A Clovis mother identifies a critical need: more after-school child care | Opinion
We’re four years from the height of the pandemic and classrooms, playgrounds, sporting events and concerts are booming. Unemployment is down across the country, from a high of 14.8% in April of 2020 to this March’s near record low of 3.8%. By all accounts the national economy is booming.
I think back four years and shudder. Like 65% of married-couple families who have children in the U.S., both my husband and I work. I remember the nightmare of juggling working from home with my kids’ Zoom classrooms while my husband still had to go into the office. As crazy as that time was, I know how fortunate I was. Both my husband and I had jobs — not everyone could say that — and I was able to stay home with my kids; even fewer got that luxury.
It wasn’t until things started opening back up that the real crunch hit. Where was I supposed to find child care? The child-care industry in the U.S. is a behemoth ($60 billion), and it was getting crushed on both supply and demand. Child care used to be hard to find and expensive; after COVID it was nearly impossible to find, and with two kids, nearly cost a second mortgage.
The U.S. Department of Labor shows that my experience is not out of the ordinary. It’s a Catch-22; both parents need to work to provide for their children, but without child care both parents can’t work. And the untenable costs of child care are only increasing. In Fresno County the median family income is $57,000 a year; the median cost for one child in a child-care center is $10,223. That’s 15.2% of the median income per child. Home-based facilities are an option (if you can find one), but the savings come out to less than a $100 a month on average.
Opinion
The challenges aren’t hard to figure out. Effective child care needs space, access to age appropriate educational and entertainment options, and qualified people to oversee the children. Where can you find all of that?
Pre-pandemic, at least for me, the option came from the Clovis Unified School District. There were options for before-school care, after-school care, care during breaks in the school year, even full day options for over the summer. Sure, there were a few periods during the year when it was closed, but there were a lot of spots, many locations, and the price was reasonable.
Post-pandemic, it’s been a different story. There are fewer locations, fewer spots in each location, four days a week instead of five for the limited summer weeks, more scheduled days off, and higher prices. We know the school district has the space, has the age appropriate educational and entertainment material, so we also know the issue, and that’s the labor.
CUSD, along with other districts hosting after-school programs, are now competing for talent. I t starts with paying people what it takes to fully staff the after-school programs. Does that mean child care through the district might become more expensive? Yes, but by opening it up to more families, there will be more tax revenue coming into the district, because both my husband and I can work and pay those taxes (or CUSD could dip into the $150+ million slush fund).
Is this one personal? Of course. What could possibly be more personal than who is caring for your, or my, or anyone’s child? What’s best for the kids? That’s the question CUSD claims to ask first in every situation. Here, the answer is clear.
