News

Some parents in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metro areas are paying more for infant child care than they would to send a teenager off to a state university.

A Sunday story by Tulsa World projects reporter Ginnie Graham found a 33 percent jump in child-care costs over the past decade, with infant and toddler care up 55 percent. Quality providers also are getting harder to find. Particularly squeezed are middle-class families who make too much for subsidies and too little to afford the highest quality of care.

The cost of tuition, books and fees at the University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State University is about $7,200 a year and $3,500 annually for state community colleges. But there's a big difference between seeing that a small child is cared for while parents work and covering college expenses for a young adult, who often can obtain student loans or scholarships. Parents of young children often do not have such options.

Parents, hard pressed to cover rising living expenses, might be forced to cut corners in child-care quality. Can they afford to send their child to a facility that receives high marks on Oklahoma's star rating system, or do they leave the 2-year-old with the next-door neighbor?

Steep increases in cost are attributed to a push for higher quality care, rising teacher pay, increased enrollment in the publicly funded pre-K programs and inflation.

For years, Oklahoma has worked to upgrade its overall child-care system, to make it safe, affordable, reliable and stimulating. But fewer providers are able to bear the cost, with many going out of business.

The highest participation in quality child-care programs is among lowest- and highest-income families. Lower-income families can access a federal subsidy. Middle-class families are caught in between. They may be forced to seek care through relatives, friends, or by adjusting their work schedules.

Oklahomans should consider what kind of state we want to be. Do we consider early child care and education programs as something that should be available only to very wealthy or very poor children, or as a crucial investment for all children?

Click here to read the Editorial on the Tulsa World website.