Kentuckians care about kids. Does the legislature?

Another devastating impact of the legislature's refusal to pass comprehensive tax reform kicked into full gear last week. It was the first week that many Kentucky families are facing full-on the recent cuts to Kinship Care and the Child Care Assistance Program.

As of Friday, the income eligibility for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) has decreased from 150% to 100% of the poverty line.  This means that 14,000 children who used to be covered by the program are no longer covered. As of Friday, Kentucky has the lowest eligibility threshold in the nation.  In the past, a family of four qualified with a monthly income of less than $2,794. Now, the same family can't make more than $1,863 per month to qualify.

In addition to the eligibility cuts, the program is now under a freeze; new vacancies that open up when children enter school will no longer be filled. The program will shrink, with fewer and fewer slots every year.

Hannah Goble is the Director of a child care center in Lexington.  She says, “Through this program, we are able to feed, shelter, and prepare young children for the future.”  Hannah is concerned that the drastic cut in the number of children covered, the CCAP cuts will “will make it harder for low income families to invest in early childhood education for their child.” And this has enormous ripple effects.  “When looking at the nation’s top performing school systems, leaders attribute early childhood education as a key factor in their success. …The achievement gap will grow wider. As a state, we must break the poverty cycle.”

Kinship Care is also under a freeze. Kinship Care offered a $300 stipend to family members who were in financial need and are caring for children who had been abused or orphaned. It makes it possible for a grandmother to care for her grandchild, keeping him out of the foster care system, and still pay for her medication.

What will be the impact on kids, poverty rates, and jobs in Kentucky? The Governor’s Office of Early Childhood’s 2013 Profile reports that 30 percent of Kentucky’s children live under the poverty line, while 42 percent live just above the poverty line, at up 10 150 percent of it.  Fewer parents who can afford child care mean fewer people who can afford to work, and fewer child care centers that can continue to operate. Additionally, many of the workers who will lose their jobs will also not qualify for CCAP under the new restrictions, compounding the number of Kentuckians out of work.

For more about the CCAP and Kinship Care cuts, see the WFPL story, and this powerful op-ed by Steve Magre, of Child Care Advocates of Kentucky, in the Courier.  The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy also has a recent report about the impact of the CCAP and Kinship Care cuts.