Many day-care centers close after budget cuts

May 31, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

DAYTON

Cuts to the state budget last year have meant fewer day-care subsidies for low-income, working Ohio parents, and dozens of day- care centers have cut jobs or closed, advocates say.

Over the second half of the last fiscal year, 45 centers closed for financial reasons, and this year is on track to see an even higher number, according to the Bureau of Child Development at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

A statewide survey by The Alliance of Early Learning Advocates about four months after the changes went into effect found that 35 percent of the 367 day-care centers that responded had cut more than 600 paying jobs and planned to cut an additional 450.

“Ohio has made significant cuts to its early-childhood programs over the past few years; as a result, many families who are eligible for help cannot get it and they make difficult choices between child care, food, housing, heat and other costs,” said Danielle Ewen of the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C.

The cuts to the budget, which went into effect in July, reduced the amount allocated to day-care subsidies and revised eligibility rules. Parents now can receive a subsidy if they earn up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level, which is 22,050 for a family of four, compared with 200 percent previously. Families between the two levels and already receiving aid were allowed to keep subsidies.

The changes also eliminated a preschool program for poor children.