Quality Child Care Shortage Causes Frustration Among Parents

Author: Kelsey Rinehart

It is sometimes difficult for students, bent on juggling a life of academics and socializing, to sympathize with the plight of the working parent. Yet for some faculty and staff, contemplating such a life is not so hard — especially for those with families.
Life as a working parent can be difficult on many levels, and one of the most important factors in raising children is very often finding good, affordable child care.
When asked about their experiences with child care, Armelle Crouzieres, assistant professor of French, and Brett Millier, professor of American literature, gave varied answers. "I heavily rely on child care," Crouzieres commented. "It was very hard finding child care my first year in Middlebury. I had twins, [so] I needed two spots for children of the same age."
It was not as difficult for Millier, who said, "I have been fortunate in having as much child care as I wished for throughout my children's baby and toddler years." Yet both agreed that child care options for the more than 37,400 working parents in Vermont were insufficient.
The Economic Impact of Vermont's Child Care Industry, a report put out this June by Windham Child Care Association and the Peace and Justice Center, claims that in Vermont, 80 percent of women who have children under age six were in the workforce in 1998.
The child care industry, therefore, is crucial to the Vermont economy, allowing many parents to return to work soon after starting a family. In addition, child care is a crucial part of the Vermont economy, directly and indirectly providing 5,000 Vermonters with employment. Overall, the economic impact of child care spending in Vermont is $426 million.
Locally, child care has an exceptional reputation. Kimberly Waterman and Doumina Noonan, associate director and executive director, respectively, of Otter Creek Child Center (OCCC) in Middlebury contend, "We are fortunate in the Middlebury area. The local child care centers are nationally accredited and involved in current quality child care practices, self-study and improvement."
Still, Waterman and Noonan agreed with Millier and Crouzieres that, overall, child care options are insufficient. As Elizabeth Meyer, president of the Vermont Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies put it, "Finding options for affordable, high-quality child care that is available when and where parents need it is a perennial struggle."
Low wages and poor benefits for employees make it extremely difficult for child care providers to find well-qualified workers. The Economic Impact of Vermont's Child Care Industry report noted that in 2000, the average hourly wage for employees of licensed childcare facilities was $7.60. The lack of funds hurts many chil care providers.
Waterman and Noonan said, "Tuition at OCCC only covers 80 percent of our operating expenses, and the rest we need to scramble for by fundraising and grant writing. If there was more of a partnership and a sharing between child care providers and community businesses, everyone would benefit, especially families."
Millier suggests more government funding for child care centers, and comments, "I am in favor of universal [state-funded] pre-school for three- and four-year- olds. Every child should have a safe and productive place to go every day, at little or no cost to the family."
Funding, however, is often hard to come by, as Anne Gleason, School Age Care Programs coordinator at Mary Johnson Children's Center in Middlebury, noted. She said, "The state of child care in Vermont is … in need of constant support to keep its precarious balance as both a resource and a liability in the minds of legislators and policymakers. Influential supporters are sometimes hard to find when bills are needing to escape a heavy budget cut."
Meyer said, "More, better child care is what's needed in Vermont. Greater partnership between parents, providers, employers and private and public funders are needed to make it happen. Without child care, Vermont does not work."