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     John, a Lawrence resident, has three children. Two of them used to attend daycare centers, but he could not afford to send both of them any longer.

Source: Lansing State Journal

"Only one of them can go to daycare this year because of the economy," said John, who refused to give his last name.

     Local childcare centers are reporting a decreased number of enrollments this year. Some children had to stop attending childcare centers because one or both parents became unemployed.

     "We had a couple of families who had to drop off because they could not afford it," said Pat Pisani, Hilltop Child Development Center executive director.

     Hilltop Child Development Center used to have more than 300 children on the waiting list.  Parents sometimes had to wait several years to send their children there. This year, however, things are different.

     "There aren't as many people on the waiting list as them used to be," Pisani said.

     Pisani said the daycare has always been at capacity until this year. Hilltop still has eight to 10 openings for 3- or 4-year-olds that could not be filled this year. Hilltop has a capacity of 250 children, but only 230 children enrolled this year.

     "We never had an opening before," Pisani said. "That's pretty unusual for Hilltop."

     The average family pays $500 to $700 per month to place one child to Hilltop.

     John is not the only person who could not afford his children's tuition for daycare.

     Rosham Liyanage, Sri Lanka graduate student, has to keep his three children home this summer because of financial difficulties. Liyanage's wife could not enroll in summer school this year because she had to take care of the children at home.

     "They used to go to daycare during the summer," Liyanage said, "but they will stay at home this summer."

      Hilltop's preschool program is not the only one feeling the economic pinch.

      Compared with last year, Brookcreek Learning Center does not have as many 1- to 5-year-old children as usual. Brookcreek has three sites in Lawrence and can hold 121 children. John Samterson, Brookcreek Learning Center director of education, said the current enrollment was at 75 to 80 percent of capacity. The tuition for one child is between $400 and $700 each month at Brookcreek.

     "The enrollment is down a little bit," Samterson said. "Some families pulled their children out because one or two parents lost jobs and could not keep them in school."

      Pisani said the kindergarten program in Hilltop, which takes 5- to 6-year-old children, is half full. Instead of going to paid kindergarten such as Hilltop, many families chose to send these children to public schools.

     "People do not have to pay for kindergarten if they go to public school," Pisani said.

     The problem is that public school only provides half-day kindergarten. For those parents who have to work eight hours during the daytime, they have to send their children to after-school programs. The increased number of applications led after-school programs to experience a hard time during the recession.

 

      Deb Vannicola, secretary and administrative assistant of Woodlawn Elementary School, said her school's after-school program could not accept as many children as it used to because of budget cuts. Families usually pay $5 to $40 each month for one child. Because the Boys and Girls Club in Lawrence shorted its funding for Woodlawn, Woodlawn Elementary School did not have enough money to hire more staff members.

     "Our program can only take 100 children this year," Vannicola said. "We could take 160 children before."

     Facing the decreased number of enrollments, some childcare centers have had to adjust. La Petite Academy, which has a capacity of 96 but has only 65 children enrolled, hired three fewer teachers. Hilltop is advertising to tell more people it still has openings this year.

     "We had never had to advertise before," Pisani said, "but right now we do."

     Not all Lawrence childcare centers are suffering. Those with a smaller capacity seem to do better than the larger ones.

     Teri Varuska, director of Educare preschool at the University, said the recession had not affected her school's enrollment at all.  The program can take 37 two-and-a-half- to 5-year-olds. The current enrollment is at capacity, and 50 families are still on the waiting list.

     Carrie Madden, director of the Sunnyside infant toddler program, said her school was always full. Currently, nine infants and 12 toddlers are enrolled in the program.

     "There is a huge waiting list," Madden said. "We cannot take more."

     Similar with Educare and Sunnyside, Precious Child Day Care still has 10 children enrolled. Nancy Winchester, owner of the home care, said she hadn't seen any child dropped yet. Winchester's childcare center charges $600 to $800 per month for one child.

     Though many families have felt the economic pinch, others are boosted by the scholarships provided for their children. Scholarships vary depending on family income and background. At Hilltop, scholarships could cover 40 to 50 percent of a child's tuition.

     Ashley Rudel, Lawrence senior, has sent her son to Hilltop since June. She said she could afford to send him because of a scholarship that covers 50 percent of the tuition.  

Source: Public Agenda 6/00

Rudel only needed to pay $254 per month for her son's tuition, but she said she was afraid she might not be able to send him next year.

     "I might let my mom to take care of him if there is no scholarship next year," Rudel said.

           Christopher Tuu had a dream. He wanted to leave his village in Ghana and come to America. He wanted to study at a university and earn his master's degree in special education. Tuu then wanted to return home and teach children in his country.

           But a few years ago, Tuu's dream seemed impossible.  

           "I really want to study abroad," Tuu said. "The problem is that I do not have money."

            Studying in America was expensive for Tuu. He did not have enough money to support himself abroad. Meanwhile, Tuu could not find an opportunity. In Ghana, only a few people have the chance to study in America.

            But money was not Tuu's only complication. He is also blind.

           When he was 5 years old, Tuu contradicted the measles. Measles did not rob him of his life, but it did take his sight, and he has been blind ever since. But he was not disappointed.

            "Many people died because of measles disease," Tuu said. "But I am still alive."

             Tuu has two sisters and one younger brother.

             When Tuu was young, he often heard people around him talking about America.        Yet he did not believe in the existence of America. For him, America was a Utopia. And this country was not anywhere on earth.

               "People said American was beautiful," Tuu said. "And everywhere was amazing."

               Tuu learned more about America after he entered school. He was taught that people in America were honest, and they enjoyed equal rights. He came to realize that such a country really did exist in the real world.

               "I started to think America was good," Tuu said.

                After he finished his bachelor's degree in social studies at a university in Ghana, Tuu developed a passion for teaching, and he wanted to help people, especially help those children who were like him. He taught social studies in a school for the blind for almost 10 years, but during this time, he never gave up his dream of coming to America.

                Though Thu's dream of coming to America for further study had many difficulties, he never gave up.

                In 2007, Tuu applied for a Ford scholarship. After waiting nearly a year, he finally received word that he had been chosen as one of the Ford Foundation Fellows. Tuu would be going to KU.

                His advisor, Mary Morningstar, a special education professor, remembers Tuu's early application letters.

                "His application letter was really impressive," Morningstar said. "Tuu said he wanted to help more people in his home country after he graduated."

                But coming to the U.S was not as easy as Tuu thought, not only because Ghana has a different culture than America, but also he needed training to live in a foreign country.

               After Tuu received his admission letters in 2008, he spent another year in Ghana preparing for his trip to America. Tuu need to learn American cultures and customs, and most important, he needed to learn how to use a computer.

               People in Ghana were not familiar with using computers and the Internet. Tuu started by learning how to type.

               After arriving at the University, the first thing he needed was mobility training.

              Mark Craig, a special education teacher, trained him for about 30 hours. Their focus was on using the KU on Wheel transit system to set around the campus.

Because Tuu lived in Stauffer Place apartments on campus, the nearest bus stop for him to come to campus was in front of McCollum Residence Hall. From there, he took the Campus Express to school.

Craig trained Tuu how to use a white cane to walk from his apartment to the bus stop. Craig said the training was really challenging, but Tuu mastered it. Craig has trained hundreds of blind people, and he said Tuu was one of the most successful students.

              "Christopher was really a quick learner by far," Craig said.

              Craig can still remember the first time he met Tuu. Tuu had just gotten off the airplane and had his bag with him. Craig said Tuu's bag smelled quite strong and he asked him what he had brought with him.

                Tuu had packed corn and soup with him for his trip. Tuu said he also tried to bring a dead chicken, but the airport workers would not let him.

                 It is true that Tuu often feel lonely. He does not have a lot of friends in this country, and he stays at home by himself most of the time.

                 Tuu's neighbor, Magayana Yusufu, a Fulbright Scholar from Cote D'ivoire, a country near Ghana, said Tuu was really independent most of the time. But Tuu does feel lonely.

"He needs somebody to be with him," Yusufu said.

After living in this country for a while, Tuu knows clearly that American is somewhere on earth. He loves people here, and everyone is friendly to him. Tuu said his professors were really nice, they did everything they could to help him success in his class.

Tuu is taking a special education course from his adviser this semester. The class, called adulthood transition, teaches people how to transition themselves from high school to their adult lives.

But Tuu did have difficulties on his studies. Because he could not read, he relies on the computer software, Gows, which reads the text for him, heavily. Because Tuu could not find a person to help him enter all course documents to his computer software most of the times, he had problems on finishing his reading assignments on time.

Tuu is 44 years old this year, and he remains single. He loves studying and always wants to study more. Tuu is considered as a role model in his country. People in Ghana were encouraged after hearing his story. He said if a blind person could go to university in America, nobody had the excuse to fail in school.

Morningstar said she had learned a lot about services for people with disabilities in Ghana from Tuu.

"People who have disabilities in Ghana could not get the same service as in America," Morningstar said.

Because of this, Tuu wants to return to his home country and make a difference for people there with disabilities.

"I want to go back home and help more people in Ghana," he said.

      Meron Herovy, an undergraduate student from Addis Ababa, takes T buses to Walmart almost every weekend. She said it would be great if the bus could come in every 20 or 30 minutes.

     "That would be more convenient to have more frequent routes," Herovy said. "So that I do not have to wait for a long time."

     The University of Kansas KU on Wheels and the city of Lawrence transit system keep coordinating with each other this year. The first round of coordinated transit plan, which has six initial recommendations, will be implemented in August 2009.

     According to city of Lawrence news releases, the new transit plan includes coordinated timetables, additional stops, route changes and route replacements.

     "It is something that we have been working on for years," City Commissioner Boog Highberger said.

     According to the Lawrence Transit Web site, the main purpose of the recommendation is to increase coordination and let riders go between the two systems seamlessly.

     Valid city bus passes or current KU Cards now work on both systems. The systems will publish a coordinated map and timetable to help riders use both systems more easily.

     The new coordinated transit plan will also show additional stops on the new map and timetable.

     A new route #11, which runs from downtown to south Iowa and passes campus, will replace the city route #8, KU on wheels route #24 and #25.

     The new route #11 will run every 30 minutes from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 40 minutes at the rest daytime hours.

     Since KU on wheels does not operate during the break, students rely on the T systems heavily while classes are not in section.

     "There is no school bus during the Spring Break," Herovy said. "I have to take T bus if I want to go downtown."

      KU on Wheels route #26 will change its route since it duplicates the new route #11. The new alignment will create a one-way, counter-clockwise loop consisting of Sunnyside Avenue, Sunflower Road, Jayhawk Boulevard and Naismith Drive.

     The proposal also includes combining T route #3 and T route #4, and combining T route #1 and T route #2.

     Highberger said funding issues drove the system integration.

     "The coordination of the two systems will help us to save some money," Highberger said.

     The transit committee predicts changes to route #11 would save approximately $4,600 a year.

     The city transit system has a $5 million budget and is currently funded by federal, state and local dollars, Highberger said. Among those funds, $1 million is from federal government.

Starting on April 1^st, the city transit system will be supported by the sales tax. Lawrence sales tax will rise from 7.3 percent to 7.85 percent. 0.25 point of increased sales tax, which should raise $3 million a year, will be spent on the city transit systems.

     "Hope the sales tax will give us enough money to maintain the service," Highberger said.

     The T and KU on Wheels may work more closely together, but Mayor Michael Dever doubts the two systems ever will actually merge.

     "In my opinion I do not think it will be possible in the near term to have only one transit system that serves Lawrence," Dever said.

     Dever said the primary reason the city would not have only one transit system was related to the funding that the city received from the federal government.

     "Since KU provides many non-public services using their buses," Dever said. "Those vehicles cannot be subsidized by the federal government."

     Student Senate also will maintain control over KU on Wheels funds, while the city picks its taxes to help pay for the T. It will be difficult to merge those money.

     So the transit systems will remain separate entities, but work more closely in the long run.

     Dever said, "The coordination efforts will be stepped up and the cost savings realized by the cooperation will yield better."

     "We can coordinate around to make it more efficient," Highberger said.

     And now Meron Herovy can catch her bus at a more convenient time.