If we want to win this battle for quality health care, equitable schools, expanded early education and the end of child poverty, we need to do more.
 
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What's Your New Year's Resolution?
 
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Dear Child Advocate,

Happy New Year! Last year was an incredible year filled with several big wins for California’s children, but we need to go even further in 2016. With the recent release of Governor Brown’s 2016–17 budget proposal, we must work even harder to ensure that our state budget reflects California’s priorities and invests in the health and well-being for all children, especially our most vulnerable children and families.

This year, we at CDF-CA have a few New Year’s Resolutions for California’s children:

We will begin to end solitary confinement of young people in juvenile detention facilities statewide!

We will end child poverty in the richest state in the nation!

We will continue to advocate for positive alternatives to exclusionary school discipline policies and practices!

We will ensure that every child has access to comprehensive and affordable health care!

If we want to win this battle for quality health care, equitable schools and expanded early education, a justice system that is focused on prevention and rehabilitation, and the end of child poverty, including homelessness, we must do more.

Next month we will be releasing our annual policy agenda which will outline the specific steps our state and local leaders can take to ensure that we improve the quality of our children’s lives.

Please visit us online to learn more about how you can help us do more and be more in 2016. It’s time to cause a ruckus for children in the state of California!

Onward,
 
 
Alex M. Johnson
Executive Director
Children's Defense Fund - California
 
 
featured updates
 
 
 
Now Accepting Your Nominations
 
Applications for the Beat the Odds® Scholarship program must be post marked by Friday, January 29th. Now in it’s 25th year, the Beat the Odds Scholarship provides financial, academic, and professional support to promising high school sophomores in Los Angeles - including up to $10,000 to pay for college.
 
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A Budget that Prioritizes Children
 
In response to Governor Brown's 2016-17 budget proposal, we are advocating for a budget that reflects our priorities as a state by putting our children first, and investing in prevention, education, and a robust safety net for our children and families. Learn more and take action at our Children’s State Budget Watch webpage.
 
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in the news
 
 
 
Suspensions and expulsions decline as districts adopt alternatives, state says
 
January 13, 2016 | EdSource
 
The number of students expelled and suspended from California schools continued to decline in 2014-15 as more school districts focused on resolving behavior issues without taking students out of class [...]
 
 
 
Statement from Alex Johnson, Executive Director of the Children's Defense Fund-California, on LAUSD's new superintendent
 
January 11th, 2016 | Children's Defense Fund - California
 
"We congratulate Michelle King on her appointment as the new superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and as the first African American woman to lead the nation’s second largest [...]
 
 
 
Democrats, advocates disappointed in Brown's proposed $122.6 billion budget, citing strong state revenues
 
January 9, 2016 | O. C. Register
 
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed $122.6 billion California budget plan would seem to please Democratic interests by pumping billions of tax dollars generated by the booming state economy into public [...]
 
 
 
Assembly speaker says 'laundry list of critical needs' left out of California budget
 
January 8th, 2016 | Bakersfield Now
 
Under Brown's proposal for 2016-17, California's general fund would climb to a record high. Combined with special funds and bond money, overall spending would climb to $170.7 billion [...]
 
 
 
Jerry Brown warns of inevitable recession to chill spending ideas
 
January 8, 2016 | San Francisco Chronicle
 
A strengthening economy and a robust state budget have Gov. Jerry Brown devising potential economic crises to persuade Democratic legislators to keep their hands off California’s growing cash surplu [...]
 
 
 
 
         
 
 
 
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