Community Services for Children provides early education services for children from low-income families. Yesterday, President Jane Ervin sent this letter, which is self-explanatory.As a result of the state failing to pass the early education portion of its 2009-2010 budget, Community Services for Children (CSC) must delay opening 12 of our 39 classrooms serving 233 preschoolers from poor families in Lehigh and Northampton Counties. These are among the most vulnerable children in the area!
CSC is forced to furlough 42 employees and reduce hours of an additional 88 employees between mid August and September 18th, representing between 10% and 20% reduction in pay for the period. About 46% of CSC's 280-person workforce is affected.
If the budget impasse remains unchanged by early September, we will need to reassess options to take more dramatic action, potentially affecting more children, families and staff.
In addition, the state has not reimbursed CSC for services already rendered in two other programs we operate: Child Care Information Services of Lehigh County and Northeast Pennsylvania Regional Keystone STARS program. The lack of payment has forced CSC to secure a $5 million line of credit, which will require a high interest repayment.
I am asking you to let your state representative and senator know that saving a penny now will cost a pound later. We can't afford to balance the budget on the backs of poor children who need quality early education now. As you know, children entering school unprepared all too often remain behind!
Please ask your representtaive/senator to resume negotiations and support early education at last year's levels.
To find your state representative and contact information, go to http://www.legis.state.pa.us.
Thank you for your help!
4 comments:
I would like to know which child care centers are closing. Are the high schools serviced by CSC still offering students child care?
I have mixed feeling about CSC's mission - they have an excellent spirit and work ethic, and I know personally (from volunteer work with their organization) how devoted their organization is to the children of this area.
However, are they inadvertantly enabling the continued pattern of teen motherhood and children being born into poverty? I know first hand from acquaintances in downtown A-town that worrying about finding childcare is not such a big concern for many young mothers - either the mother doesn't have a job herself (so no need to worry about where to send the baby during the daytime) OR the mother knows full well that child care is often provided at a steep discount (or for free) thru organizations like CSC. High unemployment in Allentown, coupled with large families, means that usually child care can be found within the family itself, usually from grandma. But grandma (or whomever) doesn't usually have the skill set to advance a child's education. That's really where CSC steps up and fills a gap.
Don't get me wrong - I am always in favor of bettering the lives of children. Children are innocent and deserve the best that society can offer. But, sometimes, the band-aids that society offers do more harm than good, and it is worthwhile to examine the ripple effects of providing free or reduced cost daycare to children of teenaged or underprivileged parents.
It says something that this story only received one comment, but the playground has received hundreds....where are our priorities when it comes to children?
The proposed playground would be a highly visible "bricks and mortar" project. Easy to come down on one side or the other for a variety of reasons. The benefits of early education are also highly visible, as are the results of inaction. Unfortunately, people tend to put their heads in the sand when it comes to seeing the results and funding the process. With every passing day the state compounds the problem by failing to reach a workable budget solution. Yet some sitting legislators are planning golf outing fundraisers within the next month. And so it goes....
This story is about kids. The playgound story is about adults...about property values, traffic, minorities going farther into the West End. That's why the playground story gets more comments.
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