Hamilton condemns child care voucher cuts, points to misplaced priorities
Today, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) announced via press release that Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) voucher reimbursement rates will be cut anywhere from 10 to 35%, depending on age range.
The reimbursement cuts are as follows:
Infants (0–12 months): 10% decrease
Toddlers (13–36 months): 10% decrease
Preschoolers (3–5 years): 15% decrease
School-Age Children (K–12): 35% decrease
In the press release, the Braun administration characterizes the cuts as an inevitable outcome of the Holcomb administration's choice to put temporary COVID-relief dollars toward CCDF funding. However, Gov. Braun and Statehouse Republicans still found the funds to create a universal private school voucher program and cut taxes during this year's budget session – both choices that will not benefit the budgets of working families who rely on child care vouchers.
House Democratic Caucus Chair Carey Hamilton (D-Indianapolis) released the following statement condemning the provider cuts:
"While Gov. Braun and the Republican supermajority provide private school vouchers to billionaires, they have now put working Hoosier families in the impossible situation of deciding whether to have a job or stay at home and take care of the kids. I reject the Braun administration's claim that they had to do this. They did not. There was no requirement to blow a $200 million hole in our biennial budget this year by opening up private school vouchers to the wealthy. This amount would nearly cover the projected deficit of the child care voucher program, but Statehouse Republicans chose to prioritize the wealthy over working-class families.
"It's simple market logic. You reduce the amount of funding the state is paying to child care providers to serve low-income working families, and those providers are either going to close or stop offering their services to those families. Combined with cuts to pre-K voucher reimbursement rates from earlier this year, families with young children are going to be hit incredibly hard.
"I am especially disappointed by the path this will set our state's child care and early education system on. In recent years, we've been increasing reimbursement rates, but now, we're going in reverse. Modern workforce infrastructure, which I thought so-called pro-business Republicans agreed with me was necessary, requires affordable child care so that families are incentivized to have children and both parents can have full-time jobs, if they so desire. This is short sighted and will hurt kids, families and the long-term economic prospects of our state."