Cynthia Tolentino has two boys, ages 6 and 8, who have attended the YMCA in Cranston for five years. They go there after school and often before school while Tolentino works with cancer patients at Urological Surgeons of New England and studies nursing at the Community College of Rhode Island.
But Tolentino is worried that her life will change drastically if Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s proposed cuts to child care subsidies are approved by legislators.
The cuts would limit eligibility for subsidized or free child care to families at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty line, or $25,755 for a family of three. The cutoff is now 225 percent of poverty, or $38,633 for a family of three.
Tolentino, who earns $28,000 a year, would thus lose her benefits and would have to pay $9,600 per year to retain her child care. Currently, because of the subsidies, she pays $3,600. Across the state, the subsidies for about 3,800 children would be eliminated.
“Sixty-three percent of single parents receive this,” Tolentino said. “How are we going to do without it?”
Since she can’t afford the cost of child care, Tolentino said, her options are to leave the boys with her 85-year-old grandmother, who doesn’t speak English, or reduce her hours at work.
“I would probably have to cut down my hours by about 50 percent,” she said. “This is going to increase welfare.”
Children’s advocates agree, and together with child care and after-school program providers, they have formed a 39-member coalition, Care for Kids, to fight against the cuts.
Last Tuesday, the House Finance Committee held a hearing about the cuts, and after hearing from parents and advocates, legislators grilled Gary Alexander, acting director of the R.I. Department of Human Services.
“You don’t think there will be job loss?” asked Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence. “For years, the department has made a correlation between day care and case loads. … I really want to know where the change in philosophy came from.”
“We want individuals working, not going back” on the Family Independence Program, said Rep. Elizabeth M. Dennigan, D-East Providence. “We’re complaining about people staying at home and getting government money, but day care keeps them working.”
Dennigan cited a 2003 study by Bryant University for the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce that found that for every $1 the state pays to subsidize day care, it gets back $1.75.
Alexander’s response remained steady.
“We estimate that approximately 35 percent of those in the 150-to-225-percent range were on FIP,” he said. “But the vast majority of these people were not on FIP, and the ones that were are clearly over the income level now and have become accustomed to a higher standard of living. We don’t estimate that very many or any would fall back on FIP.”
But when the day care program started in 1998, the goal was to get people off welfare, and the cutoff was 185 percent of the poverty level. It was raised to 200 percent and then 225 percent in 1999.
Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said the cuts are necessary.
“At the end of the day, when you’re closing a $360 million budget gap, if we do not achieve savings in some areas such as human service programs, there will have to be other savings such as layoffs of state employees or furloughs,” Neal said. “None of these options are going to be popular, but the savings must be achieved.”
The cuts are expected to save the state about $19 million.
