Starting Monday, Kentucky will be offering low-income families less help with daycare costs. Income guidelines are being changed for the Child Care Assistance Program.
More than 14,000 children live in families who will earn too much to qualify but too little to pay for child care and still make ends meet. Catharine Kaiser of Louisville is a single mom working and going to school full-time.
"The child care assistance program is the backbone to getting me where I need to be,” says Kaiser. “It helps me get through school. I'm at the end of my two-year degree.”
The 23-year-old Kaiser only has six months before she graduates, but worries without child care, she may not be able to finish her associate's degree. Kaiser says she feels as if she's being punished for trying to get off of government assistance.
"I'm taking the steps to get off assistance. If I lose it, I may have to use more benefits than I do now,” Kaiser fears.
Similar cuts are being made to the Kinship Assistance Program, which provides financial help to families that take in young relatives.
The group Kentucky Youth Advocates is organizing a state call-in Monday, asking citizens to call the governor's office and ask for the cuts to be restored.
