More on child care crisis

More on the emerging child care funding crisis here.

The only positive is that the State of Illinois is truly starting to hit bottom.  Maybe leaders will finally start to take some bold actions??

This situation is a total disgrace.  The state is forcing many small child care centers to decide -- either mortgage everything and gamble that the state will eventually catch up on payments,  or close down now and stop serving their good customers -- hard working low-income families who are paying a portion of the child care, but cannot afford the full freight without a subsidy.  

Chicago Commons currently has enough cash on hand to last for a couple of months, but this is very worrisome to us also.

Over 100 parents from Chicago Commons will be going to Springfield on May 16th to say something about all of this.

Child Care is at the heart of our economy

Child Care is at the heart of our economy... especially right now among low-wage workers.  Low-wage households cannot continue to work full-time without child care subsidies.  The cost of full time child care easily eats up most of these families' paychecks.  Without subsidy, they are better off working odd jobs or irregular hours.

This is proven... see the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Families with child care are between 13 and 32% more likely to be employed.  This from one of the nation’s most influential economics organizations, the one that officially declares when recessions begin and end.

It is time for us to wake up and understand child care's critical role in our economy.  

In the meantime, funding for State of Illinois child care subsidy just ran out this month , so organizations like Chicago Commons might not get paid for May or June.  Unless the State takes action on this, we will soon be forced to decide whether to cut off families who come to us for full day care.  A suburban center was on the news tonight because they just broke the news to parents that they might cut off full day care immediately.

Taking the Medicine

Finally, we have a bold prescription for Illinois’ fiscal crisis, thanks to Governor Pat Quinn. Maybe we should call him “Dr. Quinn Medicine Man”. This week was a momentous week.

The Governor announced massive proposed changes to the State’s pension and Medicaid systems. These are cuts worth many $billions over the next several years.

This is very bitter medicine. It will be painful for many people with modest or low incomes. But if these steps are not taken, it will mean even worse devastation later.

And, vital social services like child care subsidies have already been cut and are at risk of being completely squeezed out of the state budget if these steps are not taken.

Now it is up to the Legislators to follow Dr. Quinn’s lead and adopt these tough measures.

Chicago Commons, had its own days of financial reckoning several years ago. It required some bitter medicine too. But because we made sacrifices, we are able to continue our positive impact on communities today. By taking these tough steps today, the State of Illinois will have brighter days ahead.

Funny Thing Happened

In 2007 a federal law was passed to increase the focus on school readiness among Head Start funded programs. Chicago Commons totally supports the growing focus on school readiness.

But a funny thing happened on the way the forum.

Part of the 2007 law focused on the idea that under-performing programs should be made to re-compete for their funding. Who can argue with that? Sounds great.

But what many people don’t know is that the federal government’s process for reviewing and judging program performance can be erratic and arcane. Today, some strong programs are being found as “deficient” because they temporarily fell out of compliance with a single regulation among a 3 inch binder full of them.

As a result, 10 Head Start programs are suing the federal government because the process seems unfair and inconsistent. Head Start programs suing the government? This was unheard of until now.

Fortunately, Chicago Commons passed its recent federal review, but we were nervous. Why? Because we were hiding something? Not at all. We were nervous because we know that even the strongest programs run the risk of an expected event or problem that could derail a review. We were also lucky to be assigned a very experienced review team.

We are all for high stakes pressure on programs to drive performance. But if you are going to put programs under the microscope, you need a precision lens that can truly distinguish between systemic problems and isolated trip-ups.

Piccolo Protest

Piccolo Elementary -- in the news today for the parents who occupied the school overnight.

Since last summer, Chicago Commons has been involved at Piccolo when a good new principal was hired by CPS. We started parent classes and after-school activities at Piccolo this Fall.

In December, CPS announced a proposal for Piccolo to be “turned around”, which means replacing all staff with new staff including the principal. The Board of Education votes on this proposal next week.

Here is our perspective on the protest: Piccolo has been struggling for years, but when CPS fired the previous principal and hired a new principal last summer, they created positive energy among parents. That is why we are even at the school. If it weren’t for CPS hiring the new principal, it is unlikely the parents would have even organized this type of protest. So, in a way, the protest itself is a product of CPS’ own successful effort to improve the school last year.

Chicago Commons supports a community council counter proposal to delay turnaround at Piccolo for one or two years… monitor the outcomes (i.e. test score data) and then do a turnaround (with parent/community support) if no real progress is showing at that point. So far the Mayor and CPS leadership have not responded to this idea. We shall see what happens next week.

Regardless of outcome, Chicago Commons is committed to supporting improvement at Piccolo however we can.

Beyond This Blog

You need to check out the Chicago Commons RISE Tumblr Site!

Ok, I've been posting on this blog for a couple years.

It's a nice archive of thoughts along the way.

But this blog is such a narrow window onto Chicago Commons.

I am really excited about the potential for using tools like Tumblr. Instead of having to read a lot of text, you can just scan the "stream" of posts. You can literally see how the year is progressing just through the chain of images and short posts. Ok -- End of advertisement for Tumblr.

Just go check out RISE site at Richards, this is what the future looks like.

Another lens on Hull House Closing

What would Jane Addams think of Hull House closing?

One of our Associate Board Members, Ivan Medina, answered this question publicly in The Chronicle of Philanthropy last week. Link is for subsription only, so here's quick version:

Ivan thinks Jane Addams would not have recognized Hull House today. Her Hull House was not supported much by government. Today's Hull House had become a patchwork collection of government funded programs to a large degree.

“Jane Addams was about social change. She challenged government. She organized strikes,” Ivan says. “If you become an arm of government, you can’t protest government, its bad policies and unequal services. You can’t take the stands you need to take.”

Ivan thinks she might be most upset by how employees were treated at the end -- one week’s notice, no extended health insurance or severance pay. “She would be organizing them for protests.”