Tulsa World: Costs for child care skyrocket

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Costs for child care skyrocket

One-year-old Lena Wiebe plays in the toddler room at Trinity Episcopal Day Schools. SHERRY BROWN / Tulsa World

By GINNIE GRAHAM World Staff Writer
Published: 9/14/2008 2:09 AM
Last Modified: 9/14/2008 2:36 AM

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.

Tulsa parents pay more than $8,000 a year for infant care and more than $6,500 annually to care for 2- and 3-year-olds, according to the analysis. By comparison, costs at the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University for tuition, books and fees are about $7,200 a year and $3,500 a year for state community colleges.

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.

"It will be an uphill battle particularly for the public who views child care as babysitting and pre-k as education," Figart said. "But a child should see no difference. Quality for the child should be synonymous with the location of the child."

By the numbers

$8,000
Amount Tulsa parents pay per year for infant care.

$6,500
Amount Tulsa parents pay per year for care of 2- and 3-year-olds.

33%
Child care costs increase in Tulsa and Oklahoma City in the last decade.

$8,580
Yearly cost in Tulsa for an infant or toddler for a top-rated provider.

Ginnie Graham 581-8376
ginnie.graham@tulsaworld.com By GINNIE GRAHAM World Staff Writer

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	Report Comment Colby's mom, (9/14/2008 5:38:26 AM) She is exactly right about the tuition. Daycare is just as much as college tution and we are expected to pay it right up front. I honestly don't see how people go on to put their children in tuition grade school and high school and then go on to pay for college. I have a college degree and I am still paying my student loans off while paying for my son's daycare (mini college) tuition.
	Report Comment touitsmrs, (9/14/2008 7:42:02 AM) It is sad that the workers at these day cares only make minimum wage. You think you are paying for quality (lack of pee smell in a facility) but you still get a worker that makes 8$ an hour and you just know that some of the time they are not doing the best job. God forbid a parent has two or three children in daycare. My kids never spent one day in childcare or with grandparents because I stayed home. Why would you work 3 jobs just to pay childcare? Seems kind of silly. To bad we dont have communities that care about each other enough to help. Everyone just has to fend for themselves. Our consumer driven society has created this problem to a point that families are forced to pay for daycare and allow an 8$ an hour worker to raise their child.
	Report Comment chase, (9/14/2008 8:53:12 AM) this is really sad situation,but these single moms have to work to have insurance,or go on welfare.
	Report Comment TMT, tulsa (9/14/2008 9:07:56 AM) Dear "touitsmrs", Please don't comment on this article since you know nothing about it. I'm a married, college educated, working mother of two children. I've experienced this firsthand. Thankfully my youngest has started kindergarten which means I just got a BIG raise. Sometimes life doesn't go as planned and you have children sooner than expected. When you are married and in your twenties and your first child arrives, you want to be self sufficient and use your college degree (that you worked so hard for). It means something to be able to "do it on your own". Also, when you enjoy your job (like I do), it's a bonus. Oh, and contrary to what you think, I'm raising my kids. Yes, they may have been at preschool while I was at work, but their preschool teachers didn't take them to the emergency room in the middle of the night when they had pneumonia, or go to PTA meetings in the evening for me so I could catch up on "Oprah" that I had recorded earlier in the day. The teachers also don't go to a gazillion soccer, baseball, basketball, karate and swimming lessons for me. My teachers also don't take my kids to the pool or on vacations. The teachers have never come over to my house to help me with my older child's math homework. They also don't read stories to them right before they are tucked in at night. So please, in the future, do not refer to daycares as raising children. My husband and I are raising our kids just like so many people in the world.
	Report Comment grannyofpremie, Inola (9/14/2008 10:15:00 AM) By the time working parents get paid, pay for their gas to and from work, the upkeep on their vehicles, their utilities, house payment or rent, any other payments they may owe, plus groceries, well, does it really pay for both parents to work? I know anymore with rising costs of everything, it is hard and some people just cannot make it if both are not working, but, have you ever sat down and really figured it up as to what it cost and how much you would lose, if, one was not working, but staying home to care for your children...
	Report Comment loudshirt, (9/14/2008 1:14:09 PM) I would like to see how Tulsa compares with other places for child care. That would give us a better picture to see if our child care costs are too high too low or just about the same. Oh and to people who say daycare kids are not being raised by there parents you are wrong. Daycare is very helpful in teaching kids how to interact socially.
	Report Comment Joseph E. Paulk, (9/15/2008 12:23:33 PM) If you can't afford to care for a child, you shouldn't have one. Instead, people keep having them and then expect responsible people who DON'T breed to pay taxes to support other people's screw-ups. If you can't afford to feed, clothe, shelter and educate a child from infancy to adulthood, then YOU CAN'T AFFORD CHILDREN. DON'T HAVE ANY! Why is this concept so difficult to grasp?
	Report Comment kyote, (9/15/2008 7:33:47 PM) Child care is the responsibility of the parents. Why is the dhs taking on paying for parents child care? The dhs is evil and to be avoided at all cost to anyone.

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