DATE: Monday, April 7, 1997                 TAG: 9704070075

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE                   LENGTH:   42 lines

VA.'S FREE DAY-CARE PROPOSAL OPPOSED

The state's plan to give free child care to welfare recipients who get jobs would create an incentive for people to remain on public assistance, critics of the proposal say.

The state Department of Social Services has proposed the free child care for welfare recipients as part of its plan for spending a federal block grant. Non-welfare families earning the same income would have to pay a small portion of their child-care bills.

``We don't want to inadvertently create an incentive to get on or stay on (welfare) because that's where child care is available,'' said Robert A. Cox, Charlottesville's social services director. ``We're concerned that if the state segregates those funds, we will be shortchanging the non-welfare working poor.''

The debate comes as Virginia prepares to phase in welfare reform statewide this July, requiring thousands to find jobs and to put their children into an already overburdened day-care system.

Social workers and child-care professionals opposed the state's proposal Saturday at the first of four public hearings on the state's plan for spending the 1998 child-care block grant. In oral and written statements, they urged the state to apply the same sliding fee scale to those on and off welfare.

The state proposed putting $53 million toward child care for those receiving welfare. Another $42 million would go to low-income parents not on welfare, said Vincent Jordan, state day-care program manager.

Three other states - Georgia, Maryland and West Virginia - do not require a child-care copayment from welfare recipients, but do charge a copayment to low-income parents who make the same amount of money.

Representatives of the Thomas Jefferson Area United Way, the Virginia League of Social Services Executives and the Charlottesville Social Services Advisory Board echoed Cox's arguments against the proposal.

The league recommends anyone who makes 50 percent or less of the state median income be eligible for a child-care subsidy, spokesman Paul McWhinney said. KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM CHILD CARE

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