Costs for Child Care Skyrocket

Jennifer Wiebe shakes her head and sighs when she talks about what she is paying for child care.

About five years ago, she and her husband paid around $450 a month at a center to care for their older child. That center now charges more than $700 a month and does not have infant availability.

During her maternity leave, she found a slot at a higher-rated center but could not afford a full week of care. So her mother watches her 1-year-old one day a week, and the family pays about $750 a month.

"I'm paying almost what it costs to send a child to college with room and board," Wiebe said. "Parents who don't have a child in this age group have no clue what it costs us. It is worth the cost, but I had to stop and think before signing that contract."

Within a decade, costs for child care have gone up by about 33 percent with skyrocketing increases for infant and toddler care of up to 55 percent, according to a Tulsa World analysis of tuition in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metro areas.

Unlike in higher education, parents do not have options of scholarships or federally backed loans, and many are on the front end of their career earnings. Providers are trying to find ways to supplement revenue to keep costs down for parents.

"Parents don't have a choice. I don't have a choice," Wiebe said. "Should we settle for less quality because we don't earn as much as another family? This is not daycare or babysitting. This is a clean, safe, loving environment where she is learning."

Wiebe is a veteran who works full time, and her husband is in the National Guard and works as a public school teacher.

"We do OK, but not enough for one of us to quit working," Wiebe said. "We both have college degrees and good jobs. Some people tell me I should stay home. But we have other expenses like our mortgage. There is such a push to start saving for college. We can't do that right now."

The Tulsa World analysis comes from market surveys commissioned by the state Department of Human Services and performed by Oklahoma State University's Bureau of Social Research.

Chief reasons for the steep rise in costs include a push for higher quality care, rising teacher pay, increased enrollment in the publicly funded pre-k programs and inflation, according to several child-care advocates.

To avoid increasing tuition, centers are cutting back on the hours of operation, serving cheaper food items, not opening all available slots, reducing supplies, eliminating field trips and not accepting children who need only part-day or part-week care, said Jan Figart, associate director at the Community Service Council.

"This is market driven," Figart said. "There are fewer providers able to bear the cost, and we are seeing child-care centers and homes go out of business. And we are seeing fewer people starting businesses because of the new expectations for training and establishing your program before you apply."

The highest participation in quality child-care programs is among lowest- and highest-income families, said Susan Illgen, executive director of Smart Start Oklahoma. Low-income families can access a federal subsidy.

"Middle-class families often cannot afford early care and education programs that serve their working needs," Illgen said. "As a result, they seek alternative care through relatives, friends, or by adjusting their work schedules so that at least one parent is at home with their children.

"What we must think about as a state is whether we consider early care and education programs as something that should be available for certain eligible children or an essential investment for all children."

A Tulsa family with an infant or toddler will pay about $8,580 a year for a top-rated provider. In 1999, that same provider charged about $5,782 a year for an infant or toddler, which represents a 53 percent increase.

At the lowest, or 1-star, rated centers, costs have increased by 55 percent, or $5,259 to $8,164 a year, since 1999. Costs for older children have also shot up.

Care for 2-year-olds has gone up by 34 percent, with families paying between $7,176 a year for a three-star center to $6,500 annually for a one-star center. For 4-year-olds not enrolled in a public pre-k program, costs have increased by about 34 percent, ranging from $6,448 to $6,240 a year.

"Learning begins at birth, and while it is the primary responsibility of our families to care for and nurture their children during the first few years of life, our working middle class rely on the care they can afford," Illgen said.

"Unfortunately, we are creating a different kind of achievement gap among the middle class, and this becomes an issue of equality, not just an issue of affordability."

'That's insane'

Rising tuition and a lack of flexible hours led Tish Bryan and her husband to pull their two youngest children out of a center. The couple were paying more than $1,000 a month in child care. Bryan's retired mother now cares for the children.

"I was working three jobs and still couldn't afford child care," Bryan said. "I don't know what I would do if my mother was not able to help. We have great jobs and not much debt, but we were making great sacrifices to get into child care. We had a budget and cut out and shuffled a lot of things and were living paycheck to paycheck."

The center had cut back on hours, which was a problem for Bryan, who works odd shifts as a nurse and has other part-time jobs.

"But when you break it down, the teachers, for the hours they work, don't make but about $7 or $8 an hour, and that's insane," Bryan said.

The average income for a full-time child care provider in Oklahoma is about $15,440, according to the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

Providers are required to get college degrees and professional training to obtain accreditation and higher state ratings, which means a demand for better wages.

At the nationally accredited Crosstown Learning Center, about 75 percent of its budget is spent on teacher salaries, said executive director Debbi Guilfoyle.

"The entire industry is in a transitional phase," Guilfoyle said. "We know that child care and early learning environments are much more than custodial daycare. In an industry populated with low-pay, low-wage workers, moving the education level of the staffs can be a huge challenge for a lot of centers to meet."

Advocacy groups argue that child care is an employment support, and funding is needed to help providers and families afford care.

"Most industrialized nations in the world treat child care as an employer and government expense," Figart said. "It is fully subsidized as public education for the child from 12 months old to 18 years old."

JumpStart Tulsa is promoting an agenda to create one set of guidelines for all early care and pre-k settings. Now, early learning classrooms are a patchwork located among public schools, traditional child-care providers and the federal Head Start programs, which are overseen by different agencies with varying standards.

The advocacy agenda argues for parity in funding for all environments, Figart said.

Full text available at Tulsa World.