Ed Fonseca invested $750,000 in a building, met all state and local government requirements, and created jobs by going into business for himself.
The City of Manteca is using millions of dollars worth of space built by the taxpayers of California, isn’t following state licensing requirements, isn’t paying local business or property taxes, and has killed private sector jobs by going into business against Fonseca and others.
That is one way of framing the Kids Zone versus private state licensed day care providers.
Parents who use Kids Zone see it as a godsend where they can drop their kids off an hour or so before school starts and not pick them up until 6 p.m. They also see it as a way of helping them stretch their budgets since the cost is oftentimes almost two thirds less than what a private day care provider would charge.
Fonseca and his fellow child care providers see it as the government using their tax dollars to go into direct competition with them.
Those accessing Kids Zone see it as a government service.
The Manteca City Council will get a chance to weigh in on whether the city has created a “nanny state” or are providing a legitimate government service. Mayor Willie Weatherford has indicated he’ll sponsor such a discussion on an upcoming council meeting agenda.
“If the city went into direct competition with grocery stores or gas stations the business community would be up in arms,” said Fonseca who has been in the day care business for 36 years.
Fonseca has two day care facilities including one he built in the 1970s directly across from the Manteca Civic Center for $750,000. He has the capacity and licensing for 291 kids but has seen business steadily erode by 70 percent as the Kids Zone expanded and the economy weakened.
Two years ago Manteca had 204 state licensed child care providers. Today that number is down to 97.
It has served to create an alliance between the large commercial day care providers and the in-house licensed operations in a bid to stop what they believe is city government systematically working to put them out of business.
Licensed child care providers typically charge $75 a week or $300 a month per child. By contrast Kids Zone has a flat $115 monthly fee or a $50 weekly fee. And even if a parent uses both the city’s before- and after-school programs it comes to $230 per child or $70 less a month than private child care.
Kids Zone originally started as an after-school program ran by the city at several Manteca Unified elementary school campuses behind the urging of then Councilman Wayne Flores. It has since morphed into something much bigger that the city doesn’t call it child care but passes all of the litmus tests under state law save mandatory state licensing.
The mayor noted last month “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck” it is still the same thing.
There is no indication that the council has a desire to close down the Kids Zone program.
The real issues involve state licensing and not subsidizing Kids Zone in any fashion.
Should the state determine the city needs licensing to run the programs there are still legitimate issues that have been raised.
They include:
• Why is the city running Kids Zone at two rural elementary schools - Nile Garden and New Haven?
• Is the school district charging the city fair market rent - the same rent they’d charge someone like Fonseca to run a day care program on their campuses assuming they’d allow a private concern to do so - as well as full janitorial, energy and even administrative costs to oversee the Kids Zone arrangement?
• Are the fees charged to use Kids Zone recovering 100 percent of all costs so none of the costs fall on the taxpayers either via the city or the school district?
The City of Manteca is using millions of dollars worth of space built by the taxpayers of California, isn’t following state licensing requirements, isn’t paying local business or property taxes, and has killed private sector jobs by going into business against Fonseca and others.
That is one way of framing the Kids Zone versus private state licensed day care providers.
Parents who use Kids Zone see it as a godsend where they can drop their kids off an hour or so before school starts and not pick them up until 6 p.m. They also see it as a way of helping them stretch their budgets since the cost is oftentimes almost two thirds less than what a private day care provider would charge.
Fonseca and his fellow child care providers see it as the government using their tax dollars to go into direct competition with them.
Those accessing Kids Zone see it as a government service.
The Manteca City Council will get a chance to weigh in on whether the city has created a “nanny state” or are providing a legitimate government service. Mayor Willie Weatherford has indicated he’ll sponsor such a discussion on an upcoming council meeting agenda.
“If the city went into direct competition with grocery stores or gas stations the business community would be up in arms,” said Fonseca who has been in the day care business for 36 years.
Fonseca has two day care facilities including one he built in the 1970s directly across from the Manteca Civic Center for $750,000. He has the capacity and licensing for 291 kids but has seen business steadily erode by 70 percent as the Kids Zone expanded and the economy weakened.
Two years ago Manteca had 204 state licensed child care providers. Today that number is down to 97.
It has served to create an alliance between the large commercial day care providers and the in-house licensed operations in a bid to stop what they believe is city government systematically working to put them out of business.
Licensed child care providers typically charge $75 a week or $300 a month per child. By contrast Kids Zone has a flat $115 monthly fee or a $50 weekly fee. And even if a parent uses both the city’s before- and after-school programs it comes to $230 per child or $70 less a month than private child care.
Kids Zone originally started as an after-school program ran by the city at several Manteca Unified elementary school campuses behind the urging of then Councilman Wayne Flores. It has since morphed into something much bigger that the city doesn’t call it child care but passes all of the litmus tests under state law save mandatory state licensing.
The mayor noted last month “if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck” it is still the same thing.
There is no indication that the council has a desire to close down the Kids Zone program.
The real issues involve state licensing and not subsidizing Kids Zone in any fashion.
Should the state determine the city needs licensing to run the programs there are still legitimate issues that have been raised.
They include:
• Why is the city running Kids Zone at two rural elementary schools - Nile Garden and New Haven?
• Is the school district charging the city fair market rent - the same rent they’d charge someone like Fonseca to run a day care program on their campuses assuming they’d allow a private concern to do so - as well as full janitorial, energy and even administrative costs to oversee the Kids Zone arrangement?
• Are the fees charged to use Kids Zone recovering 100 percent of all costs so none of the costs fall on the taxpayers either via the city or the school district?
