Virginia’s governor on Thursday pledged more than $3.3 million to keep hundreds of Fairfax County children on subsidized day care, a move that reignited a partisan feud over the use of state dollars.
Officials and child care providers had feared that 1,900 children would have to be dropped from the program, or lost through attrition, as a result of multimillion dollar federal funding cuts.
Gov. Tim Kaine, surrounded by a clutch of toddlers and children at the Laurel Learning Center in Reston, announced the commitment of $4 million statewide to cushion the blow of the lost funds. Of that, $3,377,000 would go to Fairfax County. County officials say that money, coupled with a local match, will prevent any children from being cut from the subsidy, at least in the short term.
“I think this is the kind of stop-gap measure that can help some kids and help somefamilies,” Kaine said.
The issue is surrounded in rancor between the mostly Democratic Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and the GOP-led General Assembly, who have wrangled over who should take responsibility for funding child care. Republican delegates launched a round of criticism late Thursday afternoon, arguing the funds would be better used for transportation. “Northern Virginia’s commuters are sitting in traffic and Governor Kaine wants citizens to pay for baby-sitting,” said Del. Robert Marshall, R-Manassas, in a press release issued by the House Speaker’s Office. “While Northern Virginia commuters suffer, the governor continues to focus on other things.”
Annandale delegate Vivian Watts, a Democrat, called Marshall’s statement “totally inappropriate.”
“If we are concerned about family values, then those people who work must have adequate child care,” she said. Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald Connolly and Kaine have both criticized assembly members for shooting down a bundle of budget amendments earlier this year that would have bridged the local child care shortfall.
