STATE OF THE STATE

Child care subsidies are
beginning to make political sense

by Jennifer Davis

Policy-makers now believe the success of welfare reform depends on the availability of affordable child care.

Who would think a politician could know firsthand the difficulties of finding child care? But, then, Glenn Poshard was not always a congressman running for governor. He says he, too, was once young and poor. In those days, he and his wife were both working and going to school full-time. And sometimes their son, 2-year-old Dennis, had to be shuffled from sitter to sitter. "We were like a lot of people struggling to meet work obligations and child- care obligations," the Marion Democrat recalls. "Luckily we were able to fulfill those needs, but not in a way we felt really good about."

That's partly why, Poshard says, he believes Illinois needs more and better options for parents seeking child care, especially parents trying to move from welfare to work.

And George Ryan agrees. Ryan, who is currently secretary of state, is the Republican candidate for governor.

Indeed, federal, state and local policy-makers across the country have come to the same realization: Child care is key to making welfare reform work. President Bill Clinton has proposed a $21.7 billion, five-year child care plan, but the states aren't waiting. They have already begun to pump more money into child care subsidies. In fact, the American Public Welfare Association, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research and advocacy group, says at least 25 states plan to devote more money to such programs.

Last year, Illinois added $100 million in state funds for child care, $30 million more than Gov. Jim Edgar requested. Though the additional dollars wiped out a state subsidy waiting list of some 30,000 children, they haven't eliminated the critical shortage of child care options. Consider the recent story on the front page of the Chicago Tribune. Naperville parents working the night shift felt forced to leave their sons — a 2-year-old and a 1 -year-old — alone all night because they couldn't find anyone to watch them. As the father told the reporter, "It wasn't like we just decided, 'Hey, here's an option; let's leave the kids home alone.' Sometimes you compromise, and think it's just for a week. Then it's two weeks. And the next thing you know, it's out of hand."

The difficulty of finding child care, let alone quality child care, at night and on the weekends is an issue welfare recipients will struggle with as they try to move from welfare rolls to payrolls. By 2002, half of all Illinois' welfare recipients must be working. The Day Care Action Council of Illinois estimates at least 30,000 new child care spaces will be needed to meet the demand. And much of that demand will come from parents holding down low-paying jobs.

Poshard, whose congressional district includes areas where affordable child care is needed, wants to reward businesses that train child care workers, boost the dependent care tax credit, expand after-school and Head Start- type programs and tighten standards for child care workers and child care centers. "We have an economy now that allows you to put several million into these programs."

As governor, Ryan also would focus on child care initiatives, though he's not ready to announce a plan. "With six children and 13 grandchildren, he knows firsthand the problems parents face," says Ryan spokesman Dave Urbanek. "This is something he'll address later in the campaign. We just don't want to step on our own news right now."

Meanwhile, Illinois lawmakers are moving on the issue. One House bill, which passed unanimously and was awaiting Senate action at presstime, sets aside state dollars for child care. It would limit parents' co-payments for subsidized care to no more than 10 percent of the family's income, at a cost of about $1.8 million more a year. (Officials increased the co-payments last year.) A second House bill, pending in the Senate at presstime, would help parents until their income exceeds 60 percent of the state's median income, or $26,230 for a family of three.

Illinois and other states are acting to meet child care needs at a time when the economy is generally good and welfare rolls are dropping dramatically. Within this context, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, child care is widely viewed as a logical place to invest money that had been set aside for welfare.

It's not a bad campaign issue either.

What Poshard calls a top priority — indeed a "moral imperative" — also "makes pragmatic sense for taxpayers. We can't force people to work and then make it impossible for them. Child care figures prominently in our success."

6 / May 1998 Illinois Issues