A survey of 900 San Diego child care providers found that 78% are either losing money or just breaking even, a finding that suggests the region’s already bleak child care landscape could get even worse in the future.
Kim McDougal, the executive director of the YMCA Childcare Resource Service, said she was “heartbroken” to see the results of the study, which was conducted by the Nonprofit Institute at the University of San Diego on behalf of The San Diego Foundation.
“We are clearly propping up our child care industry on the backs of people that are not able to move themselves forward economically, yet they're continuing to provide this critical service,” McDougal said. “It really does demonstrate the critical place that child care is in terms of its viability in the future.”
The study also found that there are fewer available child care spots for infants than for children ages 2 to 5. McDougal said that could get worse as the state shifts to offering free transitional kindergarten to 4-year-olds. Right now, child care centers use 4-year-olds to balance their budgets because they are cheaper to care for than infants.
“There really is this critical need for infant toddler care, yet the economics of providing infant and toddler care doesn't pencil out,” McDougal said. “And so we have to start to think more creatively about how we support working families when they have young children and how we fund child care for families that have young children.”
The report found that the annual cost of care for one infant costs on average more than $19,000 a year, while care for one infant and one preschooler costs more than $33,000 annually. Families with one infant and one preschooler spend a median of 40% of their income on child care, according to the report.
In conjunction with the survey, a report from The San Diego Foundation that surveyed local parents, found that 76% said finding affordable childcare in their area was an issue.
“Many parents are forced to make a difficult decision, stay engaged in the workforce or care for their children themselves,” said Katie Rast, the director of community impact at The San Diego Foundation. “The availability of quality, affordable child care is critical to maintaining and growing San Diego’s workforce.”
McDougal said that, without more public funding of childcare, the need would only grow as more businesses close. She said the YMCA and other local organizations were lobbying for more funding in the federal budget, which is being debated now.
“It seems like a very critical time that, if we don't take advantage of this momentum and this awareness of this critical state of child care and get it into the reconciliation package for the budget, this could be a missed opportunity forever,” she said.
