Feb. 5, 2026 7:30 AM PT <\/p>\n
To the editor: When local and state governments cannot find the funding to support a robust child-care system for working families, it seems we should be questioning our budget priorities (\u201cWhy child care could be \u2018at a standstill\u2019 as California plans not to expand financial assistance,\u201d<\/a> Feb. 2).<\/p>\n The governor and local leaders have allocated billions of dollars to an unhoused population with no legitimate results, unless you consider a 4% reduction<\/a> in the Los Angeles area a reasonable outcome. Let\u2019s not forget the $4 billion to settle sex abuse claims, some of which were apparently not properly vetted<\/a>. Those billions also help fund the injury lawyer industry<\/a> and private investors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Accessible and affordable child care should be a basic state priority, especially given the fact that politicians are asking the general tax-paying public to fund other programs that consistently go off the rails.<\/p>\n Lee Meister, San Pedro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 5, 2026 7:30 AM PT To the editor: When local and state governments cannot find the funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14711,79951,10571,11198,2072,45043,25976,943,1049,48,52,51,79954,1838,79952,47,50,49,63,4763,79953],"class_list":["post-165716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-billion","tag-budget-priority","tag-child-care","tag-dollar","tag-editor","tag-feb","tag-financial-assistance","tag-governor","tag-hit","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lee-meister","tag-letter","tag-local-leader","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-politician","tag-unhoused-population"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}