Currently 72° | Thursday, September 09, 2010 | SIGN IN

Home > Opinion > Article

E-Edition

Comment

RSS Bookmark

The surge

By World's Editorial Writers
Published: 9/16/2008 2:07 AM
Last Modified: 9/16/2008 2:21 AM

Managing rising child-care costs

Some parents in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metro areas are paying more for infant child care than they would to send a teenager off to a state university.

A Sunday story by Tulsa World projects reporter Ginnie Graham found a 33 percent jump in child-care costs over the past decade, with infant and toddler care up 55 percent. Quality providers also are getting harder to find. Particularly squeezed are middle-class families who make too much for subsidies and too little to afford the highest quality of care.

The cost of tuition, books and fees at the University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State University is about $7,200 a year and $3,500 annually for state community colleges. But there's a big difference between seeing that a small child is cared for while parents work and covering college expenses for a young adult, who often can obtain student loans or scholarships. Parents of young children often do not have such options.

Parents, hard pressed to cover rising living expenses, might be forced to cut corners in child-care quality. Can they afford to send their child to a facility that receives high marks on Oklahoma's star rating system, or do they leave the 2-year-old with the next-door neighbor?

Steep increases in cost are attributed to a push for higher quality care, rising teacher pay, increased enrollment in the publicly funded pre-K programs and inflation.

For years, Oklahoma has worked to upgrade its overall child-care

system, to make it safe, affordable, reliable and stimulating. But fewer providers are able to bear the cost, with many going out of business.

The highest participation in quality child-care programs is among lowest- and highest-income families. Lower-income families can access a federal subsidy. Middle-class families are caught in between. They may be forced to seek care through relatives, friends, or by adjusting their work schedules.

Oklahomans should consider what kind of state we want to be. Do we consider early child care and education programs as something that should be available only to very wealthy or very poor children, or as a crucial investment for all children?

By World's Editorial Writers

E-Edition

Comment

RSS Bookmark

Share

Reader Comments

Add Your Comment

10 comments entered

Show: Newest First

Report comments and help our forums

If you see a comment that violates our terms and conditions, please help us by clicking the "Report Comment" link next to a comment. That will alert the Tulsa World web staff to review the comment and either let it remain or delete it. Comments that will be removed include those that try to bypass our profanity word filter, personal attacks or any other inappropriate comments. Thank you, Web Editor Jason Collington

Comments

Report Comment

Travis, Tahlequah (last year)

Child care subsidies should be limited to the cases where you have a single parent trying to better themselves through education or advanced job training. There should be no subsidies for the women and families that have child after child that they can not afford. My wife and I made the decision for her to stay at home until our kids started school. They never saw the inside of a day care. I worked long hours building a career and making sure we had enough to make ends meet. Our kids were, and still are, our priority. It is all really a matter of priorities, what is more important, that big new house or nice new car, or your kids.

Report Comment

Fruits&Nuts, (last year)

This story is amazing. All about how the problem is exacerbated because someone doesn't qualify to get more money from the government. From infancy to college, we think we have this entitlement for someone else to pay our expenses. Since someone else is paying the bill, we don't care how much it cost and then we complain about child care, medical care, and mortgage rates.

I can't believe that every example in this article has to do with how the government won't pay for something as if it is a sin to make too much money to qualify for a government handout.

Well, the government is about to be out of money. et's see where the crisis falls then.

Report Comment

nlyoung, Tulsa (last year)

"Our kids were, and still are, our priority. It is all really a matter of priorities, what is more important, that big new house or nice new car, or your kids." Some families don't have a big new house and a new car and they still can't afford the child care.

Report Comment

iflyfast, (last year)

My wife and I are right, smack in the middle of what would be considered "middle class". We pay $670 a month for our child care. Is that expensive? Yes, but we make it work. We sacrifice things that we may want (I would LOVE to have a new TV, new car, be able to do more with my wife and son) and we make it work because my son is the primary focus. Like Travis said, subsidies should be limited. I don't see any (except for the measly tax deduction), and I don't expect to. I can't believe I am about to quote Tim Gunn from "Project Runway" (wife LIVES for that show)...."Make it work!"

Fruits&Nuts, you are correct that for some wrong reason, this has gone from being a country of opportunity to a country of entitlements. Last time I checked, the Constitution didn't mention ANYTHING about the government being responsible for funding anything for anyone, no matter what their social/economic status is.

Report Comment

BowlerDave, Tulsa (last year)

My wife works at a home day care so our son's child care is free. But, the problem we have is that this is a home day care. She does not work for a company that will pay her no matter what.

So when parents decide they don't have the money to pay for teaching, feeding and caring for their kids, it is my kid that goes without.

They have a parent now that is hundreds of dollars behind but doesn't seem to care. Why the don't simply kick her kid out I don't know. But she brings the kid day after day with no intention of paying what she owes.

My son thanks you while he is looking at his empty plate at night.

Report Comment

Graychin, Eucha (last year)

Travis, not everyone is as fortunate as you, with the option of one parent staying at home to take care of the kids. So don't be so self-righteous. Your virtuous "priorities" aren't as rare as you think.

With the income of the middle class in decline for the past eight years and with soaring prices for food, heating and gasoline, more and more often it takes two wage-earners just to pay for the basics. And I don't mean the big screen TV.

Report Comment

Travis, Tahlequah (last year)

nlyoung,

Why would someone want to have a child that THEY, on their own, can not afford to raise? Oh, sorry I forgot, it is called the entitlement mentality and it is ruining this country.

James from MWC,

My responsibility for others children is not a fiscal one. I, and I would guess many conservatives, do not mind giving someone a helping hand up if they are trying to improve themselves via job training or education. (Although I must wonder what they were doing in school all those years.)

You call conservatives pro-birth. Does that make liberals pro-death? Both sides should call it what it is (here is where I tick off a lot of conservatives) pro-choice or anti-choice.

Graychin,

I am solidly in the middle class. When we moved here in 1992 I went to work for $7.25 per hour until I was hired at my current company. Housing, feeding, clothing, and paying doctors for a family of three was tough then but with overtime was possible. We lived on that pay for 6 months so it can be done. When families are have trouble making ends meet they have a few options; work more hours, get another job, or cut back. It would be interesting to know how many people getting subsidies have more than 1 car, cable or satellite TV, or cell phones.

Report Comment

Travis, Tahlequah (last year)

My favorite quote from Thomas Jefferson sum this up pretty well, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Report Comment

Graychin, Eucha (last year)

Travis - Good for you, but you still sound very self-righteous. It's too bad that we can't all be as virtuous as you are.

You must have loved Reagan's "welfare queen" anecdotes.

Report Comment

Elwood P. Dowd, (last year)

It would be fiscally responsible if the same mentality about welfare for private individuals, which includes the elderly and infants who cannot provide for themselves, was applied to corporations and the financial institutions. However, it is the corporate welfare that has put our economy in the tank.

10 comments displayed

Add Your Comment

In order to post a comment on this page, you must sign in to Tulsaworld.com. If you do not have a site account, you can create an account for free.

Mike Strain 'Brainwashed' by Phil Steele's No. 1 ranking of the Sooners	Dave Sittler A Sure Sign Football's Near
John Klein Utah State Was No Fluke	The Picker BCS Haters Rejoice!
Jimmie Tramel Playing catch-up with Billy Sims