Many  children who joined parents, educators and community members on the steps of the state building Wednesday to send their pleas to state legislatures for early child care centers to stay open despite Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget revision in May. The governor proposed cutting $1.2 billion - all state funding - for child care assistance affecting an estimated 142,000 children.

The children said:

“We need to be safe while our parents are working.”

“We are the future, if you cut our education, you cut our futures; the future is us.”

“If our childcare is closed, more people will be homeless, poor and hurt.”

“Child development centers are closing, they need to stay open so we stay safe and aren’t snatched.”

In Oakland, seven childcare centers - Manzanita, Hintil, Santa Fe, Jefferson, Piedmont, Sequoia and Golden Gate - are on that list; Parker had already been slated for closure earlier this year.

Laurice Brown, from Oakland Parents Together and mother of nine, said “parents are in awe.” Brown explained that Oakland Unified School District had to submit its budget by June 30 as if the cuts were all ready voted on, but nothing is definite since the state hasn’t yet passed the budget. She said their best hope is for the day care cuts to be taken out of consideration.

It’s been a roller coaster for daycare workers and parents. Services were slated to end the last Friday in July, but were extended through August at the last minute when Oakland Unified discovered they could use stimulus money to continue services for another month.

Some parents expressed concern that if early childcare is eliminated from the schools, then all after school care could be shut down and that school closures would follow. Still others wondered about the reported millions of dollars of education stimulus money that’s sitting untouched while the governor and legislators continue to bicker and not pass a budget.

Shirley Guevara, a teacher at Hintil Kuu Ca child development center, emphasized the cuts would eliminate daycare for 3 year olds. Jose Esteva, a parent to three kids at Hintil, said by eliminating care for some, families are being separated and broken up.

Guevara said Hintil Kuu Ca is the only Native American child development center that serves an urban population. She said parents will do everything they can to keep the school going; they won’t shut down.

Esteva and his family danced several Native American dances at the state building and later outside the school board meeting after leading the march there. Esteva dedicated the dances to open hearts, to help the district find the answers, to thank his ancestors and share their traditions with everyone there.

At the school board meeting, several Hintil students spoke and asked the board to keep their daycare and school open. The meeting veered off the agenda when Director Alice Spearman spoke and told the group from Hintil that she had voted for the closures, but she shouldn’t have included Hintil. She said enough history of African American and brown people has been destroyed and she didn’t want any part in destroying any more Native American history. Her words were met with enthusiastic applause.

To learn how you can help Oakland Parents Together visit its website.