Child Care Collateral Damage is Unhealthy for this State, Life Changing and Wide Spread!

Child Care Collateral Damage is Unhealthy for this State, Life Changing and Wide Spread!

Economist Robert Schenk says those who are involved in government have the same motivations that those in the private sector have; that is, they are motivated by a narrow concept of self-interest: wealth, fame, and power. 

“There is no guarantee that policies made by representatives pursuing their own interests will be in the interests of the society.” 

The economic consequences of Governor Phil Bryant’s ambitious Child Care Development Fund advisors and policy makers may actually have done more to set back affordable, quality child care than any in the history of Mississippi’s administration of the Program.

The SECAC Strategic Plan outline showing the requirement of bachelor and master degrees in order to qualify as a Comprehensive center (posted on the SECAC website) is just beautiful in color and design and, I’m sure, aesthetically pleasing and impressive on a national stage.

The reality is these policy makers have effectively defunded the Child Care Assistance Program and adversely overpowered stakeholders.

• No new enrollment has been allowed in five years.
• No child care funding supporting parents transitioning from TANF to Mississippi’s full and regular workforce has been allowed.
• Approximately one half of the children who were being served have recently been terminated by new barriers to eligibility.
• Discretionary CCDF money received by MDHS on October 1, 2017, has not been released or is not yet where it should be in local economies and supporting child care infrastructure.
• Child Care Providers continue to be barred by MDHS as work site sponsors in the federal Alternative Work Experience Program and the TANF Work Program following state-wide engagement in federally protected activities protesting the adoption of the Xerox e-Childcare finger scan method of payment.
• The Social Security Numbers of civilian employees working for CCPP providers have been collected by NSparc in a new system of records. Section 658K(a)(1)(E) of the CCDFBG Act now prohibits the ACF-801 report from containing personally identifiable information.  See the written and published threat to providers who did not submit the Social Security Numbers on page 6 of the CCPP Newsletter, Vol. I, Issue I.
• Approximately 200 of approximately 1,200 current CCPP providers voluntarily opted out of intrusive and personally identifiable data collection and increased financial investment under threat of annual redeterminations by unknown standards and will no longer accept low-income children.
• The federal requirement of Equal Access continues to be challenged as policy makers limit payment to providers for disadvantaged and often unstable low-income children to only 15 excused days over 12 months. Payments must reflect generally accepted payment practices of child care providers who do not receive CCDF subsidies and must support the fixed costs of providing child care services based on a child’s enrollment rather than attendance.
• A child who turns 13 during the year is automatically cut off, but shouldn’t be.
• Educators and academia wishing to consolidate all federal funding streams serving children in order to further develop and expand each one’s own narrowly focused early learning model (there are 2) continue to vie for control of the CCDF through the creation of either an Early Childhood Services Interagency Coordinating Council or a Children’s Cabinet.  Both remove private sector child care providers from the policy making table – a direct violation of the CCDFBG – and greatly diminish the level of priority and recognition of child care infrastructure as the work force support system in economic development – the part and purpose of quality child care that is too often forgotten by non-business people (teachers with no experience in business or in managing federal programs).
• The MDHS Executive Director committed federal funding to help wipe out a $49,000,000 deficit at Child Protective Services due to Olivia Y vs. Bryant.

Parents have had to quit their jobs and depend on greater state assistance because they could not afford child care.

Work participation rates have likely gone down in Mississippi.

The risks of child neglect and abuse has now increased in Mississippi.  The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) researchers directly linked an increased unemployment rate to child maltreatment one year later.

Employers have lost entry-level but well-trained, employees willing to fill stubborn vacancies.

The child care infrastructure developed and based in the private sector (much like the developing charter school infrastructure) is crumbling, particularly in rural areas, as owners serving low-income children go out of business..

Other owners/directors of small child care businesses have taken stressful second jobs, returned to the public schools or are borrowing from (expending) retirement funds just to cover operating expenses during this turbulent time.

Staff members who are experienced and well-trained in curriculum and the health and safety of young children are exiting the industry for more stable and better paying jobs even at Wal-Mart.

The raise I considered for my staff members who successfully completed the rather stringent and time-consuming Childcare Director Associates (Associates degree equivalent but non-accredited at this time) has actually resulted in a great reduction in the hours they may work for minimum wage and that is only possible if I am not paid.

John Davis has appointed Dana Kidd as MDHS Deputy Director of Federal Programs.

In a very recent meeting with MDHS Executive Director John Davis, I was introduced to MDHS Deputy Director of Federal Programs Dana Kidd.

According to Ms. Kidd, CCDF program redress and announcements are to come expeditiously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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