Future of Day Care Program in Jeopardy


Carmen MaciasWhen incoming Gov. Bruce Rauner takes office Jan. 12, 2015, he will inherit a state budget with an estimated $2 billion hole. The budget is supposed to run until the end of June, but some state agencies are already running out of money only halfway through the fiscal year.

One program that provides care to 150,000 of the state's most vulnerable children could be completely depleted of funds within the next month.

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On a given day, Carmen Macias and her staff work from 5:00 am until 10:00 pm to care for children under 12 from families that can't afford to pay for child care.

“We child care providers are an asset for our community because we give the opportunity…there’s many of us…young families who are just starting in the workplace, we give them a chance to go out and work and we're going to take care of their children,” she said.

Macias is one of 28,000 Illinois providers contracted by the state Department of Human Services' Child Care Assistance Program to serve 150,000 low-income children. She says her day care is more than a place to drop off children; it is a place for learning.

“We teach them everyday basic things. Our children, when they go to pre-K and kindergarten, they go right in,” she said.

But, the program is in jeopardy for the remainder of this fiscal year which runs till June 30. That's because state lawmakers passed a budget last spring they knew was out of whack. It spent money assuming that the state income tax would remain at 5 percent, but it is set to roll back to 3.75 percent on Jan. 1, 2015, costing billions in revenue.

Lawmakers at the time had hoped to avoid cuts and fix the revenue shortfall in November.

“There will be members of the legislature that will say that after the election we should come back and try and raise more revenue,” said House Speaker Mike Madigan.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be an extension of the tax at 5 percent. It could be lower or it could be other loopholes that we could close but these are the things that we are going to have to deal with,” said Senate President John Cullerton. “Unfortunately, it’s going to be done after the election. We wanted to do it before the election to be honest with people. So I’m honestly telling people right now we are going to have a problem halfway through this fiscal year.

But the fall veto session came and went with lawmakers instead punting the problem until incoming Gov. Bruce Rauner takes over.

April VerrettApril Verrett is Vice President of SEIU Healthcare, the union that represents the child care workers. She says she was informed by DHS that funding would likely run out by next month, putting the families of those 150,000 kids at risk of losing their day care.

“The General Assembly got out of town last June without providing enough of a budget to get us all the way through the fiscal year,” said Verrett. “Unfortunately, in my view, the General Assembly played politics with the lives of everyday working people.”

The Department of Human Services says lawmakers shorted funding for the program by nearly $200 million, but that: "The legislature took no action to shrink DHS' responsibility for providing this critical work support for low-income working families.”

Sessy Nyman is with the nonprofit Illinois Action for Children. She says the consequences of the cuts are going to be devastating.

“It means that parents can't go to work. It’s very basic. It means that people who have public assistance who are trying to find work, who are in job training programs, they can't participate in those programs,” said Nyman. “Folks who are going to community colleges to get their nurse practitioner degree, or whatever it might be, probably can't show up to school next semester because their child care has been taken away from them.”

Rauner refused to say how he would address the funding shortfall for the Childcare Assistance Program, but in a statement said:

“Unfortunately, the issues at the Department of Human Services reflect a larger problem throughout state government. Gov. Quinn signed a budget he knew was unbalanced and refused to have his agencies manage their budgets appropriately. All told, Gov. Quinn used $1.5 billion in budget gimmicks, and, despite that, state agencies say they are still facing a $760 million hole."

Macias says she will have to ask parents to pay for a larger portion of care if her day care is to stay open.

“You’re going to keep on going to your job, but you're going to pay me something, so I'll keep on running the business,” she said. “Your kids will be in a safe place. And when the money comes, when there's more good news, we'll see if I need to give you something or where we are.”

Currently, families at 185 percent of the federal poverty level qualify for the child care service. But beyond the short-term funding crisis is an uncertain long-term fiscal outlook, and the very real possibility that those standards are going to have to change if the program is to stay around.

A prospect that SEIU and Illinois Action for Children say they will lobby against.

“Folks who make minimum wage, or slightly over minimum wage, who are working one and two and three and four jobs trying to make ends meet, they can't afford to pay more,” said Verrett. “And this program is specifically for folks who are working or going to school trying to make a better life for themselves and for their children.”

Macias says she also worries about the emotional cost of turning away kids she's cared for since birth, and the possibility she might lose her business and livelihood unless the state finds a funding fix.

“These kids call me mom, so it’s going to be very hard for me to turn them away; to say, ‘oh, you know what? I’m sorry but I’m not going to be able to take care of a child anymore,’” said Macias.

Currently, some parents pay as little as $2 a month for the state-funded child care service, but others pay more based on income level.

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