Circling back on the child care program
Wednesday, Jan 20, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* As you’ll recall, the House came one vote short of passing a bill to overturn Gov. Bruce Rauner’s huge child care program cuts. The lone Democrat who didn’t vote for the bill, Rep. Ken Dunkin, was involved in the negotiations to craft an alternate plan. The SJ-R looks at how that compromise is going so far…
Enrollment dropped to an average of 133,374 children in the period from July through December 2015, compared with the average total of 181,563 children in the program during the same period one year earlier, according to Illinois Department of Human Services spokeswoman Marianne Manko.
That’s a reduction of about 48,200 children, or more than one-fourth of the previous eligibility level.
Even though eligibility guidelines have been mostly restored, there’s still a gap between 162 percent of FPL and 185 percent, and the higher co-payments instituted by Rauner remain, according to Maria Whelan, president and CEO of Chicago-based Illinois Action for Children.
The current income guideline, by itself, keeps 10,000 children out of the program who normally would be admitted under the original income ceiling of 185 percent of FPL, she said.
Another 5,000 children are being denied entry because of a restriction that Rauner opted not to lift, involving children whose parents are in school but not employed, Whelan said.
That still leaves more than 32,000 children who, in theory, could be enrolled in the program but aren’t. […]
The 24,498 home-based providers who received state subsidies in August had dwindled to 19,975 by October — a drop of more than 4,500 or 18 percent, according to Service Employees International Union’s health-care division in Illinois.
Rauner promised to raise the Federal Poverty Limit eligibility to where it was before (185 percent) once we have a state budget.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:35 pm:
===Rauner promised to raise the Federal Poverty Limit eligibility to where it was before (185 percent) once we have a state budget.===
If this wasn’t so contemptible, it’d be funny. Once we have a state budget. That’s a good one Bruce. I’m sure the Frat Boys loved that zinger.
Grass bowls.
- 360 Degree TurnAround - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:37 pm:
Come on, they are just kids. This will be just the encouragement they need to finally get a job. /s Get working kids, Master Rauner and his friends need another million in their stock portfolio.
- Honeybear - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:41 pm:
The sad thing is that this program was designed by Republicans as “Welfare to Work” strategy. It is incredibly affective at accomplishing that goal. I hate the criminalization of poverty.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:42 pm:
Great job by the SJR. A deep dig, filled with data.
What a refreshing change from the usual hackneyed “Bruce and Mike” or “Bruce and Rahm are fighting” nonsense.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:43 pm:
===That’s a reduction of about 48,200 children, or more than one-fourth of the previous eligibility level.===
Hmm…
===The current income guideline, by itself, keeps 10,000 children out of the program who normally would be admitted under the original income===
“Bruce has no social agenda.” - Diana Rauner.
The President of Ounce of Prevevtion vouched for a man holding kids… hostage… to no Social Agenda.
“Bruce has no social agenda.” - Diana Rauner…
…
“@RonSandack: I’m frustrated 2, but taking steps towards reforming IL more important than short term budget stalemate.”
That’s Rep. Ron Sandack, who today touted CPS Bankruptcy.
Bruce Rauner, according to Ron Sandack, says this is a choice, and Diana Rauner reassured us there’s no Social Agenda.
Come March, come November…
Vote. Accordingly.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:45 pm:
===The sad thing is that this program was designed by Republicans as “Welfare to Work” strategy. It is incredibly affective at accomplishing that goal. I hate the criminalization of poverty.===
Well done, - Honeybear -.
This is a Raunerite choice, changing GOP policy.
- Albany Park Patriot - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:57 pm:
Rauner’s kids got dressage horses. Poor kids get…
- Linus - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 2:58 pm:
ck, quoted in the story:
== “At this time, Illinois has more generous eligibility levels than all but one of our neighboring states.”
She said that state is Wisconsin. ==
Isn’t the Rauner administration turning its own, usual argument on its head?
Usually, we hear from them that we’re way behind neighboring states when it comes to increasing employment, and it’s just terrible.
Now, we hear that we’re doing *better* than most of our neighbors in one measure of helping workers to work and employers to employ them — and it’s just terrible.
- @MisterJayEm - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 3:12 pm:
Scene: The deck of the S.S. Illinois.
Passengers: We’re headed straight for an iceberg! Tell the captain to change course!
1st Mate: Calm down. The captain knows what he’s doing — you just need to give his plan time to work.
Passengers: But the ship is going to crash into an iceberg and sink!
1st Mate: Well, what’s your plan?
Passengers: What?!?
1st Mate: You say you don’t like what the captain’s doing, but what’s your plan?
Passengers: Change course!!!
1st Mate: You call that a plan? It doesn’t have any details. What should our speed be? How many knots? And on what heading? Should we turn starboard or port?
Passengers: What?!?
1st Mate: How can you presume to criticize our brave and brilliant captain’s course when you don’t even have a proper plan of your own?
Passengers: …
Spoiler 1: The ship sinks.
Spoiler 2: The captain was in a lifeboat the whole time.
Spoiler 3: The captain’s lifeboat is a yacht.
– MrJM
- Linus - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 3:20 pm:
MrJM at 3:12, a strong contender for Best Comment of the Year. And it’s only January.
- Earnest - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 3:22 pm:
And this population was chosen by our governor in order to advance his agenda. He could have applied pressure in so many other ways, and likely with much more effectiveness, and yet he chose the poor and disabled. Regardless of one’s opinion of his agenda, the tactics he’s using are reprehensible.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 3:23 pm:
@MisterJayEm- Spit take, whew! Priceless.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 3:25 pm:
The Twitter of - @MisterJayEm - is as priceless as this “scene”.
Do yourself a solid, check it out.
Flat out funny.
- Precinct Captain - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 3:34 pm:
==Rauner promised to raise the Federal Poverty Limit eligibility to where it was before (185 percent) once we have a state budget.==
That’s a lot of words for never.
- Earnest - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 4:19 pm:
>Rauner promised to raise the Federal Poverty Limit eligibility to where it was before (185 percent) once we have a state budget.
Little did we realize, the only negotiation skills Bruce Rauner picked up in his business experience were: do it my way or face destruction.
He’s a bright man and a hard worker–he can give us a better job performance than this.
- @MisterJayEm - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 4:27 pm:
“That still leaves more than 32,000 children who, in theory, could be enrolled in the program but aren’t.”
THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND CHILDREN.
The magnitude of so many children cut from a child care program is kinda hard to wrap your head around, isn’t it? Sure, we all know that 32,000 kids is lot of people cut from child care, but it’s something more than that. It isn’t just a mass of 32,000 kicked to the curb. It’s a child denied plus another child denied plus another child denied plus another child denied plus another child denied… thirty-two thousand times.
It’s blindingly obvious but sometimes we forget — 32,000 children is a cumulative toll of repeatedly adding one child to another. Or rather subtracting those children. Subtracting them from the things we care about. Or at least, from things we care about enough to pay for.
“Sorry, kids. Maybe we’ll care once we have a state budget. Maybe.”
THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND CHILDREN.
There’s a psychological phenomenon called “semantic saturation” in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener or even for the speaker. It’s that weird feeling you get when you say the word “chair” repeatedly and by the 20th time you’re not entirely sure what a “chair” even is. The explanation for the phenomenon is that, in the cortex, verbal repetition repeatedly arouses a specific neural pattern that corresponds to the meaning of the word, but that there is a reduction in the intensity of that neural activity with each repetition. In other words, just saying “chair” causes you to remember what a chair is, but your remembering is less intense every time you repeat the word.
I wonder if anyone remembers what a “child” is after 32,000 repetitions.
THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND CHILDREN.
That is a lot of children. What would that even look like? Have you ever been to a concert at the United Center? Do you remember how long it took for everyone to file out of the building? The hundreds and hundreds of people in line in front of you. And the hundreds and hundreds behind you. And the lines of hundreds and hundreds more at every exit. 32,000 children would never fit into the United Center. Not even close.
THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND CHILDREN.
I wanted to get a sense of that number. An idea of what 32,000 children would look like. So I made a simple text model. The word “child” ten times in each row. Thirty-two hundred rows. Row upon row upon row upon row of children. Each child told, “No.”
After I hit publish, I double-checked it. And then I double-checked it again. And again. It didn’t seem possible. How could there be so many? But that’s the funny thing about 32,000 children. It’s one child thirty-two thousand times.
So click here if you want to take a look: http://misterjayem.blogspot.com/2016/01/32000-children-cut-by-rauner.html
And if the damn thing makes you weep? Let me assure you, you weren’t the first.
– MrJM
- cdog - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 4:28 pm:
I strongly think the administration finally came around to 162% FPL because the Feds were going to be a problem for them due to the ChildCareDevelopment Block Grant.
Someday, Americans will value early childhood education as much as all the other 1st World countries do that kick our a** on STEM subjects. A kid that goes to kindergarten knowing how to learn, and enjoys learning, is MILES AHEAD of a child who doesn’t.
Rauner knows this. He just likes hostages, destruction, and personal agendas more than the kids of Illinois.
- cdog - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 4:29 pm:
I don’t think the reporter looked at the race angle on this.
Whew. That would be really ugly. Mr. Dunkin might even raise an eyebrow.
- illini - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 4:30 pm:
47th, Willy, Honeybear and MrJM - all stated far better ( and much sooner than I could have ). Well done.
I need to try to get to some of these threads before you do - no, forget that I will always be playing second fiddle to your comments. Keep doing what you all do so well and I will try to add pertinent comments when I can.
- Handle Bar Mustache - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 4:59 pm:
@MrJM — I looked at your page. Thought it would have the feel of a gimmick. But it sent shivers down my spine. For those of us with children of our own, the hostage taking is real and the meanness cuts deep.
Keep up the good work.
- burbanite - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 5:01 pm:
Bravo MrJM!
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 5:31 pm:
Much respect to you, - @MisterJayEm -…
Thank you, for sharing.
Oswego Willy
- illini - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 7:54 pm:
MrJM - I totally respect you, but will not give my phone numbers to view a website. I still intend to follow and comment, when appropriate, your posts.
You are a valued member of this community and I will continue to comment. Thank you for your appropriate and pertinent comments.
We will talk more down the road.
- MrJM - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 8:08 pm:
“but will not give my phone numbers to view a website.”
I have no idea what this means.
– MrJM
- Arthur Andersen - Wednesday, Jan 20, 16 @ 8:42 pm:
MrJM-Thank you. Powerful, indeed.
- Anon221 - Thursday, Jan 21, 16 @ 8:14 am:
Thank you, MrJM. The work you did would also be a very potent poster for the Capitol Rotunda. The extra sadness, is that every day that goes by, the number will continue to grow. and, there will still be those people in the State who will self-righteously proclaim, “If they couldn’t afford the kids, they shouldn’t have had them in the first place.”.
- Cheswick - Thursday, Jan 21, 16 @ 8:40 am:
Once you deny the first child, the next 32,000 are a breeze. - @BaronVonRauner
This fake tweet inspired by @MisterJayEm -@ 4:27 pm.