FROM: Beth Berendsen, Child Care Research Analyst, SEIU Healthcare Illinois

The Bruce Rauner administration’s cynical political screed released today regarding Senate Bill 570, which reverses his arbitrary rules changes to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP),  exposes a shocking truth: That his unprecedented eligibility requirements, which have made Illinois dead last in the nation in providing safe and affordable child care to working parents,  truly are destroying the program.

The Rauner justification, released in advance of an expected vote Nov. 10 on SB570 and most certainly meant to influence wavering members of his caucus,  states that more than 90,000 children currently are receiving CCAP subsidies. This number represents a reduction of 80,000 in the average number of children served in the previous eight years. The 90,000 figure also represents a decrease BY HALF of the children that were served in FY2015. This is devastating.

What Rauner did today is reveal a program deterioration so rapid that it is a drop of  70,000 children being served in just three months— down from the 160,000 figure provided by the former state CCAP administrator, Linda Saterfield, in her August 11^th testimony to the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a statement that led to her dismissal for openly admitting that the impact of Rauner’s cuts would be “devastating.” She was right.

Recent research has shown that more than 1 in 5 children in Illinois are living in poverty, meaning more than 600,000 children.  In Illinois, a recent report from the nonpartisan  Economic Policy Institute showed that a full-time minimum-wage earner would have to spend 74% of their annual earnings on child care for an infant without assistance. And yet, under the rules justified in what Rauner released today, full-time minimum wage earners no longer qualify for CCAP. How can this be justified?

Work supports, including the Child Care Assistance Program, are vital to helping low-income parents continue to work and access high-quality child care which improve child outcomes and stability, goals to which Rauner has professed. But the number that Rauner now boasts about—90,000 children currently being served— represents a heartbreaking loss of opportunity for 90,000 others without his level of personal fortune. It also reminds us that he is interested exclusively in political power and has no concept or care in investing in real solutions to help the struggling families of Illinois.

Whether wittingly or not, what Rauner released today actually provides complete and compelling *justification* for passage of Senate Bill 570.