Families protest county day-care closures

Danette Goulet

COSTA MESA -- With tears in their eyes and anger in their voices,

parents chanted “Save our day care” while their children carried signs

reading “Day care or welfare” Friday afternoon in protest of the county’s

closure of its child-care program.

For four years, the county program has cared for the three children of

Elvia Cruz and Marcos Alcocer while they struggled to earn a living in

Costa Mesa.

Now they are one of hundreds of families throughout Orange County that

may have to rely on welfare to survive.

“We’d rather work than have welfare,” said Alcocer, who works for the

Fairview Development Center in Costa Mesa. “We don’t want to give our

kids to a baby-sitter because some abuse them.”

Alcocer and his family were among more than 100 protesters who tromped

around the lawn of the Lindbergh School in Costa Mesa to demand

continuation of the program.

It was a volatile community reaction to this week’s announcement by

the Orange County Department of Education that its child development

services program for low-income families would end Dec. 15.

County officials said an estimated deficit of $1 million is to blame

for the abrupt end of the 25-year-old program.

“What has happened is the funding hasn’t kept up with the operating

costs of the program,” said Ellin Chariton, director of child development

services for the county.

Chariton said the county searched for a way to merely trim the

program, but that it just wasn’t feasible.

The program’s 13 centers currently care for 900 children -- ranging

from infants to teens -- and employ 200 people, who will be paid through

Jan. 12.

News of the closures came as a devastating shock to hundreds of

families and employees.

Laura Padilla, a teacher’s aide at the Fountain Valley center, said

she doesn’t know how she will survive when day-care services are no

longer available. She is a single mother with two children enrolled in

the program.

“I don’t know what I’ll do. For me, I have to look for a job, too,”

she said. “I lost everything.”

Padilla and fellow protesters were offered a ray of hope, however,

when Michael Kilbourn, spokesman for the county’s education department,

promised to meet with staff and families within the next week.

Protesters said that if they did not hear from Kilbourn, they would be

back on the lawn at 4 p.m. next Friday.