As Economy Crumbles So Does Child Care
Posted: Sunday, February 08, 2009
by Joel Hirschhorn
http://www.delusionaldemocracy.com
In a south side Chicago neighborhood out of three dozen child care workers 25 are out of work because middle class families could no longer afford them. In Kalispell , Montana it was estimated that 615 job cuts at three of the valley's largest employers would result in a trickle-down loss of 15 jobs in the local child care industry. In New York City a $4 billion budget shortfall is likely to lead to cutting 549 child care workers from the city payroll.
The ripples from the current economic meltdown continue to reveal themselves. Across the nation parents are pulling their children out of child care centers as they lose their jobs and face financial troubles. On the one hand, if now a parent can stay at home to care for a young pre-school child, that is not a bad thing if they have the time to do it. However, a large number of people staff child care centers. They generally earn low wages, and in many places they are illegal immigrants working off the books for cash. Nearly all are women. About one-third are self-employed. So, dropping enrollments mean even more painful unemployment and less consumer spending, further driving the economy down the toilet.
Sending young children to places where paid workers take care of them is a relatively new societal characteristic. It took off in a big way in the 1960s when prosperity depended more and more on having two wage earners in households, meaning that increasing numbers of mothers wanted both children and careers. The noun, "Day Care", didn't even appear in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, until 1993 (the Tenth Edition)! Now, this child care industry is huge. If it is threatened, then many workers will lose their jobs.
The following data come from the National Network for Child Care's history of child care: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50 percent of women with children younger than three years of age were working in 1985. This was a 33 percent increase over 1975 and a 47 percent increase over 1965. According to the 1996 Yearbook on The State of America's Children, 57 percent of women with children younger than three were in the workforce and 60 percent of women with children younger than six. The percentages are probably higher for recent years, raising demand for child care.
Replacing parents is a national child care workforce. According to the Center for the Child Care Workforce Estimate Report, 2.3 million individuals are paid to care for children ages five and under in the US in a given week. Looked at by the setting in which the adult works, approximately 550,000 (24 percent) are working in center-based settings, including private and public child care centers, Head Start programs, and pre-kindergarten programs, 650,000 (28 percent ) provide family child care, 804,000 (35 percent) are paid relatives other than family child care providers, 298,000 (13 percent) are paid non-relatives other than those working in centers or family child care programs (e.g., nannies).
Nationally, 11.3 million children of working mothers under age 5 regularly use some type of child care according to the Child Care in America: 2008 State Fact Sheets by National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies.
Parents spend a lot of money on child care, which is why today's economic downturn is making it very difficult to afford it. For families with young children, day-care costs can rival a rent or mortgage payment, with an average that can easily be $1,000 a month for one infant at a child-care center. According to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies report mentioned above, in 2007 the average price of full-time care for an infant in a center was as high as $14,591 a year. For a 4-year-old in a center, parents paid up to $10,787 a year for full-time care. Parents of school-age children paid up to $8,600 a year for part-time care in a center. In contrast, more affordable child care has been available in less formal settings. The average prices for full-time care for an infant in a family child care home was $9,630, $9,164 for a 4-year-old, and $6,678 for a school-age child. While costs are lower for family child care homes, many of these providers are unlicensed and less experienced, raising issues about the health and safety of children in these types of homes.
Of course, child care costs have been offset for many parents through tax credits and the availability of government assistance and programs. But as state and local governments face fiscal crises, public child care programs are likely to see cuts. In 2008 there have been increasing news stories nationwide about dropping enrollments of children in all types of child care facilities, often as high as 50 percent decreases. As more child care workers lose their jobs they will face considerable problems finding other employment, especially if their skills do not go beyond child care. And parents that used to depend on child care are likely to find their own job-searching efforts made even more difficult by having to spend more time with their own children, unless they can find relatives to provide care. Some 40 percent of grandparents who live near young grandchildren are regularly providing child care, according to an August 2008 survey by the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies.
Another, more questionable, scenario for cash-strapped parents is using relatively young children to serve as caretakers for even younger siblings, or worse yet finding inexperienced and poorly qualified adults that will work as child care providers for very low cost. These situations could harm the nation's youngest children.
Such is the nature of severe economic recession. Hardly anyone can escape its wrath. Who will care about out of work child care workers? Will government bail out the child care industry? I doubt it. Will the government go beyond the current $5,000 annual tax credit for child care to a full deduction for the costs? I doubt it.
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