Washington's effort to reform child care begins with a quality rating system.
This month, the Department of Early Learning selected five child care facilities to help develop the voluntary program by July 2008 and then test it.
Educational Service District 112's Southwest Washington Child Care Consortium was among those chosen, and it will begin by surveying parents to determine what quality measures they would like to see. Ultimately, the consortium wants to attain five stars, the highest rating possible.
Administrators estimate it will cost $600,000 to give workers the training they need. It will cost another $400,000 annually to maintain this higher level of staffing.
"That, in turn, comes out to a 28 percent increase for parents," said Jada Rupley, an associate superintendent for Educational Service District 112, which runs the consortium. "Who can afford a 28 percent increase in child care costs?"
The consortium's struggle to come up with a workable improvement plan reflects the self-defeating economics of child care. The bottom line: Parents aren't necessarily willing or able to pay for higher-quality child care.
Owners of home-based child cares can expect, on average, a profit of 8 percent, said Ellen Homan of Kirkland, a recently retired small-business consultant. She said more than half of the revenue goes toward payroll (with the owner determining his or her own salary and health care package). Expenses including food, supplies, equipment and insurance eat up the rest.
Though payroll is the operator's No. 1 expense, that doesn't translate into attractive wages for child care workers.
Child care center employees rank among dishwashers and maids in terms of pay - about $18,350 a year, according to 2004 statistics.
Providers' low pay reflects the fact they aren't required to have a high school diploma, much less a college degree, to do the work.
In turn, child care operators can't afford more highly skilled workers because they're not able to charge enough to support that payroll expense.
Yet the prekindergarten years are times of rapid cognitive, social and neurological development, said Richard Brandon, a University of Washington researcher.
"Caregivers with more education, particularly education in early childhood development, are more child-responsive, more nurturing, more stimulating," Brandon wrote in a 2006 report.
Professional requirements vary by state, from none to a degree in early childhood education. Washington requires 20 hours of training.
If workers in Washington were required to have a formal education, they would deserve higher salaries. And that would drive up the cost of care, pricing parents out of the market that already ranks among the nation's least-affordable.
Brandon said there is a solution.
He studies states where oversight of child care for young children (defined as ages birth to 5) has moved beyond health and safety to include education, a direction he gives Gov. Chris Gregoire credit for wanting to go. Parents apply for aid or loans, similar to the way higher education is financed.
A tiered reimbursement system could let higher-ranked programs charge higher rates, but parents wouldn't pick up the whole tab because the program would be getting money from the state, Brandon said.