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Children denied childcare, staff layed off; PA Budget cuts hit home
The World Socialist Website has written a very thorough and informative article about the effects Pennsylvania's budget cuts are having on child care centers and their staff.
Thousands denied child care due to Pennsylvania budget cuts
By Samuel Davidson
28 August 2009
Childcare centers throughout Pennsylvania are closing, laying-off staff and turning away children, because state lawmakers have not reached agreement on a comprehensive budget nearly two months after last year’s budget ended June 30.
One hundred and thirty thousand children, aged 6-weeks to 12-years-old attend a variety of preschool, Head Start, daycare and after school programs that have been cut or are under the threat of being cut because the child care providers have not been paid since June 30.
Two-thirds of Head Start Supplemental, a state funded program that supplements the federal Head Start program, have had to cut services resulting in at least 443 layoffs and 2,656 children without services.
“This is really bad,” said Brian Jenkins, whose son has been denied a spot in Head Start for this year. “We got a certified letter this week saying that our son couldn’t go back to school this fall. He is five years old. He was really looking forward to it. He was in last year, and I really saw a big improvement in the way he was acting. He had made friends, he invited them all to his birthday party, he was really looking forward to going back.
“The school said that they had to cut half of their Head Start spaces and that he was one of them,” Brian continued. “We are on a limited income, and now we have to start looking around trying to find some place that will take him.”
Other early childhood and preschool programs are facing the axe as well. More than half, 60 percent, of PA Pre-K Counts providers, a program that provides preschool for young children in the state, report that they will not be opening classrooms on time, leaving 5,082 children without school and 581 staff facing layoffs.
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Thousands denied child care due to Pennsylvania budget cuts
By Samuel Davidson
28 August 2009
Childcare centers throughout Pennsylvania are closing, laying-off staff and turning away children, because state lawmakers have not reached agreement on a comprehensive budget nearly two months after last year’s budget ended June 30.
One hundred and thirty thousand children, aged 6-weeks to 12-years-old attend a variety of preschool, Head Start, daycare and after school programs that have been cut or are under the threat of being cut because the child care providers have not been paid since June 30.
Two-thirds of Head Start Supplemental, a state funded program that supplements the federal Head Start program, have had to cut services resulting in at least 443 layoffs and 2,656 children without services.
“This is really bad,” said Brian Jenkins, whose son has been denied a spot in Head Start for this year. “We got a certified letter this week saying that our son couldn’t go back to school this fall. He is five years old. He was really looking forward to it. He was in last year, and I really saw a big improvement in the way he was acting. He had made friends, he invited them all to his birthday party, he was really looking forward to going back.
“The school said that they had to cut half of their Head Start spaces and that he was one of them,” Brian continued. “We are on a limited income, and now we have to start looking around trying to find some place that will take him.”
Other early childhood and preschool programs are facing the axe as well. More than half, 60 percent, of PA Pre-K Counts providers, a program that provides preschool for young children in the state, report that they will not be opening classrooms on time, leaving 5,082 children without school and 581 staff facing layoffs.
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