While researching further into NIEER, I came across a newsletter article that touches on families that are effected by unaffordable child care. "Given the importance of child care for family and child well being, in 2016 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set a federal affordability benchmark (i.e., the maximum percent of income a family should spend on child care) at 7% of total annual family income" (Acevedo-Garcia, 2019). This article grasped my attention because, the root of the problem for all Early Childhood Education and Education in general is "Money". Parents either make to much or not enough. Even with placing a cap on the amount of fees a family will pay for early child care in at a low percentage when you add it up as a whole it still consumes an extremely large portion of a families income. This greatly defeats families that are following policies and doing their part to give their child or children a quality early education and should be reevaluated immediately.
- Center-based care would cost low-income working parents 28% of income.
- Market rate child care is unaffordable for a majority of working parents and for nearly all low-income working parents.
- Black and Hispanic parents are more likely to experience unaffordable child care.
I can attest that through my research that there are measures to provide ECE with a much stronger foundation to stand upon however, I believe there can be and should be more action and less talk in doing what is best for children and their families as a whole.
Resources
Barriers
to Expansion of NC Pre-K: Problems and Potential Solutions. (2019, January 17).
Retrieved from
http://nieer.org/research-report/barriers-to-expansion-of-nc-pre-k-problems-and-potential-solutions
M. Baldiga, P. Joshi, E. Hardy, D. Acevedo-Garcia. Child
Care is Unaffordable for Working Parents Who Need It Most. (2019,
February 15). Retrieved from
http://nieer.org/2019/02/15/child-care-is-unaffordable-for-working-parents-who-need-it-most
4 comments:
Early childhood is a crucial stage of life in terms of a child's physical, intellectual, emotional and social development. Growth of mental and physical abilities progress at an astounding rate and a very high proportion of learning take place from birth to age six. It is a time when children particularly need high quality personal care and learning experiences.
Education begins from the moment the child is brought home from the hospital and continues on when the child starts to attend playgroups and kindergartens. The learning capabilities of humans continue for the rest of their lives but not at the intensity that is demonstrated in the preschool years. With this in mind, babies and toddlers need positive early learning experiences to help their intellectual, social and emotional development and this lays the foundation for later school success.
https://www.expat.or.id/info/earlychildhoodeducation.html
A very sad reality is that "Parents either make to much or not enough". The income guidelines for assistance often does not consider other financial obligations of the families. One thing that shocked me about your post is that "most children eligible for NC Pre-K are unable to enroll due to inadequate state funding". I live in the state of Georgia and I always thought that all children were able to attend Pre-K. I am so used to seeing centers with available slots, so I never knew that funding for Pre-K was limited causing some children to be unable to attend.
Hello Violanda, Great blog post! I think it is very important for children to get an early childhood education but having the best pre-k education help set the standards for children to go to elementary school. I also don't believe it is not fair for families to not being able to send their children to school because they make too much money or not enough money. Everyone should be treated equally.
Hello Violanda, great post. I never understood why when it comes to education money is always a major factor. I believe education is a privilege and the fact that you either make too much of too little us the basis of what kind of education a child will receive. I agree with you about their needs to be more action and less talking about what can be done.
Post a Comment