Aid Drops When Most Needed

A recent New York Times story (December 13, 2011) carried this headline: "Aid for Child Care Drops When It Is Needed Most."  Here are some excerpts from the article...

"With states under pressure to cut their budgets and federal stimulus money gone, low-income working parents are facing a paradox.  Just when they have to work longer hours to make ends meet, they are losing access to the thing they need most to stay on the job: a government subsidy that helps pay for child care.  The subsidy, a mix of federal and state funds that reimburses child care providers on behalf of families, is critical to the lives of poor women.  But it has been eaten away over the years by inflation and growing need and recently by state budget cuts, leaving parents struggling to find other arrangements to stay employed...
   
 "At least two states, Arizona and Utah, are no longer appropriating state general funds for child care at all.  According to a recent report by the law center, families in 37 states were worse off this year than last year as waiting lists grew, co-payments rose, eligibility tightened, and reimbursement rates for providers stagnated...

"The nonprofit Child Care Resource Center, which determines eligibility for the subsidy for thousands of families in northern Los Angeles County, said it had noted a 13 percent decline in licensed child care centers since June 2010 as budget cuts reduced the numbers of families on the subsidy.  The reduction is prompting advocates for poor women to question whether the implied social contract that emerged during the federal welfare overhaul in the 1990s — that women go to work in exchange for help with child care — is fraying...

"For children in families waiting for the subsidy, life becomes a kaleidoscope of caretakers.  Women interviewed for this article said they left their children with grandparents, neighbors, cousins, siblings, and colleagues at a nail salon.  Such ad hoc arrangements hinder early-childhood development, state administrators say, just as states are trying to make it a priority...

"Another hurdle has been the rates at which the centers are reimbursed.  A [National Women's Law Center] report found that only three states reimburse at federally recommended levels, down from 22 in the beginning of the decade, and some providers say they can no longer afford to take families on subsidies."

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