A letter from Voices for Illinois Children says, as Governor Rauner’s new child care restrictions shut out 9 in 10 new applicants who would have previously qualified for child care assistance, quality child care increasingly is out of reach in Illinois even for middle-class families, a new report finds.
“Without assistance, too many Illinois parents simply cannot afford the child care that enables them to balance work and family,” said Emily Miller, director of policy and advocacy at Voices for Illinois Children.
According to the report by the Washington DC-based Economic Policy Institute, in Illinois:
* A parent working full time at the state minimum wage needs to spend more than half of her income for quality child care for a 4-year-old.
* For an infant, that parent needs to spend nearly $4 out of every $5 earned.
* Annual child care for an infant is now more expensive than full-time, in-state public college tuition.
* In the Chicago area, a family squarely in the middle class with an infant and 4-year-old will spend 29% of its income on child care.
These conclusions are based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ estimate that child care costing more than 10% of a family’s income is not affordable. On top of stagnant hourly pay and the failure of economic growth to trickle down to most Illinoisans, the governor’s cuts are worsening the situation.
Before Governor Rauner’s cuts, a parent with one child could earn up to $2,456 per month (about $14 an hour working 40 hours per week) and still be eligible for child care assistance. Now, a parent re-entering the workforce with one child loses child care assistance if she makes more than $664 per month, only about 20 hours per week at the state’s minimum wage.
“A minimum-wage working man or woman in Illinois simply cannot afford child care without assistance,” Miller said. “When welfare reform was passed in the 1990s, there was bipartisan consensus that families struggling to get by needed assistance to afford the child care essential to parents being able to work. Governor Rauner’s decision has made getting by just about impossible for many hard-working families.”
Illinois families harmed by the Governor Rauner’s child care rules — which were put in place outside of the state budget process — will testify against the cuts at an Illinois Department of Human Services hearing today in Springfield and tomorrow in Chicago.