In the past, Albo Must Go has featured how Delegate Dave Albo has advocated cutting the General Fund to pay for transportation (AMG, Cutting Gang Prevention, Kids & Community Colleges to Pay Paul)and how he led the floor fight to kick 1,900 poor Fairfax County kids out of state-subsidized childcare (AMG, Is Dave Albo Offering to Babysit 1,900 Children?). Has he learned anything new?
Well, today's Washington Post features a story about the reality of Del. Dave Albo's "transportation plan." By taking $200,000,000 out of the General Fund for transportation what happens?
Coleman is the mother of one of the more than 10,600 children on a waiting list for child-care subsidies in Virginia. The program, funded by state and federal dollars, is designed to defray the costs of child care for low-income families so the parents can work and don't have to rely on welfare or other public assistance.Would the $200,000,000 per year that they are raiding from the General Fund help to solve this problem? The Washington Post says there are 10,600 kids on the waiting list. Childcare for an infant runs about $1200/mo. up here in Northern Virginia or about $400/mo. for a school-age kid. Let's use some conservative assumptions here (Del. Dave Albo is "conservative"):The situation in Virginia has worsened since last year, when Congress directed states to move more people off welfare and into jobs. As part of the change, federal lawmakers required states to offer child care to families moving off welfare. In Virginia, officials shifted any new monies that could have been used for its existing child-care program, which aids working people such as Coleman, to the expanding one designed to help those getting off welfare.
For years, Virginia has failed to keep pace with the growing demand, particularly in Northern Virginia, leaving thousands of parents to consider a short list of unsavory options: quitting their jobs, taking second and third jobs at night, leaving older children to care for younger ones or leaving children with neighbors or in unlicensed child-care centers. . . .
Long List for Va. Childcare Subsidy Pushes Parents to Choose the Lesser of Evils, Washington Post, A01 (Mar. 6, 2007)
But this is a poor, rural Virginia problem, right?
Nearly half of the state's waiting list is made up of children who live in Arlington, Prince William, Fairfax and Loudoun counties. In each of those jurisdictions, the eligibility requirements are the most generous in the state.
Long List for Va. Childcare Subsidy Pushes Parents to Choose the Lesser of Evils, Washington Post, A01 (Mar. 6, 2007)
Virginia officials say the subsidy has traditionally succumbed to other priorities. In recent years, for instance, lawmakers have directed most new human services money to programs for the mentally disabled. Callahan and Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax) submitted a $17.1 million request during the General Assembly session that ended last month, enough to fully fund the program, that was not approved by other lawmakers.
Long List for Va. Childcare Subsidy Pushes Parents to Choose the Lesser of Evils, Washington Post, A01 (Mar. 6, 2007)
We have a proposal pending right now getting lots of press attention to raid the General Fund, they write this article about a program that's not getting funded, and the Washington Post article doesn't make any mention of why it didn't get funded?
It's like the Post has blinders on. It's marginally helpful journalism when they don't point out the connections between these problems.