In
1990, the Census Bureau issued a statistical brief entitled “What Does
It Cost to Mind the Kids?” The
report found that families spent approximately seven percent of their
family’s budget for child care expenses.
The goal of affordable child care in El Dorado County is for each
family to spend no more than seven percent of their monthly budget on
child care. A family of
three at the state median income in El Dorado County currently spends
between 10 and 17 percent of their income to care for one child.
Therefore, the cost of child care in El Dorado County is a significant
burden.
Our efforts to keep child care services
relatively affordable have often ended up displacing the burden of child
care costs onto child care workers themselves.
According to the Center for Child Care Workforce (CCW):
“Low wages and poor benefits subsidize the current child care system.
Even when public dollars go directly to families to help pay for child
care, reimbursement rates are set at low levels that simply maintain the
status quo. The consequence: teachers and providers (especially the most
skilled and educated) leave the field at an alarming rate, and program
quality suffers. Although
we've put a lot of money into child care worker training programs, these
rarely lead to pay raises or offer incentives to stay in the field. As a
result - with turnover rates of 30-40% a year – we keep training more
and more new people, because many of last year's trainees have left child
care to make a better living elsewhere.”
Legislators
in California have acknowledged the role of child care providers in
supporting families. In 1998, legislation entitled C.A.R.E.S. (Compensation and
Recognition Enhances Stability) was passed by both the Senate and Assembly
but later vetoed by the governor. The
C.A.R.E.S. bill was designed to address retention of family child care
providers and center based teaching staff and directors through two
components. The Child
Development Corps awards stipends to providers for ongoing professional
development, including education and training, providers with higher
levels of education, and providers who stay in the field for at least a
year. The Resources for Retention program provides resources to
programs seeking to improve staff compensation and working conditions.
C.A.R.E.S. was reintroduced in 1999 by Dion Aroner as a two-year bill,
requiring a local match for funding.
The Early Care and Education Planning Council, through a collaborative partnership, has been awarded
funds from the local Children and Families Commission of El Dorado County
and AB 212 Funds from the State Department of Education to implement a
local CARES program (Compensation And Retention Encourages Stability).
Our local plan invites
child care and development providers to work with an Advisor to develop an
educational plan with the goal of completing at least 12 college units in
two years. Once enrolled,
providers will be given a stipend of $900 every six months for successful
progress on their plan. The goal of the educational plan is to assist each
provider in obtaining a child development permit from the California
Commission for Teacher Credentialing.
