Mayor Fenty’s proposed FY 2011 budget would cut child care assistance for low-income working families by $4 million. On April 27, DCFPI joined Empower DC and other child care advocates to testify against the cut, because the reduction would make it harder to serve families needing child care and to improve the quality of care provided in DC.
This isn’t the first time the District’s child care subsidy program has been cut. Since FY 2007, funding for child care in DC has fallen by nearly a quarter, or $27 million, after adjusting for inflation.
The Fenty administration claims that the most recent cuts are justified because fewer families are applying for child care vouchers. But according to a 2008 study of the child care market in DC, nearly 10,000 children under age 3 across the city were on a waiting list with a child care provider. (This includes both families with child care subsidies and families seeking market-rate child care.) About 86 percent of child care centers have waiting lists. This suggests that some families might be discouraged from applying for vouchers because of the long wait to actually receive a child care spot.
The cut also would make it hard to address other shortcomings in DC’s child care program, particularly low reimbursement rates. Stagnant rates have made it difficult for child care providers participating in the subsidy program to keep up with the demand for their services. Since 2006, market rates for child care services at providers who don’t participate in the subsidy program have increased by 14 percent, while providers participating in the subsidy program haven’t received an increase in their reimbursement rate since 2004. The market rate study concludes that low reimbursement rates create a risk that “more [child care] providers, particularly those with higher quality programs, may opt out of the system.”
And, indeed, we’ve seen a decline in the number of active, licensed providers operating in the District. From 1998 to 2008, the number of active licensed family providers decreased from 193 to 162, and the number of active licensed centers decreased from 345 to 329, according to the market rate study. Beyond affecting the number of providers, low reimbursement rates also make it hard for child care providers to invest in their staff and facilities in ways that improve the quality of care.
Child care vouchers make it possible for low-income families to find and keep a job and for children to learn in a safe and healthy environment. Given the current challenges facing this program, now is not the time to scale it back.
