The child care dilemma

One of the most visible and damaging consequences of Louisiana’s budget quagmires is the effect they’ve had on low-income parents seeking quality, affordable care for their young children. The number of children served through the state’s Child Care Assistance Program has plummeted from nearly 40,000 six years ago to around 12,000 today. The Gambit’s Della Hasselle highlights the outstanding work being done by the Policy Institute for Children, whose director, Melanie Bronfin, explains why early childhood education is so critical.

According to Bronfin, there are two ways to think about how child care security affects future generations. The obvious way is to consider the child’s education and the impact it has on his or her success. Then there are the broader economic and public policy factors. Economist James Heckman, citing well-documented studies that show 90 percent of a child’s brain development takes place before age 5, said investing in early education is “the most efficient use” of state funds.   In Louisiana, poor early education policies have a dramatic impact on kids, even by age 5: Nearly 46 percent of kids enter kindergarten already behind. “A child’s experiences from birth through age 4 wire a child’s brain for success or failure in school, work and life,” Bronfin said. “The question becomes, where are these children? Where are they being taken care of?”

Medicaid expansion is working

A recent study published by JAMA Internal Medicine found people in Arkansas and Kentucky  – which have expanded their Medicaid programs – were 5 percent more likely to say they were in excellent health than respondents in Texas, which has not. Other studies show that people in states who have expanded Medicaid are less likely to postpone care and are less likely to be in debt due to medical bills. Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York times has more:

It found that people in the expansion states were more likely to have a doctor and to have a place to go for care. They said they were more likely to have their chronic disease treated, and that they were more likely to have received screening for high cholesterol or high blood sugar, markers for heart disease and diabetes. On financial measures, the study was in line with some previous studies, finding that people in Kentucky and Arkansas were less likely to postpone care or avoid taking prescribed drugs because of the cost, and that they were less likely to be struggling with a medical bill. On almost all measures in the survey, the size of the difference between Texas and the other states was bigger in 2015 than it was in 2014. That trend makes some sense: Once you get health insurance, it might take a while before you start getting health care, and even longer before you’ll start getting healthier (optimistically assuming that you do). But the trend suggests that we may need to wait some time in evaluating the health law’s effects before we really know how big they are.

Let the low-risk go

Jailing criminal suspects deemed to be “low-risk” for even a few days increases their chances of being arrested again when on pre-trial release, according to a new study by the Vera Institute of Justice. While New Orleans has substantially decreased its jail population since Hurricane Katrina, some think more could be done to keep those who do not pose a risk to themselves or the community out of a toxic environment. Richard A. Webster of  NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune has more.

“Holding low-risk arrestees in jail is not only unnecessary, it is counterproductive. Timely release is essential because even a few days in jail for low-risk arrestees increases their chances of being arrested for a new offense while on pre-trial release,” according to the study… There were 646 people who were released between January and March because prosecutors dropped their charges, or they received probation or a time-served sentence. They spent a total of 30,508 days in jail over the course of three months, or an average of 47 days per person. The second largest group consisted of 1,765 people who eventually paid their bond and were released before trial. They spent 15,885 days in jail, or an average of nine days per person. It costs the city an average of $113 a day to jail a single person. “If people who pose little risk were released pretrial without the delays associated with financial bonds, thousands of days in jail could be safely avoided,” the authors wrote.

Construction “wish list”

Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says the annual capital construction budget has become a wish list, as the state doesn’t have nearly enough money to fund the projects identified. Dardenne told WWL that while Louisiana has massive construction needs, a self-imposed cap on borrowing limits what projects can be built. It’s yet another reminder of the need for real tax reform in the next legislative session.

He says the bond commission only allows the state to borrow 6% of what funds the Revenue Estimating Conference says the state has…He says just because a project is included in the construction bill doesn’t mean it will be completed because the funds may not be available. “The demand, though, is not decreasing. We’re 1,400 requests for capital outlay in the current year, totaling $3.6 billion,” Dardenne said.

Number of the Day:
3.5 – Percentage of at-risk infants in Louisiana who qualified for public assistance and were actually served in 2015. (Source: Louisiana Department of Education via The Gambit)