A group of northern Illinois home care providers is calling for increased state funding.
Lisa Fambro owns Open Arms Day Care in Rockford. Some of her families receive state subsidies to help pay for childcare. She criticized a change in qualifications last fall for the Child Care Assistance Program which reduced the number of eligible families.
“Childcare is not a privilege, it is a right, just like education is. All of our families need that. They look for this to benefit them so they can go out and provide for their children,” Fambro said at a recent news conference held at her home daycare.
LaSandra Townsend is a caregiver with the group Help at Home. She says she’s frustrated when lawmakers say people abuse programs that subsidize costs to care for children and seniors.
“I encourage them and I challenge them and admonish them to come out and take a walk and shadow us and be in our shoes and see exactly what we do every day so they will know this is not something to play around with. We have to be passionate about it in order to stay in this line of business,” Townsend said.
Rockford-area State Representative Litesa Wallace, a Democrat, says 55,000 fewer families are getting state subsidies to help pay for child care. She says the cuts unfairly target women and minorities who often benefit from these services. She says such programs are unfairly criticized.
“There’s a misnomer that it is just some free money, if you will, that goes to families. They are paying a co-pay, and that co-pay is based upon what they earn. So the more they earn, the more they help pay for their childcare until they earn a point where they no longer qualify for the program,” Wallace said after touring Fambro's home daycare.
Republican State Senator Dave Syverson says he’s also been behind efforts to help support families, but says the state can’t handle such costs.
“To expand a program beyond what other states are currently doing...the timing just isn't right,” Syverson said.
Several speakers called out Rockford-area Republican John Cabello as being out of touch with home care workers. By phone Wednesday afternoon, Cabello refuted those claims.
"I feel what they're doing is great. I feel that we do need to find ways of increasing what they get. I don't necessarily think we should do that with more taxes," Cabello said.
Wallace is pushing for approval of a measureshe says will expand child care to tens of thousands of additional families. Meanwhile, state lawmakers remain gridlocked over a state spending plan.
