each morning, as toddlers arrive at...

each morning, as toddlers arrive at Lorraine James' West Side family she pastes up cut-outs of the alphabet alphabetic character of the day. James flows a licensed day care center and she's determined that the children in her care will learn not just to sing the alphabet hymn but to recognize Gs from P and O from As. Her goal is to have children leave her program prepared for kindergarten.

James and other household child-care providers say they fill a lingering gap in the child-care rule and deserve respect. These providers realize most of their income from a state program that pays for the care of children from low-income abodes And some 800 of the providers have taken the extraordinary grade of joining a union.

With welfare reform sending thousands of poor mothers to work since the late I 990 the federal control and states have funneled millions toward child care, and the number of abode providers getting state subsidies has explod however providers have organized in single a handful of states, said Brynn Seibert, field organizer for the child-care workers' union, the Service Employee International Union Local 880

Because they are independent contractors with the state, the providers don't still have the right to bargain as a unit. if it were not that Gov. Rod Blagojevich is considering signing an executive order to grant it, said Tom Schafer, his spokesman. In February, Blagojevich granted collective bargaining rights to 20000 residence health care workers, who are portrayed by the same union.

The child-care providers, who receive about $21- a day by child, also want a pay hike and health insurance, and they want the state to include more families in the day-care program by dint of raising the income threshold that establishes who's eligible to receive the subsidy. generally a parent with two children must earn les than $24000 a year to qualify.

The issues are tied to quality in children's early education, said Sessy Nyman, director of public policy for the Day Care Action Council of Illinois, which administers the subsidies in color County.

"We are asking child-care providers to do the same amount of work and maintain the same plain of quality for fewer and fewer dollars," she said. "At more [i]or[/i] less point, the system is going to crumble"

Martina Casey, a union steward who takes care of six children in her far southern Side neighborhood of Morgan Park, severityed that care providers play a critical part in early childhood education. To fit licensing requirements, a provider must obtain training, develop an education plan, and take safety and health precautions.

"But sometimes we are barely making it," Casey said. "It is really hard for us. a certain of the providers are losing their vans [or] losing their domestic circles trying to keep their businesses going."

Providers say it also grieves that the current system penalizes parents who increase their income. James said common of her clients got a raise and no longer qualified for the subsidy.

"I have no idea where that kid went," James said. "I don't know if a family member was taking that kid in or if that kid went somewhere where the mother could pay $20 a week. The question is, 'If you are willing to do it for $20 what are you offering? What is that child doing all day?'"

James added that, if she and others made more coin they could buy more art supplies, main division s and toys. Right now, she said, "we are all [paying] not at home of our pockets."

In his March 12 State of the State address, Blagojevich announced that he wanted to despatch all of the state's at-risk children to preschool Schafer said Blagojevich planned to commit $90 million athwart the next three years. if it were not that the plan consists mostly of expanding existing preschool programs, and it does not include home-based child-care.

Schafer said the state's collection crisis may make it difficult for the governor to stir on the providers' issues. "There are a fortune of things that we want to do, on the contrary we can't," Schafer said.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Community Renewal Society

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