Report urges more subsidies

ATLANTA --- State officials could ease burdens on working poor families over the next five years by investing nearly $100 million more to a program that subsidizes child care, according to a report released Monday.

The report by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute also said state officials can tap existing federal and state funds toward achieving the goal.

The analysis of Georgia's federal and state subsidized child care also recommends officials expand state Pre-K and study the preschool preparation levels of children enrolled in neither state Pre-K or federal Head Start programs.

"It's just a question of the state prioritizing where funds should be invested," said Clare Richie, the report's author and a senior policy analyst with the institute. "Especially in an economic time like this, you want to look at investments that are going to have a strong long-term impact -- and child care is something that can."

One in three children in Georgia younger than 6 lives in families with incomes below 150 percent of the federal poverty threshold -- $26,400 for a family of three, according to the analysis.

Parents of those children often rely on one of the state's three major programs that provide subsidized child care, Child Care and Parent Services (CAPS), Georgia Pre-K and Head Start/Early Head Start.

CAPS is most encompassing: Funded by a combination of federal and state money, the program covers part of expenses for child care using a scale set by state officials, for children up to about age 13, depending on circumstances.

Georgia Pre-K and the federally administered Head Start program are designed for pre-grade school children.

The report says the state's fiscal year 2010 budget for CAPS -- between $207.5 million and $217.5 million -- will let the program serve just shy of 54,000 children maximum per month, a five-year low.

But the report recommends officials try to reach 80,000 children a month by fiscal year 2014.

The report suggests a five-year investment of $20 million a year to expand the number of children served; funds could come from reallocation of federal TANF funds and from state coffers, Ms. Richie said.

The report recommends the state eliminate an 8,100-child waiting list for the state Pre-K program by investing an additional $33.3 million a year in state lottery proceeds.

Ms. Richie also suggested the program expand services to fold in 4-year-olds currently served by Head Start, letting that program focus more on equipping more 3-year-olds for school.

The report said state officials should study what, if any, preschool preparation children served by neither program receive.