Cuts to funding for child care services could cause voucher subsidy programs to falter, day cares to shut their doors and the parents who rely on them to lose jobs and homes, according to officials.
Action for Boston Community Development President and CEO John Drew said in a statement released this week that critical voucher subsidies which enable parents to send kids to day care are in peril amid 70 to 80 percent state cuts.
“I believe that the state has not understood the significant role and efficient operation of the [Child Care Resource & Referral] Network, and, more importantly, has underestimated the ability of the state infrastructure and early childhood system to absorb this deep reduction five months into the fiscal year,” Drew wrote in a letter to the state earlier this month.
ABCD — which operates as the CCRR for Boston, Brookline, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop — provides child care voucher services for 12,000 children from 7,900 families. Statewide, CCRRs verify subsidy vouchers for 57,000 children totaling $268 million.
