THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 20, 1995 TAG: 9502200078
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
For 3-year-old Andrew Dugan, the paper doll was just another chance to wield a glue bottle and whip out some crayons.
But to his day-care provider, Celestine Washington, it was a chance to send a message to the country's lawmakers. Scrawled on the back are the words: ``Good child care helps families.''
The paper dolls, along with thousands of others from across the country, will be delivered to legislators in Washington on Thursday by child advocates angry at Republican proposals to cut the federal budget.
The advocates say the proposals will gut day care while welfare reform measures require more parents to work and send their children to day care.
``There's no way welfare reform can work without child care,'' said Kathryn J. Wolf, director of children's services at The Planning Council, a Norfolk-based agency that links parents with child care. ``These cuts could force parents to leave their children alone or put them in sweatshop day-care homes that have 20 or 30 kids in them.''
Parents and providers are most concerned about a food-subsidy program that reimburses day-care providers for serving meals and snacks according to nutritional guidelines.
Under a Contract with America proposal, the food subsidies would be forced to compete with other programs for block-grant money doled out to states.
The proposal would also limit the program to poor children. Child-care advocates say that will damage the overall quality of child care in Hampton Roads. To participate in the food program, providers must have some type of regulation, such as state license or registration, which requires they follow certain safety standards.
Without the incentive of the food subsidy, which provides about $723 per child each year, many providers may not bother to go through the licensing process. Day- care providers might also need to increase prices to parents to make up for the lost subsidy.
``Parents have a hard time affording care as it is,'' Wolf said.
Washington is one of about 600 day-care providers who receive the food subsidy in South Hampton Roads. Since the children she cares for in Virginia Beach come from middle-class families, her food subsidies could very well be cut if the block grants get consolidated.
``The program helps me serve more nutritious meals, and it makes the parents more comfortable knowing I'm following guidelines,'' Washington said.
Child-care advocates are also concerned that federal dollars used to improve the quality of child-care - scholarship money and training for day-care providers, plus referral services that link parents with licensed child-care - will be cut since federal dollars will be consolidated into block grants.
Most of that money will likely go toward child-care subsidies for working parents.
The Republicans' goal is to shift money to the people who need it most, rather than middle- and high-income families, and to give states more power to decide the best ways to use funding for day care.
To get lawmakers' attention, child-care advocates, providers and parents from throughout the country will gather in Washington Thursday for a ``March on the Hill.''
Kid-sized cardboard dolls will be presented to legislators, along with the thousands of small paper dolls made by children all over the country. Each doll will have a story of a working parent written on the back. ``I am a single parent and I don't always have time to plan a nutritious meal for my baby and his growing needs,'' reads the message on one doll written by a local parent.
Improving day care is particularly important in Virginia, which ranks near the bottom nationally in dollars spent on child-care services. In recent years, the General Assembly has taken steps to strengthen laws to improve day care.
``It seems like all that will be for nothing if these proposals go through,'' Wolf said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by PAUL AIKEN, Staff
Children at a day-care center, from left, Ryan Healy, 4, Emily
Brown, 2, and Andrew Dugan, 3, show dolls they made to Diane Jordan.
Children in day care all over the country are making dolls that will
be delivered to lawmakers Thursday in the ``March on the Hill.''
Photo by PAUL AIKEN, Staff
Children at Celestine Washington's day-care facility made this doll.
The tag says ``Help more families afford good child care.''
KEYWORDS: DAY CARE BUDGET CUT WELFARE SOCIAL SERVICES by CNB