SALT LAKE COUNTY — Families in Salt Lake County are speaking out after a vote to cut funding for parks and recreation childcare programs.
Impacted parents say the change could force them to make difficult choices between work and family. "But you just want to take it away. Like, why?" asked Andrew Bowser.
For Andrew and Angelique Bowser, mornings at the Magna Recreation Center are a part of their family's routine. Their youngest daughter spends time at the rec center while both Andrew and Angelique work.
"It lets me be a better neighbor, lets me be a better dad," explained Andrew.
Soon, families like theirs could lose that support. The Salt Lake County Council voted 5-4 recently to cut funding for 4 county-run childcare centers in Magna, Kearns, Millcreek, and Salt Lake City's Fairpark neighborhood by the end of the year.
The county says the program, serving about 270 families during the school year, costs around $2 million a year to subsidize. Council members who supported the cut say the centers only reach a small number of families and are not financially sustainable.
But those reasons are hard to hear for the Bowsers who rely on the program. "Just in the climate that we're in right now, it's hard to find quality care for an affordable price," stated Angelique.
Council member Aimee Winder Newton said in a statement:
"Given that property taxpayers are already stretched, and the state already gives a generous childcare subsidy for those who need it, the council decided that the county is not best suited for run daycare programming. We are doing all we can to help impacted families find new arrangements."
"I can't just stop right now and go pay 8, $900 for childcare," Andrew Bowser stated.
That problem is especially true for people like Daisy Rodriguez, a single mother living in Kearns with three young kids who considers the centers a lifeline. "It takes a village to raise one child. To simply rip it away will destabilize a lot of members from our community," she explained.
The council hasn't made a final call on the funding yet. They plan to make a final decision in December.
For local families like the Bowsers and Daisy Rodriguez, that is time to fight for their children's future. "We're going to continue to fight because it's not right," Andrew Bowser stated.
