I got a sad note yesterday from a woman whose son, a single custodial parent, had been notified by state Human Services that a child care aid program was running out June 30 and his payments would cease.
My son brings home $539 every two weeks from his job. His daughter’s child care would be $204 for the same period of time, roughly 40% of his take-home pay.
Since he cannot quit his job to take care of his daughter, he called multiple times every business day the following week for Ivory Daniels, at the number listed on the letter. He was never permitted to speak to Mr. Daniels, and when he asked what other kinds of child care assistance were available to him, he was sent to a voice mail message that said an operator was not available.
I was finally able to get hold of Mr. Daniels by email, and he provided me with a list of Saline County Head Starts (3 of them) that only operate during the school year. The ABC programs to which he referred us provide some limited assistance up to 5 hours per day.
I have not seen any media coverage of what will shortly be a catastrophic financial events for hundreds of Arkansas parents in a disasterous economic climate.
I asked Julie Munsell at DHS about the program’s end. The short answer is that this aid was federal stimulus money. It put people to work in daycare caring for 11,000 children. It helped a working man make ends meet. Now it’s over. Was the stimulus a failure? Or was failure to do more stimulus the failure? Munsell’s response to my original question: