Gov't Center Crowd Protests Cutbacks in Child Care Funds

A crowd of 300 working mothers, students and children rallied at Government Center yesterday to protest changes in regulations for Federal funding of child and health care programs and services to the elderly.

Speakers said that Massachusetts will lose $35 million worth of programs due to proposed changes in the guidelines of Title IV-A of the Social Security Act.

The speakers urged the public to petition congressmen and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare prior to March 18, the last day HEW will consider comments on the proposals. The proposals are tentatively scheduled to go into effect April 1.

About 500 people signed a petition drawn up by the protest organizers.

Linda Thurston, a member of Female Liberation, one of the sponsoring groups, said that the cutbacks will limit services for working mothers, women on welfare, retarded children, and the elderly, blind and disabled.

HEW Statement

The proposed new guidelines, published in the February 16 issue of The Federal Register, an HEW publication, stated that no more day care would be provided for former welfare recipients after they have left the welfare rolls for three months. It also stated that there would be no more matching of local private funds to get Federal monies for day care.

However, an article in yesterday's Boston Globe reported that Caspar Weinberger, HEW Secretary, had indicated Wednesday that the Administration will relax the guidelines to permit, with "safeguards," the matching of private funds with Federal supplements.

Weinberger also said that an attempt will be made not to deprive those who recently left the welfare rolls of necessary services.

Peggy Pizzo, a member of the Board for Day Care for Battered Children, announced at the rally that Washington had been flooded with mail, and that conservative southern senators, Nixon's "own bedfellows," were opposing the new guidelines.

Huby Jones, one of the speakers and head of the Welfare Coalition, said that Congress had allowed the administration "to walk all over them." He called for Congress to exercise its authority over appropriations.

He said the proposals heavily favor welfare recipients and are intended to "drive a wedge between welfare recipients and non-poor, so that the non-poor will say that welfare people are ripping them off." He said, "This war on the poor must be stopped."

Other speakers protested the elimination of federal day care funds for children whose mothers are neither employed nor in work training programs, the lack of parental involvement in day care, and the removal of Federal standards for day care.

The rally was organized by individuals from the Child Care Resource Center, Female Liberation and the New England Regional Council for Social Work at Simmons College and Salem State College.