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WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. -- A group of Westchester child care leaders are banding together to try to squash County Executive Rob Astorino's plan to have struggling poor families pay substantially more for subsidized care.
"We're basically trying to come up with a coordinated effort to counter Astorino's attack on working families and the working poor," said Howard Milbert, executive director of the Ossining Children's Center and co-president of the Westchester Early Childhood Director's Association.
"This is a major issue," Milbert added. "It's an awful thing when you have families who rely on day care to get to work and all of a sudden they have their fees doubled. We feel this is an extremely shortsighted policy that has little more than an ideological goal."
Milbert, who has been at the Ossining Children's Center since 1985, spearheaded a lengthy teleconference Thursday with other longtime industry professionals in an effort to convince the state not to approve Astorino's request to increase the amount of money families that rely on subsidized care pay from 20 percent to 35 percent, starting Aug. 1. A 5 percent hike from 15 percent to 20 percent just took place on Feb. 1.
For a low income family of two making less than $29,400 annually, the weekly fee increased from $42 to $57 this month. If Astorino's proposal goes through, the fee would jump to $99 per week.
"All of my families are expressing concern about this," said Milbert, who noted 80 percent of the 155 children at his center receive a subsidy. "The county executive does not believe child care is a service that the government should provide."
In a release earlier this week, Astorino and Department of Social Services Commissioner Kevin McGuire said an analysis of the county's programs revealed there was only enough money budgeted to last until July 31 after county legislators only agreed to a 20 percent family share for the 2,747 children being served.
"You can't run programs on good intentions. You need sufficient appropriations," Astorino said. "I certainly understand that family budgets are tight. But you have to look at the alternatives, asking families to pay about $6 a day more for about eight months, or having the families pay 100 percent of the family day care bill starting in August.
Laura Strong, executive director of St. Peter's Child Care Center in Yonkers and treasurer of the Westchester Early Childhood Director's Association, said many families were already making several sacrifices to pay the current fees.
"We're concerned about the possibility of raises in the fees and the affect it will have on parents and keeping their jobs," said Strong, a 28-year child care veteran. "People are not going to be able to afford child care."
Strong said child care leaders will be reaching out to businesses in the county since their employees rely heavily on quality child care. A petition drive, advertisements, a webinar and a meeting with Astorino were also discussed.
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