The program offers two years of free tuition at the Community College of Rhode Island to recent high-school graduates who attend full time and maintain a C-plus average.
Six years ago, a woman in Downstate Springfield, Billie Aschmeller, took out a $596 short-term loan that carried a crazy high 304% annual interest rate. Even if she paid back the loan in the two years required by her lender, her total bill would exceed $3,000.
Before long, though, Aschmeller fell behind on other basic expenses, desperately trying to keep up with the loan so as not to lose the title to her car. Eventually, she ended up living in that car.
Aschmeller regrets she ever went the payday and car title loan route, with its usury-high levels of interest, though her intentions to buy a winter coat, crib and car seat for her pregnant daughter were understandable. She is now an outspoken advocate in Illinois for cracking down on a short-term small loan industry that, by any measure, has left millions of Americans like her only poorer and more desperate.
By GRACE BARBIC
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD – After an executive order from Gov. JB Pritzker that set monthly co-payments for child care services to $1 for all families expired last month, a House Committee on Friday agreed to continue working on legislation to create a law to make the benefit permanent for low-income families.
House Bill 141, sponsored by Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, would permanently offer the $1 monthly co-payment for child care services to families whose income is at or below 185 percent of the most recent federal poverty guidelines based on family size.
The bill advanced to the floor on a 9-2 vote with Ford noting his intent to return to committee with an amendment.
Illinois lawmakers debate $1 monthly copayments for child care
Grace Barbic
SPRINGFIELD – A House committee will continue to explore ways to extend Illinois $1 child care copays for low-income families now that Gov. JB Pritzker s executive order granting them has expired.
House Bill 141, sponsored by Rep. La Shawn Ford, D-Chicago, would make the temporary benefit permanent for families whose income is at or below 185 percent of the most recent federal poverty guidelines based on family size.
The bill advanced to the floor on a 9-2 vote Friday with Ford noting his intent to return to committee with an amendment.
The benefit was offered to low-income families after the Pritzker administration provided $270 million in funding to child care providers as part of the state’s federally-funded Business Interruption Grant Program, along with additional funding from federal coronavirus relief packages.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A Democratic state lawmaker hopes to make payments for childcare services easier on families struggling to get by. Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) says Illinois families living in poverty should only have to pay $1 per month for child care.
The Pritzker administration lowered childcare payments for eligible families to $1.25 for the first two months of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ford wants to make this emergency idea a law. His proposal for a $1 monthly co-pay would only be in place for families with income at or below 185% of current federal poverty guidelines.
Ford says families should be able to send their children to child care and keep more money to pay bills and put food on the table.