It's a perfect storm in Arizona. Parents of young children in our state are facing rising child care costs and reduced tuition support.
Nearly 9,000 children are now on the turn-away list to receive child care tuition support, and the list is growing every day. Facing budget cuts, the Department of Health Services (DHS) is proposing to raise its $150 child care licensing fees to as much as $13,442 effective Jan. 1.
These increases will be passed on by child care centers and after-school programs to parents, many of whom are now paying more for care than ever before.
The DHS plan is bad for children, bad for families and bad for an already debilitated Arizona economy.
The plan will hurt children and families because parents on tight budgets, without access to affordable child care, will have terrible choices: Should they leave a child home alone? Should they leave one young child home to care for an even younger child? Should Mom leave her baby with a neighbor or a boyfriend so she work?
These scary options are the only ones many parents will have, and the safety and well-being of many of Arizona's young children will be in jeopardy. Research tells us that the quality of child care greatly affects children's success in school and beyond. Arizona's children deserve more than what this plan will give them.
DHS's plan for increasing licensing fees will hurt Arizona's already dismal economy. Under this proposal, child care licensing fees in our state would be the highest in the nation and three times higher than that of California, currently the most expensive Western state licensing child care facilities.
Struggling child care centers cannot suddenly absorb hundreds or thousands of dollars in an unpredicted financial hit; many will close. Jobs will be lost as center owners lose their livelihoods and child care teachers are laid off.
Without safe child care, parents who are lucky enough to have a job today may have to reduce their work hours or quit. Parents' workplace productivity will suffer as they worry about children at home alone or under makeshift supervision.
Arizona can't afford these fees, especially now.