The cost of raising a child has increased steadily over the last few decades. According to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it now costs nearly $250,000 to raise a child to the age of 18 – and that’s not including college tuition. In fact, child care is the second-most expensive item on Americans’ list of living expenses, with housing at No. 1. Child Care Aware of America conducts a survey on child care costs around the country every year. And with each passing year, the cost of child care accounts for more and more of the average family’s budget. In the San Fernando Valley, the Child Care Resource Center offers financial assistance and subsidy programs to families who are struggling to make ends meet. The center invests in every single Valley community to ensure that families have access to the child care they need – totaling about $40 million. The return on investment is astounding – every dollar sent into the community results in $2.50 earned by parents. The evidence is clear – access to affordable child care is essential to the region’s economic vitality. Parents supported by subsidy programs can choose child care from a host of available providers. Of course, there’s a catch – those child care providers’ salaries are limited by the state. Specifically, child care providers cannot be paid more than the 2009 regional market rate survey minus 10 percent. This rate was just recalibrated last year, but it’s only a slight increase from the previous rate. Because last year’s adjustment did not increase the rate child care subsidy programs can pay by much, it is still far behind what providers can charge in the open market. Given these circumstances, providers are less likely to accept the children served by those programs. Parents who rely on subsidized child care services don’t have the luxury of shopping around for more expensive child care services, which leaves them with few options. The Valley Industry & Commerce Association (VICA) believes the state should adjust its cap on what state-funded child care organizations can pay their providers in order to sharpen their competitive edge in the open market. Countless productivity hours are lost every day due to working parents struggling to find day care for their children. Some desperate parents have no choice but to enlist the help of unlicensed child care providers. Some parents can’t afford to work at all because the cost of child care is too high. State support for early care has been reduced by $1 billion over the last five years, which equates to 110,000 spaces for young children. Last year, the state budget included increases for preschool, but virtually nothing for child care. And while it may seem like a solution for parents, directing state funds toward preschool isn’t the same thing as increasing funding for child care. Most parents need child care in order to go to work. While preschool is extremely important to early childhood development, it generally only lasts for a few hours a day, which doesn’t help parents. Providers of affordable child care are essential to the Valley’s – and California’s – economic success. When parents can’t find child care or can’t afford it, businesses’ day-to-day operations suffer, and companies lose out on a valuable part of the workforce. When child care is so expensive that parents have to decide whether or not they can afford to work, that’s not good for business or for the future of the community. VICA hopes to see an increase in state funding for child care programs, as well as a significantly higher cap on their providers’ salaries. Making child care affordable and accessible to everyone is an integral part of a secure economic future for the Valley. Stuart Waldman is president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a business advocacy organization based in Sherman Oaks that represents employers throughout the Los Angeles County region at the local, state and federal levels of government.
