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<\/a><\/p>\nThe commission would create strategies to help families with daycare \u2014 mainly\u00a0through daycare scholarships and business grants to childcare providers wanting to expand operations.<\/p>\n
Maxwell\u00a0said with Fresno County facing a looming deficit and cuts from President Donald Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill, Fresno residents need help caring for their children.<\/p>\n
He said the average family is paying $11,000 a year for daycare for a preschooler, $13,000 for a toddler, and $23,000 for an infant.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildcare is a crisis that we have been dealing with for some time in this community,\u201d Maxwell said during a special meeting. \u201cThat\u2019s going to become more exacerbated as the Donald Trump administration cuts come into effect later this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fresno Has a Supply and a Demand Problem: Maxwell<\/p>\n
Maxwell named himself, Councilmember Annalisa Perea, and Council President Nelson Esparza to the one-year commission.<\/p>\n
With Perea not seeking reelection, opting for a run at state assembly, and Esparza termed out, seeking a seat on the Board of Equalization, Maxwell said the commission would be well-served with possible state representation.<\/p>\n
The three councilmembers would select six others from the community.<\/p>\n
The commission would consider both long-term and short-term solutions to address what he called a \u201ccrisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond families not being able to afford childcare, Fresno also a capacity problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somehow overnight every single family was able to afford these ridiculously expensive tuitions for childcare there still would only be a fraction of slots available in the city and county of Fresno,\u201d Maxwell said. \u201cWe\u2019re working on both a supply and a demand issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
First 5 Funding Limited by Tobacco Sales<\/p>\n
Fabiola Gonzalez, executive director of First 5, said daycare not only helps families and young children directly, but also other citizens as parents can more easily go to jobs.<\/p>\n
She said having kids go to preschool helps set them up for traditional schooling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to start thinking of childcare as a right,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cOur children have a right to be in the right space at the right time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funding for First 5 largely comes from a tobacco tax created in 1998 under Proposition 10. As smoking nationwide has decreased, so have funds.<\/p>\n
First 5 currently operates on a budget of roughly $6 million to $7 million, Gonzalez said. The resolution limits access to the $3.5 million fund to city of Fresno families and Fresno businesses.<\/p>\n
Considering the amount the nonprofit would receive from the city under the new resolution, Councilmember Miguel Arias said he wants the city to have a seat on the First 5 board \u2014 which is currently filled by selections made by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez said she would take Arias\u2019 ask to the board.<\/p>\n
Could Measure P Pay for Childcare?<\/p>\n
Where the $3.5 million will come from has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
Maxwell said Measure P could be a possibility, given that some of the language of the parks and arts sales tax makes allowances for youth development.<\/p>\n
Arias jumped at that, saying that all-day childcare falls outside the scope of what voters approved. Measure P does allocate 8.5% of its funds to youth and senior activities, but ordinance language speaks to recreation and after-school programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cChildcare services is designed to be an all-day thing while people are at work. After-school services is different,\u201d Arias said. \u201cMy recommendation is you look at the general fund. It\u2019s the most flexible money, there\u2019s no potential for violating voter-approved initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Families with young children could soon get help from a $3.5 million fund to help pay for daycare…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-353398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353398","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=353398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}