County Daycare Cuts — Where’s The Accountability?
Ever notice how, with the Brooks administration, everything’s someone else’s fault? “Unfunded” mandates? The state’s fault. Funded mandates? The state’s fault:
Some working families will likely lose their subsidized daycare under cost-cutting measures just announced by Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.
Brooks says the changes have to be made to offset state funding cuts. She’s making them just days after Governor Paterson said he’ll have to cut the state budget to close a six-point-four billion dollar deficit.
The county uses state funding to subsidize daycare for working low-income families who earn up to 165 percent of the poverty level. Now the county will cut that eligibility back to 125 percent of poverty.
Even big, bad former County Exec Jack Doyle didn’t push poor people under the bus so hard, according to the County Leg Dem Caucus (no link yet):
The change will have the effect of pushing many Monroe County families further into poverty by eliminating their ability to provide safe, quality child care so they can earn a living wage and raise their family. This change is the most severe in recent memory, even steeper than former County Executive Jack Doyle’s cut down to 140% in 2002.
No wonder the Brooks administration tried to hide this in a “Friday news dump”. And that’s why we’re freshening it up bright and early Monday Morning. When people play politics on this kind of stuff, these at-risk kids are the first to get pushed out of the boat, with no consideration for long-term consequences:
Legislator Carrie Andrews (D-Rochester) said, “Today’s announcement is a slap in the face to the hard working families in our county that struggle to put food on the table while keeping their children safe. I strongly implore the Executive to reconsider this decision due to the long-term social and fiscal consequences it will reap to taxpayers. Numerous studies have proven the long-term cost reductions to criminal justice, education and health care expenditures when parents have access to safe, affordable child care. Simply put, this is the wrong direction for our county.”
As RocBlogger said last week on a different topic: “Maggie Brooks: It’s all about the kids…NOT!“
Once again these county cutbacks strike at the heart of our most vulnerable citizens - children.
The program offered assistance to single parents making less than $17,500 annually. With the new cutbacks, working families would have to earn less than $23,100 to qualify for child care help. Working families with relatively low incomes may be forced to turn to welfare if they can not afford the full cost of child care.