I was pregnant in 2020 when Measure C passed, a voter-approved initiative to support health and education for children aged 0-5 years in Alameda County. My son is now four years old and I’ve watched his development stall alongside Measure C delays.
The cruelest irony: the resources it promised should have been available to him from his first week of life and soon, he will age out of eligibility entirely.
Despite the measure collecting about $650 million earmarked for families like us, not a single dollar has reached anyone.
To address funding delays, the County planned to distribute $165M in emergency child care support in March, but the Alameda Taxpayers Association blocked it with a baseless lawsuit threat. The ongoing legal challenges from these wealthy business owners have continued to block access to free and low-cost child care, health care, emergency services, and improvements to local Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Centers that Measure C would have supported.
I’ve lived in Alameda County for nearly a decade, and like many parents, I pinned my hopes on the support Measure C was supposed to offer. Instead of watching my son thrive in a properly funded preschool, he was slow to learn his first words and had to deal with an autism diagnosis with scarce resources.
I recently made the difficult decision to leave my job to care for him at home because I couldn’t find adequate child care. My son bounced between home daycares that lacked the consistency and special needs training he required. Some programs were too far away. Others weren’t equipped to care for a neurodivergent child.
When I look into my son’s eyes, I am acutely aware of how much early intervention benefited him, but it was cut short due to age restrictions. Once he started school, insurance would no longer cover his speech therapy.
He’s been in child care since he was two months old—he’s never truly had the “mommy experience” with me. That’s not what I wanted. But there were no options left.
Continued speech and occupational therapy could have benefitted his development. He is only an infant and toddler once- a highly sensitive time for language and motor development. The delay in releasing these Measure C funds represents a profound failure of leadership and a betrayal of the next generation.
Through a rigorous community process with a nonprofit organization First 5 Alameda, a community of parents, advocates and caregivers co-created an Implementation Plan to make sure Measure C funds are allocated as soon as possible. Parents and providers are the ones with the answers to our problems because we are the ones who live the reality everyday. This plan is our voice and we need it to move forward.
On June 10, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors will vote to approve Measure C’s five-year implementation plan. If it is delayed, thousands of families and child care providers will have to wait a full year to receive meaningful support and infrastructure. My son will be five years old by then—aged out of the early childhood window entirely.
This is not just my story. I’ve spoken with other parents who are also desperate for help for their special needs children in a severely underfunding, undervalued system.
Measure C will offer critical support such as: increased access to child care services, through the provision of over 1,000 vouchers for care and over 2,400 subsidized child care slots; enhanced wages and operating grants for service providers; and voucher enhancements to support recruiting, retaining, and supporting early educators.
With Measure C fully implemented, children and families will have access to high quality, affordable education. And providers will be able to do their work with the stability and respect they deserve.
Bry’Ana Wallace is a mother in Oakland and a child care advocate with Parent Voices Oakland.