Families and the High Cost of Child Care — 2013 Version

Is there an echo here? In May of this year, 4C issued a report entitled “The High Cost of Child Care: A Challenge for Working Families.” The 4C report focused on data from Greater Cincinnati, Greater Dayton and Northern Kentucky and concluded that the high cost of child care is a barrier to employment for many parents and a significant financial burden for all but the most affluent.

On Nov. 4 Child Care Aware® of America issued a report on the cost of child care across the country. This is their seventh such review, and this year’s report does not paint a pretty picture. Nationally, child care costs more than the entire family’s food budget, more than housing, more than college.

Child Care Aware® of America (which is the national membership organization for agencies like ours and a collector of local data—including ours) hit at the dilemma that is so apparent to us as well: child care must not be seen simply as someplace safe for the kiddies while parents are at work, but also as essential to a strong economy.

According to this new report:

Governors and legislators, law enforcement officials and business leaders see quality early care and education as vital to the nation’s economy and security. Military leaders found that 75 percent of young adults are not qualified to join the military due to failure to graduate high school; a criminal record; or physical fitness issues, including obesity. They concluded that America needs early care and education to ensure national security because each of the issues that are decreasing readiness are improved by quality early learning programs.

Child care—whatever you call it—day care, preschool, pre-K—is where the majority of American children are getting their first “school” experiences.

So what should it cost? An even better question is who should pay for it? I would contend that even though child care is largely unaffordable for most but the wealthiest families, it doesn’t cost enough! Teachers are poorly paid and thus are, in essence, further subsidizing the cost. The cost to provide the level of early education that will prepare children for school and the workforce cannot fall solely on parents. Parents don’t bear the financial burden for K-12 education, and most students and/or their parents don’t pay the full cost of college. Since nearly the founding of our country, we have understood that an educated populous benefits every one of us, and thus we spread the cost to everyone through taxes.

So what does the new report tell us? Right here in our communities and across the nation, child care is hugely expensive for most families. But since we know for a fact that high quality early education is the best strategy to ensure a ready child, ready community and ready workforce, when are we going to finance child care and pre-K in a way that works for us all?