Cranston Calms Crowd at Panel’s Discussion of Child-Care Proposal

U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) neatly defused what began as a heated situation Monday when he met with more than 300 people in Santa Ana on his proposed $2.5-billion child-care bill.

After initial statements by Cranston and a four-person panel brought together to discuss the need for child-care services, there was a tense moment when a young man stood up and, to simultaneous boos and cheering, accused Cranston of voting to “spend millions of dollars to pay people to kill their unborn children by abortion.”

“Is that what you call child care?” the man demanded.

“Well, I would not say that is what I call child care,” Cranston replied calmly. “But that is in keeping with letting people, within certain bounds, make decisions about their own families in their own way without government interference.”

Objections Drowned Out

A loud round of cheers and applause drowned out whatever objections--and there were some--that met his response.

But things grew calmer after Cranston repeatedly assured the crowd that he was there to listen and get advice on the bill, which has a long way to go before passage.

So many people showed up for the mid-afternoon event at the YWCA in Santa Ana that it had to be moved from a cozy room to the facility’s large gymnasium, where about half the crowd stood or sat on the floor for lack of chairs.

Many in the room were single parents who expressed frustration at trying to simultaneously make a living and raise their children without adequate child-care services. Others were mothers who said they felt that the bill would penalize families in which the mother chose to stay home with children by denying them eligibility for child-care benefits. They asked Cranston to include in his bill a tax credit to all parents.

“We are testing the waters to see how far the American people are willing to go,” Cranston told the crowd. “That’s why we’re holding this forum.”

In his opening statement, Cranston said that while legislation authorizing $2.5 billion for child-care services “may seem unrealistic in this time of federal deficits,” he felt compelled to introduce the legislation because “the problems of child care are so enormous, and they demand a response.”

The meeting had been picketed by the Coalition for Child Care Equity, which claimed that Cranston’s child-care legislation would be “costly, inadequate and discriminatory.”

The coalition, which includes members of the conservative Eagle Forum and the Traditional Values Coalition, prefers a bill by Rep. Clyde Holloway (R-La.) that would provide a tax credit to parents of preschool children that could be used in preschools sponsored by churches and other religious institutions.

Cranston said his bill--the Act for Better Child Care Services, which is known popularly as the ABC bill--was trying to avoid possible constitutional problems by carefully separating church and state.

But he conceded that the bill “seems to go beyond what is constitutionally necessary” and that negotiations are now under way to include more child-care facilities within its purview.

“I’m simply saying I’m aware of the problems,” Cranston said.

By the time the hourlong meeting was over, the woman who had organized the picketing, Coalition for Child Care Equity spokesperson Jo Ellen Allen of Newport Beach, made a point of following Cranston out to his car to express her gratitude.

“Thank you for being fair today,” Allen told Cranston.

Cranston, who spent the afternoon in Orange County, earlier had talked with the National Assn. of Home Builders in Newport Beach. He also met in Garden Grove with leaders of Orange County’s Vietnamese community.