Child care groups fear closure
Funding shortfall in current fiscal year could disrupt system
POLITICS | Alan Kozeluh
More than 1,200 people signed up last week to testify in support of legislation to fund an important state child care program, expressing opposition to deep cuts proposed by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
The House Human Services Committee met March 19 to consider additional funding for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) through the end of the current fiscal year. The program is projected to run out of money before the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, prompting fears that the state’s child care system could collapse.
The Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) helps pay for the child care expenses of roughly 180,800 children per month on average through CCAP. The program faces a budget hole of nearly $300 million for the current fiscal year.
Although the committee hearing was only meant to address funding CCAP for the rest of Fiscal Year 2015, many child care proponents used the occasion to voice their concerns about the proposed 2016 budget, which contains drastic cuts in several areas of state spending. House Bill 4194, which would authorize additional funding for child care for the current fiscal year, received 1,225 witness slips in support, a large number for any bill.
Penny Driver, who runs Teddy Bear Christian Child Development Center in Riverton, said she is concerned about the part of Rauner’s proposal which would discontinue child care funding once children reach school age.
“How can those kids possibly be left to stay at home alone by themselves?” Driver asked. “They can’t. Their parents would have to quit their jobs.”
Liz Grady, one of Driver’s employees, spoke at the hearing about her four children and their child care needs.
“My job doesn’t go around school time,” Grady said. “I’m 8 to 5:30, Monday through Friday.”
Misty Goin, whose son attends Teddy Bear, doesn’t use CCAP, but she still worries that Driver could go out of business if the program is cut.
“We moved to Riverton for the school district, so it’s very important that I have a day care in Riverton, that he can get off the bus and come here and be provided for,” Goin said.
Driver said 85 percent of the children she serves use CCAP, and nearly half are school-aged children. She says if those kids lose their CCAP funding, she would indeed go out of business.
“These children, these families – where will they go?” Driver said, referring to the prospect of her business closing. “If they don’t do something quickly with this budget, these children will not have care.”
Committee chairman Greg Harris, D-Chicago, expressed concern about an executive order Rauner signed earlier this year limiting “nonessential” spending for 2015. Harris asked Greg Bassi, acting secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, about the fate of autism, homelessness and after-school programs. Bassi said it is possible some of those programs will be cut as part of the governor’s executive order, but he stressed that DHS will be in a better position to maintain some of those services for 2015 if a $399 million supplemental appropriation is approved.
“Then you would say you need more revenue in order to do your job?” Harris asked.
“We need that supplemental (funding),” Bassi answered, adding that Rauner is working with the legislature to pass the bill.
Driver said if the CCAP program doesn’t get funding before the Illinois General Assembly goes on spring break at the end of March, child care facilities might have to close their doors.
“This situation needs to be resolved and we need our governor and our legislature to do that,” Driver said. “And that’s what we’ve been asking them to do since the first of the year.”
