Fitzsimon File

North Carolina has a reputation around the country for its innovative ways to help children, from Smart Start to More at Four to Kid’s Care, the new children’s health care program passed this year.

It seems like top state officials have lived up to their promises to put children first in policy debates and budget decisions. But that’s not the whole story and ignores the plight of children’s families. The latest U.S. Census Bureau figures show that one in five children in North Carolina lives in poverty and the number hasn’t budged in the last several years.

If only politicians kept that in mind when they tell us that “children are our future,” they might also include a few lines about helping the families who are raising children. Providing health care for all kids seems like a no-brainer despite the opposition of the anti-everything think tanks and President Bush, but uninsured parents need help too.

Children in families living in substandard housing are at risk and so are ones living in a place they can’t really afford, just one paycheck away from devastating problems. Even when to comes to affordable child care, North Carolina has plenty of work to do if state leaders are serious about putting kids first.

The latest report about state’s child care assistance policies from the National Women’s Law Center finds that North Carolina is one of 17 states with a waiting list for a child care subsidy. 

More than 17,000 children eligible for the subsidy in our state don’t receive it, despite all the rhetoric about helping low-income single parents go back to school or take a low-wage job to get work experience and begin the difficult climb out of poverty. Some states have longer waiting lists and some seem to be doing a better job helping single parents.

Georgia has almost 25,000 children waiting for help, while Virginia has 9,312 kids on its list. Our state is also in the middle in terms of eligibility for the program. A family of three is eligible for the subsidy in North Carolina if its income is less than $35,592 a year, roughly 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

That’s in line with other states too, nothing to be particularly proud of if we are serious about making children and families our priorities.

It is no secret that access to quality, affordable child care must be part of any effort to help families living in poverty, yet with only a few exceptions, the child care subsidy program is rarely mentioned in speeches and candidates’ policy platforms. And yet for many parents, it is the only way they can afford to go to work or back to school, as the average cost of care for a three year old is more than $7,000 a year.

The subsidy program is also generally misunderstood. It does not pay the entire cost of child care for people who receive it. A family of three with one child in care that earns 150 percent of the poverty level, or $25,755 a year, still pays $215 a month, ten percent of the family income.

Eighty-two percent of the children who receive the subsidy live in families with incomes of less than $25,000. Ninety-three percent of the day care subsidy money helps make it possible for a parent to work or go to school to be better equipped to get a job. The other seven percent pays for services for children with special needs and their families.

The child care subsidy program is a direct and effective way to help people lift themselves and their families out of poverty.  But not too many people want to talk about it. Despite that, lawmakers in this past session of the General Assembly found the money to serve an additional 1,520 children and raise the reimbursement rate for child care providers, a crucial element of the program.  And the waiting list is down from 25,000 in 2001.  

But 17,000 children on a waiting list for safe, affordable child care is 17,000 too many, especially when you consider that lawmakers also left $270 million unappropriated, even after cutting taxes on the wealthy and putting money in the state savings account.

As the 2008 political campaigns begin to heat up across the state, it’s a good time to remind the candidates who profess their support of children that a good way to prove it is to make a commitment to eliminate the waiting list for a child care subsidy. Let’s help kids—and their parents.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.