When Tiger Martin went shopping for child care for his two young sons, he wasn’t looking for a baby sitter.
He wanted his children to be educated and nurtured, and he found that environment at the UTC Children’s Center.
“They don’t prop them up in front of a coloring book and Barney for eight hours a day,” said Mr. Martin, who has two boys, ages 3 and 1, enrolled at the center. “Child care of that level is unusual and hard to find.”
However, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga administrators are considering whether to close one of the two child-care centers, which operate at the downtown elementary magnet schools — Brown and Battle academies. The centers are among several community programs under scrutiny as the university prepares to cut $6 million from next year’s budget.
“While no individual cut is carved in stone, the reality is that we will not be able to accomplish the mandated cost savings without significant pain,” UTC Chancellor Roger Brown said.
Administrators are looking at all opportunities for cost savings, and those efforts might provide enough relief to maintain both centers, he said.
The cost to operate the child care centers totals about $1.1 million, and tuition paid by parents to enroll their children comes to about $678,000, UTC records show. That leaves a gap of about $388,000, primarily in staff benefits, that UTC subsidizes.
To make up that difference, Dr. Brown said child-care tuition would have to increase by 50 percent to 70 percent. Most families could not afford such a hefty hike, he said.
Linda Rivers, the Children’s Center director, said the center serves as a training ground for UTC students earning degrees in early childhood education.
Students with early childhood education majors must have clinical experience to be state licensed, and the Children’s Center gives them that experience, she said. With two child care sites, UTC has doubled the number of early childhood education majors from about 200 to 400, she noted.
Ms. Rivers said she thinks UTC administrators recognize the value the Children’s Center provides to thev university and community and are committed to doing everything in their power to keep both sites open.
“As far as we are concerned, we are up and running both sites, and everything is fine,” she said.