Despite Gov. Rauner’s Last Minute Appeals and 11th Hour Bargain, Providers and Parents Urge Passage of SB 570

Contact: scott.vogel@seiuhcil.org

(November 9^th, 2015, Rockford) — State Rep. Litesa Wallace and State Senator Steve Stadelman held a press conference on the eve of the crucial vote on Tuesday, November 10^th in Springfield to save the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). The Rockford-area leaders pledged their support for SB 570. Child care providers from across the state are urgently called on all state representatives to cast a vote for SB 570, and support working families over Gov. Bruce Rauner’s agenda.

Rockford ABC: State Rep Wallace, Sen. Stadelman Pledge Support for IL Child Care Program

Rockford CBS: After Trying to Destroy Child Care Program, Gov. Rauner Finally Seeks Compromise

The legislation, SB 570, will save the state’s child care program from being systematically destroyed because of Gov. Rauner’s extreme eligibility requirements that are denying 90% of all parents seeking assistance. As an example of Rauner’s new eligibility rules which he implemented unilaterally starting on July 1st, a single parent working a full time minimum wage job now currently makes too much money to be eligible for child care assistance.

Background:

Home-based child care providers, who are small businesses, are at risk of being forced to close their doors unless urgent action is taken.  In that scenario parents will be forced to leave their jobs if they cannot access affordable child care, or have to patch together potentially unreliable child care services from those who likely don’t have early learning training or any experience.

As the Rockford Register Star editorialized on Oct. 19^th, advocates from across the state are urgently calling on Gov. Rauner to stop his administration’s agenda to dismantle Illinois’ Child Care Assistance Program.

And in a memo released last week by Gov. Raune’s administration lobbying state lawmakers not to vote for SB 570, Rauner revealed the rapid deterioration of Illinois’ child care program. The administration showed 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.”

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?

Lastly, Innovation Illinois’ economic impact study found that the state’s caregiver programs directly support 77,000 jobs in the child care industry. And when those employees spend their combined wages it creates another 43,000 jobs here in Illinois. Gov. Rauner’s attempts to destroy CCAP will cost tens of thousands of jobs, and when coupled with parents being forced out of the workforce for lack of child care, the economic damage will be significant.

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