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SEATTLE – Even before Tricia Schalekamp knew that the baby was growing in her, she started looking for child care with urgency and intensity.
She visited two dozen centers in the Seattle area, created spreadsheets with notes, and paid at least $ 500 in non-refundable waiting list fees.
At the end of the day, she was not offered a coveted place in most places where child care was available to children five years old and under. And now, a decade later, Schalekamp does not expect to see this money again.
With the demand for high-quality, seemingly insatiable, yet extremely limited preschools in the most expensive US cities, this warning has become routine and exacerbates the already arduous search for child care for many working parents.
Those who can afford to pay for care cost an average of $ 2,000 per month per child, but rarely pay more than $ 100 here and there. Many end up taking their children to a daycare program, while others manage by mending nanny hours, hiring live au pairs and relying on family members.
Still, the situation illustrates how much American daycare is currently exercising power, said Elise Gould, an economist who studies child care policy at the Washington, DC-based Institute for Economic Policy.
"They can have hundreds of people on their waiting list but give nothing to them?" Gould said. "It's a vexed incentive system."
Schalekamp remembers having cried after a daycare excursion thinking that she would never find room for her child, who is now in third grade. She considers herself lucky to have finally found care, but she is particularly moved by a $ 200 fee.
"There is no chance to get in, but why did not they say that? There is no transparency," said Schalekamp, 44. , who works in product development.
A spokeswoman for the Washington State Attorney General's Office said she was not aware of any such problem, but that anyone feeling defrauded should file a complaint.
In other worlds of coveted waiting lists, neither national college leaders nor those in the restaurant industry have said that these fees were a common practice in their field. The Business Ethics Office stated that it did not maintain any data specific to complaints on the waiting lists.
Many early childhood centers already charge a large population of families tuition fees comparable to those of elite universities. So, for those seeking this expensive market, fees are widely accepted and generally considered a deposit for future listing, although services are never guaranteed.
Daycare administrators say they are simply eliminating unsophisticated applicants knowing that parents are trying to register on as many lists as possible to get a single job. They also say that their company's low-profit, low-wage money helps manage the hours needed to answer questions, organize tours and process registration documents.
Ann Marie Robinson, day care admissions coordinator at Kiddie University near the US Capitol in Washington, said nearly 50% of families who pay $ 100 non-refundable waiting list fees end up Subscribe to. She has never heard of complaints because it is a common practice in her area. The popular day-care company currently has more than 200 people on waiting lists for 40 children's places.
"We inform our customers on what they can expect and let them know that this is not a guarantee that you will definitely enter," Robinson said.
Lack of manpower is at the root of the problem of child care provision.
For years, the childcare and preschool industry has been trying to address its high turnover, which is close to 50%. However, even a 13% increase in wages nationwide between 2014 and 2017 – to reach $ 22,290 a year on average – did not prevent the loss of talent. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Bureau of Labor, it is difficult to get people to work for such low wages.
At the same time, the demand for high quality early childhood education programs continues to grow.
Informed by the growing body of research on brain development that shows that children who attend good kindergartens are better off and have healthier lifestyles, the political momentum has shifted towards pre-school programs funded by government. the crisis in the provision of daycare services is particularly acute. This month, the richest man in the world, Seattle-based Amazon.com boss Jeff Bezos, announced that his first major philanthropic project would be dedicated to funding free kindergartens in low-income communities. returned.
Jenny Cimbalnik, director of Seattle's Wallingford Child Care Center, said parents sometimes express concerns about their fees, but accept them widely as courses for the course. His center is so popular that he even has a waiting list for his free monthly visits. Cimbalnik said that most families are offered a place, but she acknowledged that waiting herself can force parents to make other arrangements.
"I sympathize with that, and I too do not want to take money from families without being able to promise them a place," she said. "It is unfortunate that there is not enough attention for everyone to enter where he wants, or at least somewhere."
Camille Leganza is one of those parents who said that she had not yet reached Wallingford's waiting list. She gave in to $ 50 in 2014 while she was pregnant with her 3 year old daughter and she paid alongside some 40 other people during her tour. Fees have since increased to $ 75.
"It's like a very shady extra source of income," said Leganza, a 42-year-old recruiter. "What is it? And how much money is it literally?"
– The Associated Press
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