Kostroma may refuse to distribute money to parents of children who did not enroll in kindergarten

The Kostroma region, despite the adoption in the first reading of the law on supporting citizens with children, may, due to budget deficits, refuse to pay material compensation to parents whose children do not have enough places in kindergartens, Deputy Chairman of the Kostroma Regional Duma Sergei Demenkov told reporters on Tuesday .

At the last meeting of the Kostroma Regional Duma in 2012, deputies adopted in the first reading a law on supporting parents whose children aged three to eight years did not receive a place in kindergarten. The law provides for the payment of material compensation up to 4,611 thousand rubles per month per child in case of refusal to provide a place in a kindergarten. Similar laws have already been adopted in the Yaroslavl, Arkhangelsk, Lipetsk regions, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Perm territories. However, just a few days after the adoption of the concept of the law, regional deputies stated that the mechanisms for supporting parents should be reviewed, since there is not enough money in the regional budget for additional payments.

“I am categorically against the adoption of PR laws that are not financially confirmed in the budget. We already went through this when we adopted laws, and after that we were forced to cut back on social support measures. Huge debts, hundreds of millions, are generated. Adopt - and then suspend and say: “Sorry, we don’t have the funds!” Demenkov said.

He clarified that the introduction of the law on parental support will not solve the problem of creating places in kindergartens.

“In Yaroslavl they passed such a law, but they are not happy. Where is the logic? We suspend the operation of social laws, introduce the principle of poverty, and suddenly we introduce a law that does not solve the problem, it is handing out money,” he explained.

At the same time, the leaders of the main Duma factions noted that the region still needs a law to support parents of children who did not enroll in kindergartens. The deputies did not rule out that instead of handing out money in person, some kind of preschool certificates may appear, upon presentation of which, not parents, but directly educational institutions will receive money for kindergartens, and this could contribute to the development of private kindergartens.

In the near future, deputies intend to finalize the law on supporting parents so that it does not become a “dead” law, as previously happened with the populist pre-election laws on financial support for single mothers and large families, the operation of which was either suspended in 2012 , or significantly limited.

Original