EXCERPT FROM: Rome News-Tribune
By Doug Walker
Childcare providers in the Rome area are concerned about continuing job losses and the potential for the loss of revenue from the state as part of additional budget cuts that are expected from the General Assembly.
Melanie Roger’s Sonshine Kids Academy in Adairsville was forced to close. Her day-care center is one of the newest and among the most high tech in terms of security for children.
Debra McDaniel, who owns the SuperKids Early Learning Center on Huffaker Road and the Kid’s World Early Learning Centers on John Maddox Drive and the Martha Berry Highway said day care is one of the 10 hardest hit businesses across America.
McDaniel said enrollment at her centers is as low as it’s been in the past 20 years. “I’ve never seen it like this before,” said McDaniel.
The state of Georgia’s Quality Care for Children (QCC) program reports that childcare, with few exceptions, is a business that generates little if any profits. Childcare center staff is typically paid low wages, and generally get few benefits.
McDaniel said with increases in the minimum wage increases the last several years came increases in workers compensation costs. With the state of the economy, McDaniel said, “I just can’t pass those increased costs on to parents.”
McDaniel lamented if the health care package passed by the Senate just before Christmas is enacted into law, it will cost her centers about $2,000 a month. She speculates the health care issue alone could push many day-care operators out of business.
Melanie Rogers blames the economy for the need to shut her center in Adairsville down.
Rogers said she needed a daily census of 85 just to break even and her high mark was 82. In recent weeks, the census had dipped to an average of 65.
Rogers said she tried to work with families who were suffering financially, adjusting their tuition, but just could not keep losing money.
Large day-care centers across the state do get some reimbursement from the state to help provide scholarships for children whose parents are having a difficult time. However, the state does require parents put in a certain number of hours per week at a job to qualify for the assistance. Both Rogers and McDaniel said so many people have lost their jobs that they cannot even qualify for the scholarship money.
Melanie Rogers said her Sonshine Kids Academy was a faith-based facility. Her husband Kenny Rogers is a Baptist pastor of a church in Calhoun. “We saw so much progress with the children and saw lives being changed, it’s hard to understand why this happened,” said Rogers.
As difficult as having to tell parents about the closing was, Rogers said it was even worse having to tell her 22 employees.
The QCC study about the impact of the economic downturn on childcare reports that 60 percent of childcare providers are cutting spending on books and other equipment. 25 percent are putting off plans to send employees to continuing education training programs.
Sixty-five percent are reducing staff hours to try to cut expenses and 52 percent said they have delayed or altogether scrapped plans for renovations or improvements to their facilities.
The economic woes hit day-care providers early on in the recession.
Emily Colston who built the My Little World Daycare on Wax Road got out of the business for health reasons several years ago. She financed the day care to a new manager but had it take it back 16 months ago when the woman defaulted on her payments.
It’s taken some time, but Colston has built her enrollment back up to approximately 50 children and is holding her own financially right now. She credits that largely because of her personal reputation, and the location on Wax Road. She does not have a lot of competition in that part of Floyd County.
Colston said she has experienced an increase in the number of parents who are late on their payments.
Linda Gibbs, owner of the Just Kids Learning Center on North Fifth Avenue in Rome, and with centers in Dallas, Cartersville and Adairsville, said her day care centers are OK for right now. Gibbs said some classes have lost as many as four or five children and stressed that the business still has to pay for a teacher whether they’ve got 10 or 15 in the room.
“You lose kids and you’ve lost several hundred dollars,” said Gibbs. She said none of her four centers have the numbers they need right now. “If you’ve got one parent home, they’re going to keep the kids at home,” said Gibbs.
The Quality Care for Children report indicates that 92 percent of centers across the state have reported an increase in the number of parents who says they simply cannot afford to pay child care fees anymore. 39 percent of family childcare providers across the state admit to facing struggles to make ends meet and one in four are worried about closing.