Jordan L. - Parent
“Childcare is essential to our family. My children are 5 and 3, and they've both been in childcare since they were a few months old. We found childcare easy enough as there is one close to our house and we had heard really good things about it. We really like it, but our biggest struggle is the cost. When my daughter was born and in the infant room and my son was in the toddler room (part time), our weekly cost was just under $600. My husband and I both work, and I love my job and would not want to quit working to be a stay-at-home mom, even though almost every penny I make goes towards our childcare costs. Our monthly childcare costs are more than our mortgage payment. Aside from the cost, our biggest struggle with childcare is the timing of my son's public school pre-k, which he needs to attend because of his IEP for a speech delay. This public program is free (yay!) but doesn't provide transportation, and the hours at three days a week from 9:00am to 1:00pm. This means that during the week, my husband and I need to leave work for an hour to pick up our son from school, bring him to his other daycare center, and then return to work. I'm VERY fortunate that I work for a female executive director who believes in flexible work hours. Without our feminist workplace culture, I might have had to decline my son's IEP (which is unthinkable) or shouldered the additional cost of paying for private transportation. His progress in his public preschool undeniable, and it is the best thing we've been able to do for his academic development. It is worth the sacrifice on our part, but we couldn't have done it without my employer's feminist workplace culture and policies.”
What would affordable, high-quality early education and child care mean for you?
“I envision high-quality preschool to be like the one my son is at now, at our local elementary school. It is free for IEP children and low-cost for other families, however the hours are limited and it is not offered 5 days a week. My desire would be for this program to run full days, five days a week. I believe what makes it high-quality is the staff: the head teacher, her two assistants, and the speech and occupational therapists. They also work closely with older students who come in and read to the little kids and do art projects with them. This has helped my son to improve his public speaking and he feels more familiar and comfortable in the school, which will help him tremendously in kindergarten. I don't mind that my daughter needed to be at a different childcare site like she is now -- one that is full-time -- but I wish the price could be lower. She goes to a great daycare where there is very low turnover and educated, caring teachers, but the cost is so high. I'd also be interested in having either/both of my children attend a Montessori school but sadly we do not have any near us. I think this is an excellent model for high-quality childcare.”
How has the COVID-19 crisis affected you when it comes to childcare? What are you concerned about as the childcare system reopens?
“When businesses were forced to close in mid-March due to the pandemic, my husband's small business was one of these closures. We hated to do this, but we immediately withdrew our children from their private daycare. Without receiving unemployment and no promise of the PPP loan, we couldn't risk the incurred costs of daycare, even if they only closed for a couple of weeks. Because my husband was home, we were able to divide childcare duties during the day and I was able to continue working full-time - though remotely and with a flexible schedule (7am to 3pm). Now that my husband is back to work managing his small business, we could have returned to daycare but we decided against sending the children back. We are still not financially secure to pay for the high cost of care. But we're extremely fortunate to have the kid's grandparents be able to help us throughout the week. My greatest concern for the childcare system is that so many private providers will close forever. We face this reality daily as small-business owners ourselves. I worry for the women who own these small daycares, for the women who work in those centers as educators, for the women who are needing to adjust their work schedules so they can continue to do both work and childcare, and for the children like mine who are missing the socialization and structure of their childcare. We are hopeful that both kids will be back in school in September.”