Ventura First 5 creates loan fund

Ventura First 5 is doing a good thing. They are putting $2.6 million into low-interest loans  between $15,000 and $800,000 (with other very nice provisions) to centers for planning, building, buying, or remodeling a center or for refinancing. For-profit businesses and organizations, including child care and school operators, employers and private developers; nonprofit organizations; public and private schools; and public entities are eligible. They expect to fund 4 to 6 projects, depending on what they are presented.

What with banks not lending much at all lately, especially at affordable rates, and the "profit" margins in child care being so slim, this is a real nice thing for Ventura First 5 to do.

While we're sharing good news, at a time when Title 5 centers up and down the state are closing or barely scraping by, Saddleback College is starting a new toddler program. You have to assume the college is subsidizing it. Nobody can run a Title 5 toddler program on the $48.13 per kid per day. (Okay, there are probably some programs that do, maybe in counties with relatively low cost of living, but I'd bet money you can't do it in Orange County.) Anyway, good for Saddleback's administration for agreeing to subsidize it (or good for the center director for pulling the wool over their eyes).