For the love of all that is holy Fuck this shit.
No children, this is no acceptable. Gather round: Poor people have rights. Yeah, I said it. It
is not acceptable to scan the fingers of poor parents receiving subsides in
child care while other people just walk in and out with their children. Kathy
Mulady for Equal Voice News wrote about this phenomenon in Mississippi.
Susan Williams, who is subjected to the finger scans had this to say, “I
don’t mind it, but I really don’t see the point in it, I don’t understand why
it’s necessary. You have to stand in line and wait for it.”
Others were more critical, saying it is embarrassing and inconvenient. According
to a statement from Mississippi DHS, the finger scanning system “will maximize
federal dollars” though improving accuracy of attendance figures and cutting
administrative costs, which is somehow going to enable more children to be
served. Of course the childcare providers and advocates are singing a different
song. They claim this new system will do the opposite of what it says it will.
They claim the costs and disruption of the gate-keeping system will reduce the
number of centers will to accept children with federal childcare vouchers. Oh, so this is the point: to embarrass the
poor parents and segregate the poor children.
One low-income parent has filed a class action lawsuit claiming the
finger scan is an invasion of her privacy (doesn’t
she know poor people have no privacy: second class citizens with their
reproduction restrictions and the amount of information that has to be shared
with caseworkers) and that requiring her to submit to a fingerprint scan
without cause is an unreasonable search and seizure. Yes, yes it is.
The American Civil Liberties Union in Mississippi (who I imagine are
always busy) are investigating the legality of the finger scans. Progressive
Louisiana is the only other state that requires finger scans of low-income
parents at daycare centers. The ACLU in Louisiana’s (another group I imagine
doesn’t get many days off) executive director, Marjorie Esman says, “We don’t
treat people like criminals when they have done nothing wrong. Government doesn’t
need to keep a record of the fingerprints of innocent people.”
Childcare rights advocates are concerned about what is happening in Mississippi.
Kim Kruckel, the executive director of the Child Care Law Center in San
Francisco, says, “If the goal is fraud prevention and efficiency, then there is
certainly lots of ways to do that without requiring biometrics.”
More so, why are we assuming
there is a fraud problem? What is this based on? Who are you?
Kruckel goes on to say, “Just because parents are poor, they still have
the same privacy rights, and they have the right to choose who picks up their
children from child care without having to submit them for fingerprinting. For undocumented
families this will provide a real barrier to child care. That would be a huge issue
for us in California.”
Mississippi has a huge waitlist for childcare subsidizes,
and this verification system will cost the state more than 1.6 million a year.
Because you know that’s going to help the children more than sending their
8,000 kid waiting list to childcare. Carol Burnett, executive director of the
Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative says, “There is no evidence that
fraud is a problem in the child care program.” You don’t say?
She continued to say, “In addition, it is really hard for
parents to get vouchers in Mississippi. It’s a cumbersome process; it requires
extensive documents and it unnecessarily complicated.”
Mulady attempted to get a statement from Mississippi DHS,
but none of her calls were returned.
There are complaints about the finger scanning machines
already available like sometimes they are finicky and complicated. Childcare
providers and low-income parents in Mississippi are fighting back. First they
held public meetings with state officials, then filing lawsuits, and urging
legislators to block the program. The latest lawsuit was filed by Elizabeth
Williams who fears she will lose her childcare subsidizes if she refusing the
finger scan.
Despite concerns of the parents, advocates, and childcare
providers, the state is moving forward on this. The verification systems will
be in place in 400 centers soon. It is an offensive practice for the low-income
parents, but it is also an added burden for the childcare providers. The
parents who receive childcare vouchers are going to be required to attend
trainings and have their fingers scanned into the system at the central office.
The office is only open during business hours so the parents will have to miss
work because that’s great for the low-income. Each owner of a childcare
facility that accepts vouchers has to place a $900 deposit on the electronic
finger scanners and open a bank account so that reimbursements can be
automatically deposited or withdrawn.
Can someone explain to me how conservatives reconcile “big
government bad” with this kind of policy? Because this is cray cray. Or, maybe
there is someone out there who wants to explain to me how this isn’t classist,
sexist, with a side of racism? The classist aspects are obvious, low-income
people are being targeted, these scanners won’t be used for people not
receiving vouchers. Riddle me this why are the kids not receiving vouchers safe
with whoever their parents send for them, but the poor kids aren’t? Except we’re
operating with the assumption that poor people are committing fraud. Second,
sexism, well women are more likely to be the primary childcare provider within
families and childcare facilities. They are being targeting with unnecessary
requirements and costs. I dare someone to tell me this isn’t racist. It should like
ND, FL, and GA’s attempts to eliminate welfare through the backdoor with drug
testing, which has to be paid for by the recipients and then reimbursed if they
pass. They are targeting Reagan’s fictional welfare queen again.
