By Susan Hoff, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-502338.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Child care is a daily concern for millions of parents. Every day, approximately 12 million infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers spend all or part of their day in care outside the home. Millions more school-age children need safe and enriching experiences available after school. Quality child care and after-school opportunities can make a real difference in whether these children succeed and stay in school. Child care is also a big issue for employers. Every year 82 percent of all working parents miss work, are late, or have to leave early in order to deal with problems related to child care.
Many parents, particularly low-income parents, have serious difficulties gaining access to the child care and after-school care necessary to meet both their children's needs and their employer's expectations.
Parents in low-wage jobs struggle to afford the high cost of care. Some pay as much as half of their weekly paycheck in order to put their children in the best possible child care setting. Others are forced to resort to placing their children in care that they know is not good, simply because they cannot afford better options. Child care assistance, provided through the Federal Child Care Development Block Grant, can be a lifeline for these parents by helping them afford decent child care and keep their jobs. In Texas these funds flow through the Texas Workforce Commission. ChildCareGroup, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization, manages a large portion of these funds, placing more than 14,000 Dallas County children in care every day.
Despite the importance of child care assistance to many hard-working parents concerned about their children's well-being, appropriations for the Child Care and Development Block Grant have been essentially flat for five years. Without increased federal funds, states have made fewer families eligible for child care assistance, raised parents' share of the costs, and cut back reimbursement rates to already low-paid child care providers. Overall, 250,000 fewer children now receive child care assistance than they did in 2000. If Congress follows the Administration's lead on child care, by 2011, 650,000 children will have lost child care assistance according to the Administration's own budget tables.
Many states, including Texas, have also eliminated or scaled back investments designed to bolster the quality of child care, including efforts to help child care teachers receive additional education, support children with disabilities or special needs, and increase the number of inspectors to ensure that child care settings are safe. In Texas, where barbers and beauticians are required to have 1500 hours of pre-service training compared to only 8 eight hours for the professionals who care for and educate our youngest children, our child care providers need all the training and resources we can muster.
A study that compiled interviews with low-income parents and child care providers demonstrated the impact of these child care cutbacks. One parent who lost her child care assistance said, "...I have two boys in need of child care. If I do not receive child care within the next upcoming weeks, I will have no other choice but to resign from my job this cut will put me back to the welfare line. Please, I've worked hard to stay off welfare. I do not want to return to that road..."
The study also told of a family whose two-year-old was staying with a 92-year-old grandparent because the family could no longer afford a licensed child care program after their losing child care assistance.
In order to restore assistance to families such as these, Congress needs to include a $540 million increase for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) in the 2007 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations bill. This will help make up for ground lost because of inadequate funding in recent years and will provide child care help to at least a portion of the 250,000 children who have lost assistance. These funds will also have a marked impact on the quality of child care and after-school programs.
Tough economic times call for tough choices about limited resources. But if we are truly committed to putting more Americans to work in order to boost the economy, then it is counterproductive to cut the very funding that can support this effort. We can't abandon the parents who want desperately to work toward achieving the American Dream and we shouldn't leave our youngest and most vulnerable citizens out in the cold.
Susan Hoff is President and CEO of the Dallas-based Child Care Group, which provides or manages child care to mostly low-income families.
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