This is a follow up post to the thread I started last week saying that "You Can't Put the Words High Quality, Well Paid Staff, and Affordable all in the same sentence." Below is a link sent to me by one of the people that responded in support of what I have been saying for the past 4 years as NAEYC has been promoting "Power to the Profession" and the politicians have been jumping on the band wagon for "Free Universal Pre-K" and "Affordable Childcare" for all Americans and increased wages for staff.
The link is about a study done in Pennsylvania as to what the True Cost of Child Care would be if all of the relevant pieces of the service delivery model were accounted for and calculated. By there best estimates, the cost to provide High Quality Childcare with all of the proposals that are currently being fought for, would end up being around $34,000.00 per child annually. Divide that by 52 weeks per year and you get tuition cost of almost $653.84 per week. In some cases that would either be double or triple what most child care providers currently charge per week for childcare. There is no way low income or high income families could afford to pay that amount, nor would they even be willing to if they could. Folks these are real numbers. Not pie in the sky dreams created by people that have never been responsible for making, delivering or meeting a budget for a childcare center. That would include creating a budget for those programs that would occur in the public school system.
The article details, how they derived this $34,000 amount based on what it would take in Pennsylvania. In other parts of the country it could be higher or lower depending on the economics of a community. After you read the article link, let me know what you think and if you find any flaws or discrepancies in how they came to this number.
I also would like a representative of NAEYC to way in on this discussion as the "Power to the Profession" initiative will have direct impacts on the significant increase to the cost of providing "High Quality" ECE programs across the United States.
https://www.epi.org/publication/ece-in-the-states/?fbclid=IwAR0oQWp8h3gSiZTqY4foFnOoSx6VZHRywGhcuCow4jGwQkgmHatem2pyRUM#/Pennsylvania------------------------------
Tim Kaminski
Director/Owner
Gingerbread Kids Academy
Richmond TX
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