Minutes - 20070604 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

serving Orange County in the most fiscally responsible way, supporting the workforce and saving $17.00 to every $1.00 spent to support low-income children in our community. The children served through CCSA's Scholarship program this current fiscal year are a median size family of three making $19,500. As of May 1, 2007, there are 461 unduplicated children waiting to receive a childcare subsidy. These children are on the CCSA wait list or the Orange County DSS wait list or both. Children on the Orange County DSS wait list have an average wait time of four months. The County dollars for subsidy has made a difference. Two years ago the wait time was 6 to 12 months. Your goal of reducing the wait time has been a collective effort through the state and federal dollars, but the County has also contributed to this goal. 1. We hope that the County will continue to invest $100,000 a year to directly support children of low-income families who need child care and to continue to reimburse the subsidy system for County employee's usage of state and federal subsidy dollars in the preceding year. This investment has helped Orange County significantly reduce its waiting list. It has also been key in drawing down additional state and federal dollars that now have a match requirement. 2. In 2005 a fund of $50,000 was designed to generate a privatelpublic match to increase the availability of subsidy. The privatelpublic match required asix- month agreement where Department of Social Services paid 50% of the cost for a subsidized child and the private business paid the other 50°~. After the six months the families would be funded through Department of Social Services. This program has been operating for two years. The vast majority of businesses that have participated in this program have been the childcare industry, which is already subsidizing the casts of childcare. Although the child care industry supports the privatelpublic partnership, the financial commitment is too high. The program was based on families waiting far 6+ months to be picked up from the Department of Social Services waiting list. The Orange County Child Care Coalition is asking the County to continue your commitment of $50,000, but to reduce the public financial commitment to two months, making it more affordable for the businesses that are making the match, the childcare providers. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you this evening. The child care community appreciates the support the Commissioners have given the families and children in Orange County." Michael Berliner said that he moved here from Los Angeles last year, and his daughter goes to McDougle Middle School. He spoke in support of Superintendent Pedersen's proposal to raise taxes appropriately to cover the costs of the school system. He said that the local school system is one of the main reasons he chose to locate to this community. He said that, specifically, the reputation of the school system was what drove him here. Almost a year later, the quality of life is just as it was promised to be by the Visitor's Bureau. He said that he is disappointed, dismayed, and angry about the budget crisis of the school system. He is also upset about the downward trend of the school system. He asked the County Commissioners to please fully fund the schools. Michael Woods is an OCS parent. He said that he just came to this meeting from the OCS Board meeting. He said that there are two schools in OCS that are currently at risk of falling behind in the No Child Left Behind mandates. He said that this budget would cut the resources these schools have. It is imperative to fund the school systems at least at the minimum level to maintain the current services. He made reference to the comment from