* From Voices for Illinois Children…
As Governor Rauner’s new child care restrictions shut out 9 in 10 new applicants who would have previously qualified for child care assistance, quality child care increasingly is out of reach in Illinois even for middle-class families, a new report finds.
“Without assistance, too many Illinois parents simply cannot afford the child care that enables them to balance work and family,” said Emily Miller, director of policy and advocacy at Voices for Illinois Children.
According to the report by the Washington DC-based Economic Policy Institute, in Illinois:
* A parent working full time at the state minimum wage needs to spend more than half of her income for quality child care for a 4-year-old.
* For an infant, that parent needs to spend nearly $4 out of every $5 earned.
* Annual child care for an infant is now more expensive than full-time, in-state public college tuition.
* In the Chicago area, a family squarely in the middle class with an infant and 4-year-old will spend 29% of its income on child care.
These conclusions are based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ estimate that child care costing more than 10% of a family’s income is not affordable. On top of stagnant hourly pay and the failure of economic growth to trickle down to most Illinoisans, the governor’s cuts are worsening the situation.
Before Governor Rauner’s cuts, a parent with one child could earn up to $2,456 per month (about $14 an hour working 40 hours per week) and still be eligible for child care assistance. Now, a parent re-entering the workforce with one child loses child care assistance if she makes more than $664 per month, only about 20 hours per week at the state’s minimum wage.
“A minimum-wage working man or woman in Illinois simply cannot afford child care without assistance,” Miller said. “When welfare reform was passed in the 1990s, there was bipartisan consensus that families struggling to get by needed assistance to afford the child care essential to parents being able to work. Governor Rauner’s decision has made getting by just about impossible for many hard-working families.”
Illinois families harmed by the Governor Rauner’s child care rules — which were put in place outside of the state budget process — will testify against the cuts at an Illinois Department of Human Services hearing today in Springfield and tomorrow in Chicago.
The full report is here.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 8:38 am:
No MAP or Pell for child care either.
- PublicServant - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 8:42 am:
Notice how she keeps correctly referencing the cuts as Gevernor Rauner’s cuts. Willy is right. Governors own.
- Truthteller - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 8:44 am:
What does Mrs. Rauner have to say about this? As an advocate for children, how can she explain her support for her husband? What does she really care about?
- AC - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 8:44 am:
We’ve tried “welfare to work” but no one has made such a serious effort at driving the working poor toward complete government dependence by taking away their other options. /s (for snark, and for sad)
- Me too - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 8:52 am:
PublicServant, well to be fair, he did seek an emergency rule. It was his proposition. If a budget is passed it will still be on him, but maybe not so squarely as far as media is concerned.
To the post though, this is a travesty. We said you have to work, but we’ll help with child care. Now, unless you make
- Me too - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 8:57 am:
Cont. less than 600 bucks per month you don’t get child care assistance. I know this summer it cost me $145 bucks per week for one child. What is someone who makes $700 supposed to do for rent and utilities?
From a free market standpoint though, maybe this is a plan to raise wages. After all, child care subsidies and food stamps are subsidies to corporations paying less than a living wage. Perhaps as people drop out of the labor market and those left demand higher wages things will improve. Also, with people dropping out of the workforce, unemployment will go down. Hey, it is a win win. /s
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 8:59 am:
Way to go to prevent from folks going on public assistance (until he cuts that too). But then who would there be to malign?
- Sam Weinberg - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 9:10 am:
Maybe the Governor’s folks are using the savings to build a time machine so all these working parents can go back in time and un-have their babies, thus solving the problem entirely. #superstars.
- Robert the Bruce - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 9:17 am:
Note too that these statistics are for one child. Have two children, costs nearly double (most daycares do offer a modest 10% discount for 2nd kid).
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 9:32 am:
I just used “the Google” and found that tuition at ISU is about $10,300 per year. That is just tuition. On campus room & board - coupled with fees and books - more than doubles that.
I understand that childcare is expensive. But who on earth is paying $23,000 a year in childcare for ONE kid?! Because at least with childcare there is no room & board or books or fees. Oh - and you can deduct childcare expenses on your previous years taxes. If you earn under a certain level of income, your multiplier is pretty high and you can recoup a decent chunk of those costs.
For me to send my little guy to a private preschool in Springfield, the cost per year with a free week of vacation is a little under $9,000. That is still less than NIU’s tuition from 2013-2014.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 9:34 am:
TS, they didn’t include fees and room and board. Sheesh.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 9:38 am:
Rich -
Okay, but that is a cost of college. Unless you commute (which still costs gas and car maintenance) or live at home, you have to pay for that stuff. Fees and books don’t pay for themselves. You have to live somewhere and you have to eat. It’s like buying a car…you don’t just buy the car. You have to put gas in it and insure it. Not trying to be argumentative, but the cost to attend college isn’t just the tuition.
- cdog - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 9:46 am:
It’s is important for taxpayers and policy makers to have an understanding of why HIGH QUALITY child care is so expensive. A top-notch learning environment, including highly educated staff, compliance with state child:staff ratios, appeasement and compliance of at least 15 regulatory entities, safe/secure/clean facilities, IS NOT CHEAP. But now, the leadership in Illinois, and their followers, don’t think there is a benefit to society from affecting the young child’s development.
(A degreed child care teacher is rarely paid over $25k per year and rarely receives good benefits mostly because of the ridiculous costs of health insurance.)
There is no room to reduce the costs to parents, and I am sure that there is no room to increase in the near future.
The INSTABILITY in this economic sector, created by Rauner’s MANUFACTURED CRISIS, and his leadership into a thought realm where society’s disenfranchised have no value, can not be denied.
My solution, to continue the trend/tone/spirit of the Raunerites… DEFUND any public monies going into K-12 education.
Hey, if babies are on their own, college students are their own, why are we paying for all the kids in between? /s
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 9:46 am:
Um, do you get that the cost of childcare is strangling the working poor? That, for some, it might actually not be worth it to work? Is this the message of “success and hard work” our leaders want to send to people? Forget the tuition comparison.
- Anon - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:00 am:
> TS, they didn’t include fees and room and board. Sheesh.
Where are the supposed to live? In a ditch?
Those are *real* costs that parents have to deal with, Rich…
- Mama - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:02 am:
cdog, the poor kids do not attend HIGH QUALITY child care, but it is still expensive.
- AlabamaShake - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:04 am:
**Okay, but that is a cost of college. … but the cost to attend college isn’t just the tuition.**
Okay… then you should also add in the additional cost of housing/food/etc for kids when talking about the cost of child care. That work for you?
- cdog - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:11 am:
Mama, there is a high quality system (a type of accreditation)
in place that is overseen by the Gov Office of Early Childhood, DHS, and INCRRA, known as Excelerate.
There is some serious junk in the CCAP program (like relative or non-relative care for any 1st shift needs) but the infrastructure built by taxpayers through the above entities should not be destroyed. It works and should be expanded if we are going to compete in a global environment.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:17 am:
Well, TS and Anon, you completely missed the point of this story, which I thought was a pretty good one. Instead you bring in some goofy argument that they didn’t include room and board as if that makes everything ok because child care doesn’t cost more than tuition AND room and board. Are you freaking kidding me? This story went right over your heads.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:18 am:
Alabama - fair point, but there are also quite a few public programs and tax credits for food and housing.
My point was that it is a bit silly to compare childcare straight up to tuition. No one who attends college JUST pays for tuition. The only fees I have ever paid for childcare are a basic registration and field trip fee - both of which are waived for qualifying families - and I have never paid a red cent for books other than Scholastic orders when either of my boys were going through preschool.
- Team Sleep - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:19 am:
Oh no, Demoralized, I get the point of the post and of what Voices is trying to relay. More saber rattling.
- Dome Gnome - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:37 am:
Let’s get practical, here. Send your little Doogie Howsers straight to University of Illinois before they’re out of diapers. Two birds, one stone.
- Stuck on the 3rd Floor - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:45 am:
Not to pile on TS, but non-traditional students, the ones most likely to be dealing with both of the costs compared here, oftentimes only pay tuition & books.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 11:13 am:
Stephen Colbert refers to this as “truthiness”. It seems correct, and it jabs at our emotions, so it must be accurate.
As long as no one looks too deeply at the selective comparisons, careful wording, or count the additional benefits single parents receive and additional costs of college, we can all grab our pitchforks.
- Wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 11:23 am:
Childcare assistance to get the poor off the dole and on the job was the signature welfare reform victory of the old Republican Party.
It was sold as a small investment that would pay like a slot machine in more wealth for the working poor while reducing dependency and taxpayer expenditures on other social programs.
Not one GOP GA member In Illinois would stand up for it in 2015.
- HangingOn - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 11:24 am:
==in-state public college tuition.==
Going by what it says, just tuition:
Childcare when my daughter was 6 = $7800/yr
Cost of attending ICC (from their website) = $4050/yr tuition and fees
Add $1200 for books and ICC is still cheaper.
- Chicago Cynic - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 11:45 am:
Blame Ken Dunkin. Overruling Rauner’s rules got 70 votes and would have gotten the required 71 had Ken been a human being who gave a rats patootie about his constituents.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 12:28 pm:
And this means what? Nothing. The Gov sees these people as takers. No data presented here will make any difference.
- Anderson Villy - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 12:30 pm:
==I understand that childcare is expensive. But who on earth is paying $23,000 a year in childcare for ONE kid?!==
That’s market rate for a lot of (middle class to wealthy) neighborhoods in Chicago. I pay just a bit less than that. Bare minimum I could find up here for full-time center-based day care for 1 kid was $16,000. You’ve gotta be pretty lucky to find space with a reliable home-based provider.
- crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 12:44 pm:
So, let’s say TeamSleep happens to pay $9k for 7am-5:30pm 5 day a week 51 week/year preschool.
(this is an exceptional deal, but let’s assume it’s magically available for everyone.)
Let’s say TS, though paid at minwage, is lucky enough to work full hours at an office job.
40 x $8.25 less withholding for single person with 1 dependent = $279.37/week
$176.47 = childcare/week
Net $102.90 for 40 hours’ labor. Good luck with food, rent, and transportation!
Give me a BREAK with nitpicking the argument with…college book fees?
- crazybleedingheart - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 12:45 pm:
PS, try getting that magic low price on childcare costs (and a handy, streamlined dropoff/pickup situation) while working 2nd shift.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 1:14 pm:
==More saber rattling.==
So pointing out the extremely high cost of child care is saber rattling. Couldn’t possibly be anything valid to the discussion. Got it.
- drew - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 1:41 pm:
A spokesperson for Governor Rauner responded that while these figures are sobering, the Governor has a comprehensive plan to address the situation by driving up tuition rates at all state universities.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 1:45 pm:
drew wins the day.
lol
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 2:49 pm:
I know I am showing my age, but before me and Mrs. Blue dog dem had puppies, we discussed the cost of raising kids. Kinda wish we would have stopped at two though….
- Soccermom - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 4:27 pm:
Blue Dog, you are aware that sometimes people get sick, or lose their jobs, or break up, or lots of other things. right?
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 4:51 pm:
For those unfortunate souls, I have compassion,understanding and prayers.
- AnonymousOne - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 4:57 pm:
The governor sees everyone as takers. Unless they are in his wine club or whatever else he is in, they are dirt.
- Wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 4:58 pm:
– I have compassion, understanding and prayers.-
Such nice words.
Who are you praying to, by the way? Because The Gospels are chock-fulla quotes from Jesus on the emptiness of words without actions, faith without acts.
- nixit71 - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 5:05 pm:
When the state was balancing budgets with borrowed money over the past decade or so, essentially jeopardizing the ability to pay for these services today, was Voices for Illinois Children voicing their displeasure? Because that would have been the time to say something, back when current expenditures were being paid for with tomorrow’s money.
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 6:32 pm:
My Wordslinger, so judgmental. Many passages in the Good Book about that too. I have found that compassion should be voluntary, not force-fed. It always seems to get better results in my poor and middle class circle of friends.Can’t speak for you, and wouldn’t. For those who have run on some bad luck, I am all for temporary state help. For those who can control their own lives, the system doesn’t seem to be changing lifestyle choices.
- Wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 6:45 pm:
BDD, where do you see you’re being judged? I was just sharing some of the good news, and trying to determine, what, if anything, you meant by the virtuous qualities you ascribe to yourself.
For example, how are you being “forced-fed” to be compassionate? Does that happen a lot as you go about praying and understanding?
What does that even mean?
And lifestyle choices, too. Wnat does that mean in this context? The choice of seekig assistance for safe childcare to get off welfare and go to work?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 7:04 pm:
You are wasting your time bdd. Passing judgment and ridiculing is how wordslinger passes the time here. He also has a thin skin, so you can expect one or more replies in 30 minutes or less. He also likes changing the subject by asking questions and preaching in between. Let it go bdd.
- cdog - Tuesday, Oct 6, 15 @ 10:24 pm:
bdd,
Someday, not so long from now, Americans will realize that redistribution is the only way for capitalism to survive.
A bicycle that goes too slow falls over. Providing child care for those unable to break into the middle class because of youth, injury, genetics, environment, is one of the best ways for the inertia of capitalism to stay in motion. The opposite is a fail, or maybe a better known as a crash. Look it up.
- Nightowl - Wednesday, Oct 7, 15 @ 3:54 am:
A Rauner spokesperson, noting that college students could work and help pay for college, said the Governor was coming up with a plan to get rid of restrictions on child labor as a new initiative within his Turnaround Agenda.
- Nightowl - Wednesday, Oct 7, 15 @ 3:55 am:
To blue dog’s point: a lot of those who would cut these services and tell people to figure out what kids cost before having them are the same ones who would excoriate a woman for having an abortion for “financial reasons” and want to take away her right to do so. Women really can’t win in any scenario you guys dream up. Because we should be clear, the CCAP is a program that helps a lot of WOMEN to work and support their kids.
- Demoralized - Wednesday, Oct 7, 15 @ 7:52 am:
Hey BDD. You do know that this program is there so people CAN go to work don’t you? And that little “think about having kids” stuff you put out? It’s a nice talking point. And if they do have kids? Your solution? Wash your hands of them. How pathetic. If that’s compassion then I’d hate to see you without compassion.
- cdog - Wednesday, Oct 7, 15 @ 8:40 am:
This is another GOP disconnect between platform and action.
You cannot be pro-life and against the CCAP program.
Not everyone comes from the perfect family or have the perfect set of genetics, skills, talents, and abilities. Some people are limited and will always work lower paying jobs because of a “disability” or disadvantage of some type.
The GOP, and you if you follow their leadership, are telling these people that they and their children are worthless.