Toddlers march to protest budget stalemate

A crew of little marchers, carrying signs demanding an end to the budget impasse  that imperils their day care center, took tiny steps along Bustleton Avenue this morning.

Their theme song, sung as a march, was not We Shall Overcome, but  The Itsy Bitsy Spider.

But their cause was serious. They left from the front door of the Beautiful Beginnings Child Care Center, where painted images of Big Bird and Elmo peek from the front window. Their hands held by staff and parents, the children sought to protest the budget stalemate that is about to cut off subsidized payments to centers that serve low income parents. Advocates say that will put daycare centers out of business and force parents to give up jobs to care for their children.

"I'm a single parent, so it's hard. Even the co-pay is hard," said Cristal Gonzalez, the mother of a three-year-old daughter and two-year-old son.

The protest was one of many staged simultaneously around the city this morning.

Two Philadelphia day-care providers have already formally notified state officials that they would have to stop caring for children whose parents are helped by the state program Child Care Works. Payments from that and similar programs are due to stop this month.

Read this morning's Inquirer story on the looming day care crisis here.