Local News
Texas to cut nearly 10% of childcare scholarships - KCBD
Texas will cut 9.5 percent of its childcare scholarships over the next 18 months, eliminating subsidies for approximately 14,000 children statewide, even as 100,000 people sit on the waitlist to receive that same help. The Texas Workforce Commission voted last month to make the cuts.
The Texas Workforce Commission voted last month to make the cuts. The scholarships are federally funded and state administered, designed to help families afford childcare they otherwise could not. Losing nearly one in ten of those slots while the waitlist stays six figures deep means the gap between who needs help and who gets it grows wider, not smaller.
For Lubbock families already stretched thin, the math is brutal. One local mother, Miranda Gomez-Williams, is the sole provider for her one-year-old and eight-year-old. She pays around $60 per child, per day for childcare and has been waiting on a government scholarship to ease that cost. At $60 a day per kid, that is roughly $2,600 a month in childcare alone, before rent, groceries, or anything else.
Texas already had one of the longest childcare subsidy waitlists in the country, and the commission's vote does nothing to shorten it.
Common questions
How many Texas childcare scholarships are being cut and why does it matter?
- Texas is cutting 9.5 percent of its childcare scholarships, eliminating subsidies for about 14,000 children statewide. The Texas Workforce Commission approved the cuts last month. With 100,000 people already on the waitlist, the gap between families who need help and those who get it will grow even wider.
How much does childcare cost Lubbock families who lose these scholarships?
- One Lubbock mother, Miranda Gomez-Williams, pays around $60 per child per day for childcare. As a sole provider for a one-year-old and an eight-year-old, those costs add up fast. Losing a scholarship would make that expense nearly impossible to sustain on a single income.
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