Commentary; Posted: 12/14/05
Families hurt by cuts in child care help
By Don Heinzman
While the news of a surplus in the stateís treasure chest is good, itís becoming clear that victims on the bottom of the income chain are suffering because of cutbacks that made the surplus possible.
One group feeling the pain is parents who lost child care support, making it impossible to pay for child care and forcing them to go on welfare.
Ann Kaner-Roth, executive director of Child Care WORKS, a Minnesota-based nonprofit statewide child-care advocacy coalition, writes that since 2003, Minnesota has cut more than $200 million in child-care support. As a result, she writes, an estimated 10,000 children of low-income families no longer are served by Minnesota Child Care Assistance programs.
One such family in Anoka County with three children and both parents working lost their support because of insufficient state funds. As a result the family had to pay $650 a week for care at a New Horizons Center, compared to her subsidized co-payment of $171 per month.
She told StarTribune columnist Lori Sturdevant, she had no choice but to quit her job, take care of her kids at home and go on welfare.
A child care provider in Wadena said one family with two children saw its co-pay go up from $96 to $596. The mother also quit her job because she couldnít afford child care.
In Anoka County, the cutback from $4,950,000 in 2003 to $3,600,000 in 2004 has affected ability of families to pay for child care. Sixty families have been cut from the program on the basis of last on, first off.
Dakota County reports that in 2003, 150 families were cut from the program due to the stateís cutback; some were added back later. After the big cut in 2003, the number of families on the program dropped from 812 in 2003 to 596 in July of 2005. The stateís allocation dropped from $7,644,000 in 2003 to $5,627,000 in 2005.
More family members are quitting their jobs and going on welfare because they canít pay for child care. One study in Hennepin County showed that 33 percent who reapplied for welfare said child care issues were the main reason.
More quality day care businesses are cutting back on service or going out of business because parents no longer can afford the care.
All of this comes as the state boasts about a surplus, and at a time when research shows how important quality early childhood and care program is to the development of the child.
A study by Art Rolnick and Rob Grunewald of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis says children in quality child care programs are less likely to need special education, be involved with the juvenile and adult court systems and need welfare benefits.
Kaner-Roth says a study shows that Minnesota has dropped from 4th to 40th in providing access to quality child care.
The Minnesota Legislature was faced with having to make cutbacks when it faced a $4 billion deficit in 2003. Faced with so many, including the governor having taken the no-tax pledge, legislators cut deeply into human services.
It is ironic that the Republicans who felt they could cut child care subsidies to balance the budget have driven working families into welfare.
Minnesotans would agree itís better to have working, productive families providing excellent child care even if it means using part of the new surplus to do it.
Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605