost due to the child care assistance cuts. Despite the hardship, she said her primary concern is what’s happening to the children in the 7,000 families on the waiting list for assistance.

“Who’s watching these kids?” Born said. “My experience is a lot of these kids are not safe.”

The reforms set forth in the bill—which also include reinstating funding for professional development of child care providers—wouldn’t come cheap. Its estimated cost would be between $300 million and $500 million, which Slawik noted, is about the same as the proposed state contribution toward the Vikings stadium.

“There’s a cost to taking care of kids,” Slawik said. “I think kids should be the priority in this state.”

Sen. Mary Jo McGuire (DFL-Falcon Heights) authored the Senate version of the bill.

There’s a new push to help Minnesota parents pay for child care.  Rep. Nora Slawik (DFL) and Sen. Mary Jo McGuire (DFL) announced the Child Care Affordability Act Tuesday.

It would restore funding to child care providers, money that was lost last year in order to balance the budget.

It would make sure providers are reimbursed at 75-percent of the market rate. It would also reinstate funding for professional development of child care providers and get rid of the waiting list for child care in the state.

Daycare providers at Tuesday’s announcement say they’re making their own incomes go as far as possible to care for these kids. They say it’s not fair to keep raising rates on parents.

The proposal would cost between $300 million and $500 million dollars.

Slawik and McGuire want to pay for the bill by taxing the rich or attaching it to a Vikings stadium bill.

ST. PAUL (WCCO) — Two state lawmakers say before the legislature focuses on a Vikings Stadium, they should make up for big cuts to child care.

Rep. Nora Slawik and Sen. Mary Jo McGuire introduced the “Child Care Affordability Act” Tuesday, outlining a plan to help parents, especially those living paycheck-to-paycheck, pay for child care and help child care providers who are now receiving less money from the state.

Child care providers who are licensed through the state, mostly those who provide care to low-income families, recently took a 2.5 percent cut in the amount of funding they receive.

The proposed child care act would help bridge that gap in funding, and help more than 7,000 Minnesota families that are currently on a waiting list for child care assistance.

Lawmakers say the cost to help these families would range between $300 million and $500 million.

The authors of the bill also announced two plans to help pay for child care costs. They say they’d like to either tax the rich to come up with the funding or pass a bill that could be attached to a proposed Vikings stadium plan — one where the revenue could come from gambling. They say the money could fund child care, as well as the new stadium.

“How can we look at funding a Vikings stadium for $300 million when we can’t find money for kids at the Capitol,” said Rep. Slawik.

Day care providers stood by as the Child Care Affordability Act was announced, including Sharon Born, who works nights and weekends to try and make up the money she lost because of state cuts.

“I don’t want to work seven days a week, 16 hours a day. I am a single mom, you have to do, what you have to do,” she said.

By Catharine Richert

Two Minnesota unions want to organize Minnesota’s in-home child care workers, and the effort has sparked a heated battle between the Dayton administration and Republicans in the Legislature.

Among those who oppose the effort is Rep. Torrey Westrom, R-Elbow Lake, who sent a letter to child care providers encouraging them to reject unionization.

On Dec. 2, he wrote that, while only some day care providers will be able to vote on whether to unionize, “the other 7,000 providers will be forced to pay full or ‘fair share’ union dues, and will be subject to additional regulation, even though they were denied the right to vote in this election.”

Westrom’s claim is false.

The Evidence

Two Minnesota unions – American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union – are trying to unionize the state’s in-home day care providers.

On Nov. 15, Gov. Mark Dayton issued an executive order that would allow Minnesota’s day care providers who are licensed and registered, and who participate in a state program that subsidizes child care to vote on unionization. That’s roughly 4,200 providers out of the approximately 11,000 in the state.

If the majority of those 4,200 agree, it would give the union the right to hash out issues, such as regulation and subsidy rates, with the administration. At this point, a court has put a restraining order on Dayton’s executive order but Dayton plans to contest that order.

So, Westrom is correct that only some child care providers will be able to vote on whether there should be a union. But he’s wrong that those who don’t want to be in the union would have to pay fair share union dues.

A Frequently Asked Questions document on the executive order from Dayton’s office is clear on this:

“The Minnesota Fair Share law (Minn. Stat. § 179A.06, subd. 3), which requires all public employees to contribute ‘a fair share fee for services rendered by the exclusive representative,’ would not apply to these family child care providers.”

Dayton’s executive order makes clear that, “nothing in this order shall be construed to require participation, or the involuntary payment of dues by any family child care provider.”

As for additional regulation, Westrom is off the mark there as well. At this point, unionization doesn’t come with additional regulations, let alone regulations that all of Minnesota’s 11,000 in-home child care workers would be subject to.

Westrom conceded that given the complexity of the issue and the amount of context needed, the sentence may have been better written as: “The other 7,000 providers may be forced to pay full or “fair share” union dues, and will be subject to additional regulation, even though they were denied the right to vote in this election.”

The Verdict

Under Gov Dayton’s order child care providers who are not allowed to vote on unionization will not have to pay fair share dues.

Westrom’s claim is false.

SOURCES

Letter, Rep. Torrey Westrom to constituents, Dec. 2, 2011

Office of Gov. Mark Dayton, Governor Dayton issues executive order calling for union election among child care providers, November 15, 2011

Office of Gov. Mark Dayton, Frequently Asked Questions about Child Care Collective Bargaining, accessed Dec. 13, 2011

Associated Press via Minnesota Public Radio News, Dayton to contest child care unionization ruling, December 8, 2011