Our View: Benefits of child-care subsidies are for families and the state.
Monday, February 27th, 2006
By Chris Fitzsimon
Hoke County learns anew that being one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation has a price.
The best-known costs are growth’s strains on public schools and law enforcement. Now a hidden cost kicks in — child-care subsidies for low-income families. Hoke County is running short on those funds, and it affects 180 children. Child-care providers are so worried about these children that they asked county officials to intervene.
The subsidies are for children, and they are crucial to the state’s Work First welfare reform program.
In Work First, the able-bodied must seek jobs. But wages in entry-level positions, especially in retailing and service-based economies, usually aren’t enough for working parents to afford both rent and child care. Subsidies make it possible for parents to work or get job training. In fact, welfare rolls rise and fall according to child-care affordability.
The county’s Department of Social Services has since found a way to work around the subsidy problem. But the department will request that, in its next budget, the county increase the money it puts into the pool of state, federal and local funds that pay for these subsidies. Hoke County’s child-care budget is about $1.8 million, with $45,000 from the county.
Cumberland County has also come up short on these funds in past years.
Work First reform doesn’t offer North Carolina and its counties short-term savings. But over the long term, the hope is that workers in jobs that pay pittances will gain experience. Then they can get higher-paying jobs and won’t need child-care subsidies and food stamps to keep from falling back into poverty. More important is the goal of breaking the generational cycle of welfare dependency. Participants’ futures change from hopelessness to self-sufficiency. (more…)
Last 5 posts in Daily News
- For College-Bound, New Barriers to Entry - December 3rd, 2008
- Where’s Mike? Easley’s ’business trip’ is a mystery - December 3rd, 2008
- Taylor hosting annual Christmas dinner - December 3rd, 2008
- Rookies get their General Assembly bearings - December 3rd, 2008
- Mental hospital deemed unsafe - December 3rd, 2008
Email This Post
Print This Post
