When Jessica Parker, 29, is working at the Target store in Bend, she knows her son Sam, 4, is safe and well cared for at a preschool near their home south of Sunriver.
Parker is a single mom and proud of the improvements she made in the lives of her children — Sam, and 6-year-old daughter, Haley — in recent months. In October, the family moved from an apartment in La Pine to their current home, and next month, they will begin receiving health insurance through her employer.
Recently, however, Parker began to worry that the better life she built could come tumbling down. A state child care subsidy helps pay for Sam to attend a preschool operated by Gaila Wold-Adams near Sunriver, and for Haley to go there after school. But with the state facing a budget shortfall, Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s budget proposal for the next two years would reduce eligibility for the child care subsidy to help low-income families, increase co-payments and reduce the amount paid to child care providers.
The cuts would take effect in July.
In tough economic times, when state revenues fall short of the amount needed to pay for all programs, the governor and state lawmakers must choose programs from which to cut, such as education, social services and public safety — the three largest users of state tax revenue.
Parker said she earns $12 an hour, which adds up to about $1,400 a month after taxes. She pays about $279 per month in child care co-payments and said without the subsidy, “I will lose everything in 30 days.”
Under the governor’s proposed budget, all families that receive the subsidy would face higher co-payments, with an average of an additional 6 percent, or $5 to $10 per month, according to DHS documents. Parker would have to pay higher co-payments, and if she were to miss a deadline for paperwork, she could be dropped from the program and would have to reapply.
“A little over 3,000 families would stand to lose benefits entirely,” said Lauri Stewart, a spokesperson for the Children, Adults and Families Division of DHS. As of November, the latest month for which data was available, the program served 807 children in Central Oregon, according to DHS. Statewide, 20,500 children from 11,000 families received subsidized child care through the program in November.
Parker said the thought that she could lose child care has been distracting in recent days.
“I just want to be able to go to work, know that somebody has the capacity to handle my son and handle his special needs, and come home to my house at night and be able to put food on the table,” said Parker, who added that her son is developmentally delayed.
“I’m so proud of everything that I’ve been able to give to my kids, and it’s completely devastating to me that I could lose this in a heartbeat.”
Potential savings
The governor’s proposed budget would cut state child care subsidies intended to help parents work by $45.4 million over two years, according to DHS documents, although the state Legislature will likely make changes to Kulongoski’s proposed budget. The governor would achieve the largest portion of the funding cut, $30.2 million, by limiting eligibility for the child care subsidy to families who receive state assistance, according to DHS.
A family of four in Oregon currently qualifies for the child care subsidy if they earn less than 185 percent of the federal poverty rate, or $3,268 per month, Stewart said.
The amount of the subsidy is calculated on a sliding scale based on income, so families who earn close to the maximum eligible amount pay more.
Under the governor’s proposal, families of four could not earn more than $795 per month, Stewart said.
Other changes under the governor’s budget include an increase in co-payments and a decrease in the amount the state would pay child care providers, according to a DHS document.
“It’s cutting the eligibility level so they have to earn less to qualify,” Stewart said. “We know that it’s going to affect just about everybody ... Approximately a third statewide would lose eligibility entirely.”
The loss of affordable child care could make it difficult or impossible for some parents to work, Stewart said. “We hope it isn’t going to mean we’re moving them from the employment-related day care to state assistance.”
The ripple effect
Wold-Adams, 47, said cuts to the state subsidy would affect businesses as well as families.
Wold-Adams runs Miss Gaila’s Preschool and Certified Family Childcare at her home, where she has a classroom with children’s art projects on the wall and lots of activities for kids to do throughout the day. Out of the 12 children who attend Wold-Adams’ center, seven have subsidies to cover most of their child care costs. The subsidies and co-payments for these children amount to more than half of Wold-Adams’ income, she said, partly because parents who do not receive state subsidies have cut back on child care and only bring their children for a few days each week.
“If I lose my subsidized-care families, I will lose my business and my home,” Wold-Adams said last week.
“Part of the issue I’m really concerned about is the ripple effect,” Wold-Adams said. With no one to watch their children, mothers would have difficulty working, and “employers kind of count on those moms,” Wold-Adams said. “They’ll work for minimum wage. They have no choice.” Also, other families who pay full price would lose her child care service, she said.
Another option could be Head Start, but Wold-Adams said the program does not solve some southern Deschutes County mothers’ need for child care because they work in Bend and cannot pick up their children in the middle of the day when Head Start would end. Head Start is a national program for prekindergarten children, and it runs four hours a day, four days a week.
Some of the children who receive subsidies come from families where there is a lot of stress, and the stability of coming to the same preschool or child care provider every day is important to their success, Wold-Adams said.
In her view, the most significant problem that could arise from loss of child care subsidies is that children might not develop as successfully without preschool and other children’s programs.
“The biggest thing is the developmental outcomes,” Wold- Adams said. “Particularly in early childhood development, the first five years are the most critical in every family’s life.”
Some of the children at Wold-Adams’ preschool receive a higher child care subsidy from the state because they have learning or physical disabilities or require a high level of care for other reasons, which Wold-Adams said allows her to keep the children under constant supervision.
Ruth Crawmer, 31, who owns three child care and preschool centers with her husband through their business, Crawmer’s Critters LLC, said she currently has two families with children who receive the state subsidy.
That could force Crawmer to make some difficult decisions, such as “do we cut the health care we just instituted for staff?”
Crawmer is also central region director for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees union.
“It’s going to cause child care providers to say, ‘No, we don’t take DHS kids, and then where are they going to go?” Crawmer asked.
Brook Hall, 28, of Bend, said she is a single mother, and the subsidy has allowed her to place her 18-month-old son, Beckham Hall, in child care where she knows he is safe and content.
“I tried some other day cares and just walked away crying,” Hall said.
“When you leave and walk away to work, you want them to be safe. But when you have low income, there isn’t much choice in that matter. I have to work, so there has to be somewhere to put my child.”
Hall, who works part time as a bookkeeper in Redmond, said she cannot afford any increase in her co-payment amount, which is $100 per month.
Normally, the co-payment is $50 per month, but Hall pays more because Crawmer’s Critters charges more than the state subsidy normally covers. Hall said she adjusted her budget to find the extra $50 per month.