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Parents who can't afford child care
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lianekay
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I don't know if forum readers will find this useful or not as I suspect most of you don't fall into this category, but in the event that you know someone in the District who simply can't afford child care or anyone interested in helping out low-income parents, the following notice might be useful. I post on behalf of Ben Parisi, Empower DC's Child Care For All Campaign Organizer. You might also check out the video we put together of Vince Gray talking about child care subsidies at the Ward 8 town hall meeting. Join Us Next Tuesday and Tell Vince Gray: Don't Balance the Budget on the Backs of DC's Children and Low-income Working Families! Public Hearing on the Budget Tuesday, November 30, 2010 9:30 AM Wilson Building, Rm 500 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Hello Progressives, Vince Gray announced that there is a HUGE deficit in this fiscal year's budget. That means our elected officials are going to be making some BIG CUTS! Child Care has already seen TOO MANY cuts - almost $30 MILLION in the past five years. WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH! More cuts to the Child Care Subsidy Program mean that children go without quality early care and education, parents have to leave their jobs or put job searches on hold, child care teachers lose their jobs, and the small child care businesses around our city are forced to close their doors. Vince Gray said it best himself when he said last week that a tough budget helps us set our priorities. Join us next week to remind Vince Gray and the rest of our City Council that Child Care Subsidies should be a PRIORITY! Cutting these subsidies during a recession makes the situation worse for thousands of DC families, not better. If you are interested in testifying at the hearing, attending in support or getting more information, please call Ben at (202) 234-9119 or respond to this email by Monday, Nov 29. We need your support! If you can't attend in person, please call Vince Gray at (202) 724-8032 or email him at vgray@dccouncil.us to let him know you're watching how he acts on child care! If you would like any assistance or more information for your testimony or to contact Vince Gray, please do not hesitate to contact me! Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you! Ben Parisi Organizer, Child Care for All Campaign Empower DC ben@empowerdc.org office (202) 234-9119 cell (202) 525-6236 fax (202) 234-6655 1419 V Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 www.empowerdc.org |
Anonymous
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I agree that it is a huge issue. I am a social worker in DC and see this all of the time. Thanks!
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Anonymous
| Its actually the middle income families who have the bigger issues - the lower income can get child care subsidies or go to sliding fee day cares - the middle class are in a bind as child care for one with deductions/taxes can be as much as one parents take home so you can't afford to work nor can you afford to stay home. |
Anonymous
| Well, that's the point. If the child care subsidies program isn't funded then the lower income parents aren't getting the child care vouchers that they need or they're getting vouchers that don't cover the cost. I'm not saying the middle income families aren't screwed over by this issue as well, but I just don't know if it's actually a bigger issue. Being a true progressive, I think the state would do well to work to help not only poor folks with their child care needs, but also the folks on the verge of becoming poor folks, a number fast increasing in the current economic climate. But if you want to hear from someone who really deals with this issue on a regular basis, consider checking out this post - http://www.grassrootsmediaproject.org/2010/10/ben-parisi-is-pissed/ He makes a lot of good points. -Liane |
Anonymous
| PP social worker here. Not just middle income. I have a mom that is making just above minimum wage (not middle class in DC) and had to quit her job b/c even after her childcare subsidy, she still had to pay $800 month for her twins childcare. She couldn't afford to pay $800 in childcare, plus the rent (even though she was sharing a place), plus food, etc. |
lianekay
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| Hello PP Social Worker, Is there any way we can get that mom to testify at DC's budget hearing on Tuesday morning? It's starts at 9:30 in the Wilson Building. |
Anonymous
| SWer here - I can try to call mom on Monday and ask her. |
Anonymous
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I was the poster about the middle class - I WAS a social worker who lost my job over a day care issue when we adopted my son. You missed my point entirely. I had a good income by the way - no way I could find day care for my infant at $800 a month - try $375 (very low end) to $450 a week (and that depends on if you count it as a 4 or 5 week month) - so by the time you take out taxes, union dues, and all that other stuff, I would have not brought much home but planned to go back to work to maintain my job. Now I can't afford to go back to work as the job offers I am getting were 1/2 the amount I was making and child care & gas to get to work alone are more than my take home vs. what I get on unemployment.
If I was lower income/not married I would qualify for the day care voucher, food stamps, WIC and other benefits (formula alone costs me $300+ a month) . The middle class need affordable, quality child care just as much as low income - the lower class have access to benefits - especially if they have social worker, such as what I used to do for a living who knew how to advocate and work within systems. The difference too with the middle class is many of us are getting hit hard with taxes, health insurance and other things as there are no benefits, tax breaks or other help for us. People only want to focus on the "poor" as they are deemed the "worthy" to help, but those of us who can't afford to work are the ones who need the help just as much, if not more as at least they have options like vouchers.. no such luck for someone like us. |
lianekay
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To the Anonymous Poster who used to be a social worker who posted about the middle class -
Yes, it's true low-income people have access to benefits. Yet, I keep hearing how child care vouchers are not enough to pay for a child care provider near where the jobs are. So if you live in Ward 7 or 8 and work or want to work on the other side of the river where jobs are more plentiful, you can take your kid(s) across the river and drop them off near where you work IF you can find someone who will not only accept your voucher, but however much your voucher is willing to pay. Not easy. So, you try and find a center in Ward 7 or 8 and low and behold they're full because so many folks are having the same issue and/or they've closed down because they were taking the little bit of money that people's vouchers were worth and they finally couldn't make ends meet. Things are worse over here, I live in Ward 7, since Fenty closed down the Department of Recreation Early Childhood programs over here. It's beyond me why he closed those down and not the programs on the other side of the river. Those programs were desperately needed over here. Okay, I feel I'm starting to rant. My point is that I am in fact sympathetic with your position. As I said previously, as a progressive, I think the District should be helping not just the poor, the lowest income parents with this issue. I think if you want to work, to earn money that you will pay taxes on, if you want to go to school so you can get a better job and pay taxes, then the District would do well to make sure that EVERYBODY who wants/needs child care, quality child care, can get it. If DC were as lefty/progressive as the congress and perhaps the rest of the country seems to think we are, then we'd do that. But we aren't and we don't. How do we get there? I'm sorry to say it, but I think we have to provide for the neediest first. If we could get our elected officials to recognize the economic benefits that the city would receive by providing affordable child care to poor folk, then they're more likely to recognize that we'd get even more economic benefits if affordable child care were available to middle income folks like you as well. A rising tide lifts all boats. |
lianekay
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| To the social worker, Thanks for calling the Mom you know about testifying. Give her Ben Parisi's number if she wants some help writing her testimony. He's the Child Care For All Campaign organizer for Empower DC. His number and email are at the bottom of the first post of this thread. Thanks again. |
Anonymous
I hope you are not advocating for any of the families I worked with as you completely missed the point and don't get who social workers are. I have done my time in DC & SE in my younger days. I left as they don't treat their workers well. Affordable and quality child care is something everyone deserves. I'd love to go back to work, but sadly I am one of those that cannot afford to work - I have worked since I was 14, paid plenty in taxes and still paying taxes via unemployment. Even in other areas, its almost impossible to get child care - I had a horrible time getting it for my newborn as he was a surprise and we didn't have time to put him on the wait-lists like most parents - there are no open newborn spots in day care centers. So, voucher or no voucher, even paying cash - $400 a week, there are no spots available! My son has been on wait lists now for 14 months and there are no spots available. There are bigger issues in child care than what you are focusing on and posting about and you need to study what is being done in other countries, who provide everyone with safe & affordable child care! Please educate yourself vs. ranting - it will get you a lot further on all the child care issues, including offering suggestions to good solutions that are happening both in the US in other communities (including employer child care) and other countries/cultures. And, by the way, not everyone wants their education and some good my master's degree in social work did me...I don't need to go back for my education - I have one and I can't afford to work. |
lianekay
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Anonymous,
I keep thinking we're on the same side. I say, "the District would do well to make sure that EVERYBODY who wants/needs child care, quality child care, can get it." You say, "Affordable and quality child care is something everyone deserves." I say, "If we could get our elected officials to recognize the economic benefits that the city would receive by providing affordable child care to poor folk, then they're more likely to recognize that we'd get even more economic benefits if affordable child care were available to middle income folks like you as well." So we both want affordable child care for all, and still you're saying we disagree. What do we disagree on exactly? I'm sincerely confused. Let me try and be more specific and not rant, as you suggest. I'm advocating that the District of Columbia fully fund the child care subsidy program. I'm not sure how that would be a bad thing for any of the families with whom you used to work. No doubt, there are bigger issues in child care than what I'm focusing on, but this relatively small issue of how the District spends its money is something I believe all of residents of the Districts should have a say in. I'm suggesting that by testifying at the council hearing we could have a say. I honestly didn't mean to offend you. I suspect it has to do with the following, "I think if you want to work, to earn money that you will pay taxes on, if you want to go to school so you can get a better job and pay taxes, then the District would do well to make sure that EVERYBODY who wants/needs child care, quality child care, can get it." When I typed that up during my little rant, I did not mean to imply you specifically. I have a friend who was going to college and lost her financial aid because the child care voucher she was counting on did not pay enough to cover her child care needs. I was talking about her, not you. So maybe you don't need to go back to school and get more education, but my friend really kinda does and the city would be better off if it supported her efforts because she'd eventually be putting more into the tax pool than she is now. Anyway, I hope I'm clearer. |
Anonymous
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I'm sure your intentions are all good, but there are better ways of advocating than just rants. Using facts, figures, showing what works in other cities and area that is working for families and expanding programs to beyond just to those you deem worthy are all necessary evils. Many families I worked with would deliberately not take higher paying jobs because they had to stay on the voucher. A $.25 pay increase means losing their vouchers....because that put them in a higher income category, which then you deem "not as worthy" of help. Other countries provide universal quality child care to all families who need it as well as health care. They provide case management and in home educational programs to all new moms to ensure their children are getting what they need - not targeting just the "poor" but everyone as we all can benefit from parenting and that advice in the early (as well as later years) in our children's lives for those of us open to it.
Financial aid isn't supposed to be an income - most people I know who have children work and go to school and that is how they cover the difference with the child care, if necessary. As a parent, sometimes you don't have the luxury to make the choice to go to school full-time and not work. My husband worked 2 jobs and went to school with his previous wife and made it work. You do what you have to do to survive and feed your family! When you advocate, please relook at how you are advocating. Again, you intentions are good, but no, you are not clearer and being a line worker for many years, there are many benefits for the "poor" its the folks just over that income line who make too much to qualify for benefits but too little to survive are the ones who really need the help. But, generally they are the unseen as they are too busy just trying to survive and the few times they have gone to social services, generally they get turned down. |
lianekay
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Anonymous,
I'm just curious. Are you for or against fully funding the subsidized child care program in the District of Columbia? |
Anonymous
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Anonymous,
I agree with you. I'm a mother of 2 and a wife. I have a family of 4 and we are not considered "poor". Though I would love to go back to school full time and work at the same time I can't do either. We don't get the help the "poor" do because we make a little over the poverty level, but yet we still struggle to try and make ends meet. Is hard to find an affordable daycare for my children and be able to put myself back in school or at least work. I tried working full time, but even then everything I made was put into daycare for the kids and I wasn't bringing anything home. Therefore, I'm left with no choices but to stay home with the kids and take care of them. Middle class people also deserve some help, not just the poor. |