In 1997, Rob Reiner, an actor and director and longtime child advocate, initiated the “I Am Your

Child” public awareness campaign to make the welfare of children ages zero to three years a priority
for the nation, but without greater measures he felt that the issue would not be addressed properly.
Reiner gained support from the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and the
Lung Cancer Association, all three organizations wanting to reduce the usage of tobacco, to help put
Proposition 10 on the California general election ballot in 1998. Rob Reiner recruited Michael
Huffington to join him as co-chairman of the campaign. Others that were lined up in support for this
proposition were director Steven Spielberg, U.S. Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, Los Angeles
Mayor Richard Riordan, the California Teachers Association, and the California Nurses Association.
This proposition was pushed through because of the growing effort to create a better education and
child care for children ages zero to three years. In 1994, Carnegie Corporations issued a report
called ‘’”Starting Points: Meeting the needs of our Youngest Children.”’’ This report gave an overall
look at the poor education and lack of quality care provided to young children around the country.
People began to confront this problem of the connection between the development of children and
that quality of care received.
There was an intense opposition to the proposition by the tobacco industry but even with the huge
opposing campaign the proposition still passed with just over fifty percent of the California vote. In
March 2000 California voters were asked to repeal but there was a seventy percent opposition which
reflected a strong anti-tobacco bias and support of early childhood education. [2]

Fiscal Impact