FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Contact: Graeme Zielinski, graeme.zielinski@seiuhcil.org

PURGED: Report Says Rauner Official Who Told the Truth Now Gone From Administration

Sun-Times: Ex-child care chief who testified to “devastating” impact of Rauner cuts is out

CHICAGO – Just one week after being removed from her longtime post as chief administrator of the state’s child care programs – following public testimony that Bruce Rauner’s cuts to the Child Care Assistance Programs (CCAP) would be “devastating” to thousands of Illinois families – a well-respected, veteran public servant is officially out of the Rauner administration.

Linda Saterfield’s public testimony at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules sent shockwaves through state government and the media, as she was the first Rauner official to speak publicly on the “devastating” impact of Rauner’s child care cuts. Two weeks later, Ms. Saterfield no longer has a job.

The Chicago Sun-Times now reports that Saterfield, a 37-year veteran of both Republican and Democratic administrations in Springfield, has accepted early retirement after a massive internal backlash and “reassignment” for what the Rauner administration called unspecified “internal personnel reasons.”

Rauner’s cuts are so severe that the JCAR hearing at which Saterfield testified had been requested by Ounce of Prevention, a group headed by Gov. Rauner’s wife Diana, who has fiercely opposed Rauner’s cuts to critical child care programs. Rauner’s administrative changes to the CCAP program continue to draw increasing scrutiny for their draconian impacts on low-income working families, especially single moms.