In
a classic Catch-22, New York State ranks #10 with an overall score of 51.95
in the 2018 Best and Worst
States for Working Moms
survey. It is No. 1 with Best Day Care
System but No. 48 with Highest Cost Day Care. But that survey doesn’t
really capture the child care dilemma rural families find themselves in, day in
and day out. Women make up almost half of the US workforce, but find themselves
often behind the 8-ball when trying to find someone to care for their children.
Rural
areas, which make a very large percentage by geography of the state, are often
child care desserts, without even one registered or licensed day care in some
townships. And as for affordability, too often in New York it is cheaper to send your child to
college than it is to a high quality day care.
According to a report from Child Care Aware of America, the
national average cost for child care is nearly $8,700 a year. Single parents
pay nearly 36 percent of their income for child care expenses for one child,
while married couples pay 10 percent. In
New York State, that cost is $14,144 a year!
This
conundrum is very well understood by American voters, who strongly support
policies that improve access to affordable, high-quality child care and want –
and expect – their leaders at both the federal and state level to get the need
and to act.
On
the one hand parents need to work, but when child care is not available, is too
expensive or does not meet their needs (split shifts; after-hours needs, etc.),
it can drive them further into poverty. And poverty is something rural New
Yorkers are far too familiar with.
Proposed
changes to the social safety net that are working through Congress right now
will make an impossible situation worse. If low-income people with children
have to meet strict work requirements to qualify for assistance, the lack of
child care sets them up for failure. And it sets their children up for failure,
as well.
In
my large, rural county, one in four children lives in poverty. St. Lawrence
County is the seventh most impoverished county in New York with more than 27 percent of kids
living below the federally established poverty level, according to the state
Department of Health. The most recent data available shows 19,107 or about 19.2
percent of St. Lawrence County’s trackable residents living below the poverty
line. That’s significantly higher than the state and federal poverty rates, at around
16 percent.
Now,
unless you subscribe the dictum of Ebenezer Scrooge, “Are there no prisons? No workhouses?” we can not blame these children for the situation they find
themselves in. Additionally, St. Lawrence County ranks No. 4 of New York’s 62 counties
where residents struggle with hunger, and 40% of all Americans struggle to pay for at least one basic need like food
or rent.
And
if you are a child care worker, you are much more likely to be at risk for poverty
yourself:
Nationwide, 53 percent of child care workers
were on at least one public assistance program between 2014 and 2016, the Early
Workforce Index report states. In 2017, the median wage for U.S. child care
workers was $10.72 per hour or $22.290 per year. Child care workers in the
report include adults who work with infants and toddlers in child care centers
and some home-based settings.
https://edsource.org/2018/low-pay-for-child-care-workers-puts-more-than-half-at-poverty-level/599790
How
serious is the child care crises in America? Many folks are having
fewer kids because of costs. "Child care is too expensive" was the
top reason (64 percent), with "worried about the economy" at No. 3
(49 percent) and "can't afford more children" (44 percent) coming in
fourth, showing that economic insecurities and financial concerns are causing
many young Americans to skip or delay having kids.
If,
as the Center for American Progress has surveyed, voters want child care as a
front and center issue up for discussion - and action - by political leaders
this year, it is incumbent on all of us to make sure we put child care on the
radar screens of candidates running for state and federal officials this
November. You can #PowHerTheVote by
asking this question and demanding good answers to it!
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