Provider Question: SRS
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Should providers take SRS clients?
This is the question I'm struggling with right now. I didn't sign up for SRS clients when I started because I didn't know much about SRS and daycare or how to run my daycare. Now that I've been running my daycare for almost a year, I'm trying to decide if I want to sign up with SRS or not. I don't know enough about SRS to form a good opinion, so please share if you have taken on SRS clients.
I've been considering being an SRS contracted provider because I always seem to have people interested in my daycare who get a subsidy from SRS. However, I'm hearing that new SRS providers now have to attend a class and that they told providers that they were the ones getting paid, so substitutes shouldn't be used. I'll attend a class, but I need to use a substitute at times because I have my own kid who has appointments. I also question whether I should contract with SRS because so many providers' ads state that they don't take SRS. Please help.
Posts
One thing you may want to consider is Union dues. If you sign up for SRS it is pretty certain that eventually (in the next year or so) you will be seeing that come out of your subsidy check. In Michigan, it was $30.00 per month PER SRS KID. Many providers too are concerned it could potentially come out of the Food Program checks too - the dues have to be collected from somewhere. Just google "AFSCME CCPT Michigan Day Care" and check out all the stuff out there. You have to read through a lot of stuff - and not just the Union sites. Some of the articles and interviews are pretty upsetting. It's just something each of us needs to consider - justifying the dues for what they do, who they give political contributions too (do we support the same candidates), if there is some conflict between self-employed home businesses being in a union (like giving up our voices for this group to represent us), aren't concerned about the money coming out of SRS Funds and how that may affect SRS Families, then the Union is a good thing.
I have been following the Michigan Union articles on this union, and I'm thinking about dropping my contract with SRS. This isn't fair to the families I care for or my family.
For the providers that missed the hearings that directly affected your business, I will review what was proposed and done. First, you are part of the Union if you accept State money whether you like that or not. The list of signers to the petition to form a Union will not be made public by SRS or the Union. Second, eliminating the home daycare and moving it to the licensed category was only a reason to present the bill. This bill gives KDHE an unlimited control on your business and what they pay you/Union. This bill was only a vehicle to establish and avenue for the Union. With the KDHE in charge, findings and suggestions from the B E S T study will be no doubt inacted. This means college hours required of you to maintain your license. (Expansion of College Programs and less money for you) This will squeeze out the daycares that find it much more touble than it is worth, leaving only the larger daycare companies to survive. They want your child from 0-18 in the control of the nanny state KDHE with established cirriculmn from the Department of Education which has not been disclosed. MO survived the take over of only 3-18 and infants were spared, but no daycare can survive on only 0-3. This has virtually eliminated the private daycare to state run only. Your legislature was expected to only concur this Bill, not read it. The hearings were an awakening of how left Rep Cindy Neighbors is and how corrupt with cronism it has become. SRS head not only owns daycares, but I am sure there is a deal in the backroom. The head of KDHE is also tied with a company that contracts daycare from state governments or defense department. I am sure this is a job security thing. There is much more to be said, just go to Kansas Watchdog and review articles. Inform yourself about how govt works in KS.