Long-term solutions are needed just as urgently on the parent side of the childcare equation. After all, it’s not just the childcare providers like Angenita who are dealing with an inadequate, broken system. Even with the low salaries childcare providers receive, childcare itself is often too expensive for many working families. A Children’s Defense Fund study found childcare in the United States costs between $4,000 and $10,000 a year for each child, with the costs rising for babies and younger children, special-needs kids, and kids living in parts of the country where the cost of living is higher.16
Ten thousand dollars per year, per child, is simply out of reach for many families. The big picture shows a tremendous number of American families in crisis. Remember, a full one-quarter of families with children under age six earned less than $25,000 in 2001.17 Consequently, many families have only informal and sometimes dangerous, or inadequate childcare options because they are free or affordable. All too often the TV becomes the primary sitter, not to forget latchkey children that are too young to really take care of themselves. Parents are simply left with too few affordable, accessible, quality childcare options.
These three criteria—accessibility, affordability, and quality—define precisely what parents need. Accessibility means that parents are able to find and get their children into good childcare programs, not simply onto a long waiting list. Affordability indicates childcare costs that also allow parents to pay other necessary monthly expenses, like food and rent.
Defining high-quality childcare is more complicated, and requires a number of factors to come together: The providers need to be well-trained, supported, and paid a living wage; the facilities need to be safe; educational materials need to be up to date; healthy food needs to be available; there should be low provider turnover; and more. In order to assure quality childcare, some have suggested implementing uniform quality standards that govern all childcare and early education programs across the nation. Other possibilities include requiring state licensing and provider education, as well as seeking ways to increase the salaries necessary to attract and keep good childcare providers.
How do we handle this crisis, where providers are paid too little and the cost to parents is still prohibitively high? Childcare centers generally aren’t making high profits either. Frankly, childcare doesn’t come with a low price tag. Fixing this system requires a real investment by the community, much as we support the public school system. Decades ago, because more mothers were home with their children, childcare wasn’t a necessity for as many families. Today, with most parents working, good childcare is essential. As a country it is time to ask: Why do we support an eight year old with public school funding and not a four year old?