Cross-Posted from The District’s Dime by Soumya Bhat
A new national report confirms what most DC parents already know: Child care in the District is expensive, especially compared to the rest of the nation. So as Mayor Gray and the DC Council look to reduce unemployment and get more moms and dads back to work, our leaders also need to factor in how to make child care affordable and accessible to low-and-moderate income parents.
One important way to do that in to DC is to update the reimbursement rates for the city’s child care subsidy programs to better reflect our competitive child care market. The current low reimbursement rates mean that parents sometimes have a hard time finding a child care center that will accept their child care voucher and that many centers that rely on children with vouchers are struggling to keep their doors open and provide quality services. A better reimbursement rate would allow parents of all income levels to have the opportunity to put their children in a safe, healthy and productive facility.
The report by Child Care Aware of America, a national source of child care information for parents and providers, highlights some of the financial struggles that many DC parents face. For example, in 2011, the average cost of full-time care for an infant in a DC child care center was more than $20,000 a year. That is roughly 80 percent of median income for a single mother in DC. If she has two children in child care, expenses can be as much $35,000, which is nearly twice the annual income for a family of three at the poverty line.[1]
In the District, a major barrier to providing high-quality child care to infants and toddlers is the extremely low reimbursement rates paid to child care providers in the city’s child care program. Unfortunately, DC child care reimbursement rates are pegged to 2004 child care costs. Without adequate reimbursement, providers are unable to keep up with their rising costs and continue to offer quality child care in DC. The fiscal year 2013 budget did not increase reimbursement rates for child care providers, many of which offer primarily infant and toddler care and faced financial challenges in recent years.
Another factor is that the city has put fewer resources into child care as the public education system has moved toward universal pre-kindergarten. Since the District began implementing universal pre-K in 2009, parents can choose to send three- and four-year old children to pre-K in public schools. While this was a good move for DC education, an unfortunate side effect has been a steady decline in local funding for the child care subsidy program.
As a result, several child care providers have closed their doors. According to the 2010 DC market rate survey, about 30 percent of all family home providers and 17 percent of all child care center providers operating in 2008 were no longer in business in 2010. This leads to a shortage of child care providers for families with infants and toddlers and children with special needs.
DCFPI thinks it’s time to revisit these policies and help make quality child care more affordable for DC families.
Brian Anders in 2011. Photo by Daniel del Pielago.
HEALTH CARE AND HOUSING FOR ALL!
By Kirby, longtime friend of Brian Anders
Longtime DC activist, Brian Anders, passed away in the early morning hours of Tuesday August 28, 2012. (Look for announcements for a speak-out/ memorial for this Thursday, prior to his memorial at Joseph’s House at 4pm). Brian was a devoted advocate on behalf of people experiencing homelessness in Washington, DC. He was one of the core members of Community for Creative Non Violence, including when it was at its most active in the 80s. CCNV was a vibrant community of anti-war and social justice activists, who succeeded, through direct action, in forcing the federal government to hand over the massive building at 2nd and D st. NW, so that CCNV could turn it into a shelter and community center for people without housing. The group also held dramatic actions at churches in the city, to get them to share space and resources with those who needed them most. Their organizing gained national momentum, and spurred passage of the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act, an important Federal bill that provides funding to programs to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness. CCNV coupled their work to end homelessness with anti-war actions, always making the connection between the need to end imperialist war and suffering abroad, and to redirect those resources to helping those economically marginalized at home. While lacking its former community and activist spirit, the CCNV shelter still stands today. Brian went on to advocate for justice for low-income and marginalized communities in DC for the next decades.
Prior to his work with CCNV, Brian suffered PTSD as a result of serving in the military during the Vietnam war. He worked on healing throughout his life, channeling his energy into compassionate service and fiery advocacy. He was part of veterans’ peace organizations, and told me once that he spent months in prison in Texas for taking part in an action to block a weapons shipment. Over the decades, he worked at various organizations, helping get people into housing and helping people access needed services. He believed strongly in serving others in any way he could, in living in community, and in treating all people with dignity and respect. He had a healthy dose of disgust for politicians who rest in the pockets of the wealthy, and for the nonprofit industrial complex, which he understood to be wearing away at the true spirit of community and resistance in which many service providing organizations began.
Brain closely mentored young advocates, including members of a series of local groups who conducted direct actions to end homelessness, such as housing occupations, since the early 2000s. He was a down-to-earth human being, and he touched many lives. Brian apparently wanted people to memorialize him by taking action, speaking out on, standing up for justice and compassion. I hope we can honor his memory in this way.
Two excerpts from the Journal of Brian Anders, which he started writing in July 2012.
Page 1
Living in joy. What exactly does that mean?
When do we ask the question what prevents us from living in joy?
Is it the need to blame others for our mistakes? Is it the inability to learn from our mistakes or forgive ourselves for any pain we caused to them or others? Could it be something as simple as being afraid to love ourselves?
Page. 5
Now is the time to be grateful and accepting of gifts I’m receiving from the divine.
What is self love? What is the key to seeing oneself as worthy of being loved and giving love? How- when can we learn self acceptance? With all of our weaknesses? How do we move past self hatred and learn to live in love?
Unconditional love? Begins within not from outside of us. Not looking for some religious answer, or even a scientific explanation or believe that it takes a form of trust. Giving in to your higher self. Ending the way within.
On May 14, 2012, members of Empower DC’s Child Care for All Campaign along with their children-otherwise known as the BABY BRIGADE-visited the Wilson Building to educate the city council on the importance of the child care subsidy/voucher program and the challenges community-based child care centers are having on a day to day basis to keep their businesses running. The child care subsidy/voucher program is a federally funded program that was designed to subsidize child care for working families and parents that want to continue their education or seek employment.
As we visited council office after council office with our babies, we were puzzled as to why no one really cared about child care. We got the same answers over and over, “we are focused on getting extra money for the TANF program so that we can get these 6,000 families assessed and back to work or school.” No one even stopped to think that most or all of those TANF families will need subsidized child care to go back to work or school. Even with working parents, providers and teen parents from Anacostia’s New Heights Teen Parents Program expressing the challenges we’ve had finding available slots for our children in child care centers, making ends meet and completing the intake process, we were still unable to get solid support on restoring the budget for child care and making the intake process more accessible.
Despite our efforts, the mayor’s proposed $5.7 million dollar cut from the child care subsidy voucher program was voted into law on June 5, 2012. This budget cut will affect about 400 hundred families who won’t have access to a voucher or will be in jeopardy of loosing their voucher. The budget cut will also make it even harder for community-based and family child development centers contracted by the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) to operate and provide quality child care. Mainly the community-based centers will suffer.
It is very clear that the mayor and the city council don’t know or understand the value of early care and education BEFORE KINDERGARTEN! So, it is our job as parents, providers and community members to work harder to educate these city officials and stand up and advocate for our little people. They are our future leaders and we have to make sure they have the proper tools and support they need to be successful. LISTEN UP!!! DC DOESN’T WORK WITHOUT CHILD CARE!!! SO, LET’S STRENGTHEN OUR COMMUNITIES AND SUPPORT COMMUNITY-BASED CHILD CARE CENTERS!!
In addition to lobbying the council in their offices, Child Care for All Campaign members Sequnely Gray, Toneisha Johnson and Shantise Summers also testified during the city council’s budget hearing on human services. Coucilmember Jim Graham, Chair of the Committee on Human Services, seemed to agree that the intake process needs improvement. On the otherhand, his implication that providing a subsidy so that parents can meet their child care needs is like providing substance abuse treatment to drug addicts is nuts. In the District of Columbia, child care typically costs $18,200 per year, per child. You don’t have to be anything like a drug addict to need help meeting those costs.
For more information and/or to join Empower DC’s Child Care For All Campaign, contact Sequnely Gray at childcare@empowerdc.org or call 202-234-9119 ext. 103.
Subsidized child care, which provides low-income parents with vouchers that pay a portion of their child care costs, is one of the most important work support programs available in DC and around the country. In Washington, DC, child care costs typically range from $10,000 – $20,000 per year, per child. Without subsidies that help make child care affordable for low-income families, thousands of parents in DC are unable to work, unable to look for work or attend school so they are better qualified for work. Of the 48,176 children who qualify for the program less than half are enrolled. Yet, Mayor Vince Gray’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 would reduce funding for the subsidized child care program by $5.7 million dollars. As you can see in the following video, Empower DC’s Baby Brigade isn’t standing for it.
Don’t tell me you can’t fight city hall. Yesterday (May 15, 2012) advocates fighting to maintain and improve essential social services in the District of Columbia, packed the city council hearing room as they voted on this year’s fiscal budget. As a result, the city council passed the Budget Request Act with $25 million restored to affordable housing programs. A victory without question but more needs to be done. The final vote on the budget won’t happen until June 5, 2012. Between now and then, council members must be convinced to use fiscal reserves and/or raise more revenue to fully fund TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families), homeless services, the subsidized child care program and more. For more information on what programs still need support, which council members need to be lobbied, etc., go to the Fair Budget Coalition’s campaign website Make One City Possible.
For more on what’s at stake should the city continue to cut social services, check out the fabulous video below from the Day in the Strife protest, produced by Laura Gwizdak. I don’t know where the mainstream media was that day. The halls were packed with DC residents actively participating in the political process. Personally and professionally, I call that news.
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