State Representative Jehan Gordon worked alongside a home child care provider Monday and got a firsthand look at a form of critical care in Illinois that is facing a $50 million budget shortfall and threats of greater cutbacks due to the state’s unprecedented budget deficit.
“Access to child care is critical for working families when times are tough,” said Antonia Cotton, who spent the morning showing Rep. Gordon a typical day in her home child care while discussing the impact of the state budget. “There are already too many children who aren’t getting the care they need. Cutting $50 million from the Child Care Assistance Program would force more families out the program and threaten parents’ ability to continue working.”
From the Peoria Journal-Star:
The book “Animal Boogie” won- two votes to one - among state Rep. Jehan Gordon’s pre-school constituency Monday. Zakiya Burke, who is 1 and who sat on Gordon’s lap, abstained. The other children settled on the floor in front of Gordon in the home of Antonia Cotton, their day-care provider.
“Now that’s the way you’re supposed to be at this time of day,” Gordon said and launched into reading “Animal Boogie.” and “Nice and quiet.”
Soon the children were flapping their arms like parrots and roaring like lions.
Gordon, D-Peoria, visited Cotton’s home in the 2400 block of North Peoria Avenue on Monday morning. It was one stop on her own legislative spring break fact-finding mission intended to help her decide how she might vote on a state budget that needs to close a $12 billion deficit with cuts, tax increases or some combination of the two. Child-care advocates, including Cotton, who has taken state-subsidized children into her home for 15 years, fear cuts of upward of $50 million would gut the state’s Child Care Assistance Program.
“We are in a fiscal crisis and whether tax increases or deep budget cuts are going to start to get us out of it, everything should be on the table right now,” Gordon said. “I’m here this morning to see what those cuts mean on the ground to the providers and to the people who depend on them.”
More than 170,000 children in Illinois - 3,000 in Peoria County - receive child care through the state’s Child Care Assistance Program. The state pays licensed day-care providers an amount per child they care for and the customers pay the state on a sliding scale depending on income. Recipients of the aid must be working or attending school.
Gordon’s visit to Cotton’s day care in her home - she takes care of seven children ages 1 to 6 - was arranged by Campaign for Illinois’ Future, a new lobbying coalition of community, advocacy and labor organizations. The group wants the state to be judicious with budget cuts while looking for new revenue sources. The group, and Cotton, told Gordon on Monday that cuts alone won’t solve the crisis.
“We’re counting on our elected officials to do the right thing by finding a real solution, one that doesn’t threaten the future of our families and the critical programs we depend on. We need to protect our children with a budget that includes a fair income tax increase and protects families against devastating cuts.”
Gordon hasn’t signed on to any budget proposal, specifically or in concept.
“I’m a freshman legislator. It would be presumptuous of me to be out front on any plan. So I’m out spending my spring break talking to people and finding out what cuts would mean to the people in the district. Only then can I begin to make up my mind.”
© 2012 Campaign For Illinois' Future |