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Tag: alabama institute for social justice

Advocates React to President Trump’s Proposed Funding Freeze on Life-Saving Programs

Posted on

For Immediate Release

Jan. 28, 2025

WASHINGTON – On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would pause federal grants, loans, and other financial assistance. The announcement sent shock waves across the country. On Tuesday, Jan. 28, U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan temporarily halted the administration’s funding freeze. Human rights advocates, including those with the Raising Child Care Fund, voiced concerns over the impact of cuts to lifeline programs such as Medicaid, Head Start, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and more:

“With wages so low, and the price of basic necessities like food, health care, and rent so high, working families depend on federal programs like child care, Head Start, SNAP, and TANF to make ends meet,” said Mary Ignatius, Executive Director of Parent Voices.

“This administration has been in power for less than a month and it is already clear that the President is determined to pay for tax cuts for his billionaire friends by taking resources away from working people,” said LaDon Love, Executive Director of SPACEs in Action. “Every community in America is harmed by this order, from children in HeadStart to veterans, from medical researchers to construction workers.”

“Not only does this order bring harm and confusion to some of our most vulnerable community members, it is an attack on our Constitution which does not allow the President to disobey laws simply because he does not like them,” Love added. “If the President wants to repeal programs like Medicaid and HeadStart, let him take his case to Congress.”

“For this reason, our organization has chosen not to rely on federal grants. However, we actively advocate for child care providers who do benefit from these supports, working to advance the critical infrastructure necessary to meet the needs of marginalized families and children across Alabama,” said Lenice Emanuel, Executive Director of the Alabama Institute for Social Justice.

“Federal funding has been crucial in sustaining early education programs, especially in under-resourced communities where access to quality childcare and education is already limited,” said Dr. Constance Smiley Dial, owner of Trinity Kids Learning in Mobile, AL. “For providers like me, these grants are essential to maintaining operations, supporting staff, and offering affordable care to working families. These funds enable us to invest in updated educational resources, implement advanced curricula, and ensure safe and nurturing learning environments for the children of Alabama.”

“There is a very fragile and thin line between keeping a roof over your head or homelessness,” Ignatius said. “It is abhorrent that there is any discussion to freeze and essentially cut life-saving relief while boasting extending tax cuts for the 1% who don’t need it. This will cost taxpayers $400 Billion per year, and increase poverty at unprecedented rates.  The administration is limiting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to only the richest in this nation. It’s shameful.”

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SPACEs in Action is a non-profit, grassroots organization that advocates for the health and dignity of Black and Brown communities in the DC Metro region.

Parent Voices is a partnership of parents throughout California that combines leadership development and community organizing in its efforts to increase funding, improve quality, and provide better access to child care for all families.

Alabama Institute for Social Justice (AISJ) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for social justice and racial reconciliation across the state of Alabama.

Trinity Learning Center is a Christ- Centered Daycare that always strive to show each child that God’s world is a beautiful place to live, love and learn!

The Raising Child Care Fund (RCCF) is an initiative of ECFC that pools private foundation dollars to give grants to groups that lift up the voices of families, early educators, and allies—working alongside them to build powerful coalitions to transform child care and expand equity.

 

Child Care Providers Reveal Empty Promises, False Narrative from Alabama Department of Human Resources

Posted on

For Immediate Release

Nov. 8, 2023

“The truth is they are failing miserably.”

Montgomery, Ala. — On a media call organized by the Alabama Institute of Social Justice and the Raising Child Care Fund, Alabama child care center directors and owners spoke out about the state’s failure to effectively roll out funding from the recently expired American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) or implement programs to fix the broken system. The ARPA funding, which expired in September, was intended to stabilize the child care sector by supplementing care rates, but instead increased taxes to Alabama center owners and put many in a further deficit. While other states provided the funding in the form of grants, Alabama center owners received it as payroll creating a tax burden.

“Now that the money has gone, we feel that it could have been given out in a different manner so it would have lasted a lot longer,” said Constance Dial, PhD, who runs a center in Mobile, Ala. “Now we are back to where we were prior to the pandemic, and we were already working with an old system that needed to be dismantled and rebuilt.”

Providers expressed they are not able to pay enough to retain staff or recruit new teachers, and many are leaving the field.

“We still don’t have enough finances to increase salaries, so we’re fighting Starbucks, WalMart, and all these entities that we shouldn’t have to fight because we should be at an equal hourly rate,” continued Dial. “I’m looking for teachers. I’m down two teachers.”

“Every day we’re struggling. I’ve been doing this for 22 years and struggling for 22 years. Providers are worn out and ready to give up.”

Providers say the Department of Human Resources is controlling the narrative and painting a picture that it is doing all it can, while ignoring solutions brought forth by those actually providing care.

“What they are not telling you is, for me, they’re only paying $128 a week,” said Kishia Saffold, MBA, owner of Kiddie Care Learning Center Enterprise. “We see the numbers in the news and in the media about the exorbitant cost of child care all over the country, and at $128 we’re still having to require our parents to pay the difference between what the state pays and our rate. They’re not paying rates that are in line with our industry or with the rates of food cost.”

One solution providers agree on is addressing the state’s market rate survey, which was intended to determine child care rates based on location. Providers say the DHR publicly promised to form a committee to revisit the survey, and instead reinstituted it.

“We know the market rate survey is a failed tool. It does not get to the true cost of child care, and it creates a schism in the system as to who gets certain rates,” said Lenice Emanuel, Executive Director of the Alabama Institute for Social Justice. “Most providers don’t even fill it out because it doesn’t serve any purpose to advance the economic status of an organization.”

“Sometimes we are hogtied because the system is broken. It is splintered because one area is trying to move forward, and another is not even thinking about it,” said provider Lisa Nimmer in Greenville, Ala. “We need to value each and every child. This is the time to focus on [ages] 0-5. This is where we need to put our resources, not in higher ed. We need to focus on 0-5.”

 

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