Low-income, working parents are fighting to once again have help from the state for childcare. IPR's Amanda Vinicky reports.
Since July, Illinois has drastically reduced who's eligible for the state's daycare assistance program. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner made the change - he says to save money. For nearly two hours at a recent hearing in Springfield, daycare providers and parents -- like Chante Morrison -- pressed Rauner to cancel the rollbacks.
Morrison's a single mother of two girls from Galesburg.
"I wanna work; my children need to know that you have to work to succeed."
But Morrison says she had to quit her job at Wal-Mart; at $10.30 an hour, it was too much to qualify for daycare help. Without the subsidy, she says she can't afford daycare.
“Basically, we're going on public assistance which is taking more money from the state."
Legislators could vote on the standards later this month; so far, it's been a partisan fight-- Republicans side with the governor.
