EXCERPT FROM: NJ.com
By Christina Paciolla
Since the beginning of this school year, eight children have been pulled out of Grow N' Learn day care in Thorofare by parents who lost jobs.
Patricia Farrell, day-care director, said the school had never lost a student before this year.
"We've felt everything due to the economy," Farrell said. "Our enrollment is down substantially."
Seeing a trend throughout the country, President Barack Obama recently called for nearly doubling the child-care tax credit for middle-class families. The rate would increase from 20 percent to 35 percent for families making under $85,000 a year. Families that earn up to $115,000 would also see an increase in the credit.
Logan Township resident Katie Blewitt sends her two kids to Blooming Buds in Swedesboro. She is hopeful that her family will soon be able to benefit from a higher tax credit. With another child on the way, however, Blewitt and her husband face a decision whether day care is still the right choice for them.
"The bulk of my salary goes toward child care," Blewitt said. "There is always that decision process of asking if it's worth paying for it or staying at home."
Blewitt said that there is still a benefit for her family in her working a few days a week. After baby Number Three comes, Blewitt said, they will have to "crunch some numbers."
Blooming Buds parents Evan and Tara Fjellin couldn't plan quite the way the Blewitts have Evan Fjellin lost his job just recently and had to pull their 11-month-old daughter, Charlotte, out of day care.
"Believe me, we both want her in day care," Fjellin, of Mantua, said. "They do a lot of things with her, educationally. Unfortunately, we can't really afford it right now."
Kimberly Thorp, Blooming Buds' owner, said this has been a trend recently at her day care, too. Even though enrollment has been good overall, she's noticed that parents who used to keep their children enrolled during the summer months now pull them out.
"Unfortunately, when parents lose their jobs, this is the first thing to go," Thorp said.
Farrell, of Grow N' learn, said she's had to decrease her staffers' hours and even lay off employees.
"We're just all doing what we can to get by," she explained.
On this year's tax forms, parents can already apply for the current child-care tax credit. A child needs to be under the age of 17, a U.S. citizen, and be declared as a dependent. More information on that can be found at www.irs.gov.
Pending legislation, the increase would be reflective on a family's 2010 tax return, filed in early 2011. Obama's recommendations are part of the Middle Class Task Force that started work last year and were included in the president's proposed fiscal year 2011 budget.