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RALEIGH The state is using $140,000 in federal stimulus money to send 16 employees to child development workshops in San Diego while North Carolina has thousands of struggling families seeking subsidized care for their children.
State administrators said the trip is an appropriate use of stimulus money, and will lead to better child care.
Using stimulus money to send state employees across the country for training is at odds with the public expectation that the money would be used to create jobs, said Perri Morgan, president of the Capitol Monitor, a group that tracks state stimulus spending.
"I don't think that is what people want to see," she said. "During a distressed economy, we should be taking advantage of ... more efficient ways to do it."
Linda Piper, executive director of the N.C. Licensed Child Care Association, wondered why some of the stimulus money set aside to improve quality isn't being used to help pay for more child care.
North Carolina has $35 million less in subsidy money than it projected because of state budget cuts, and 41,000 children waiting for subsidized care - a historic high.
Deborah Cassidy, director of the state Division of Child Development, said the state cannot spend the $11 million in stimulus money it received for quality improvement to offer more subsidies. And some of the improvement money must focus on infant and toddler care, she said, because that has become a national concern.
At the San Diego institute, the state's 16 lead child care consultants will get intensive training in infant and toddler development and appropriate care at weeklong sessions twice next year, Cassidy said. They will then train 107 division employees who work with child care providers.
