ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702140031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
DEBATING whether day-care centers should sell candy to supplement staff salaries - as now is being done at one Roanoke Valley chain - avoids a far stickier and more important question:
How can child-care workers be paid a living wage without driving the cost of the service beyond the reach of working parents - who already are being heavily subsidized, whether they realize it or not?
Sales of candy bars may sweeten the paychecks of the best lead teachers by a few hundred dollars a couple times a year. That is hardly enough to keep them down on Tiny Tot Acres, though, where quality and continuity of care are crucial to preschoolers' later success in school and in the world.
As in any workplace, salary, benefits and working conditions at day-care centers affect staff morale and turnover rates. These, in turn, affect the quality of care and of a child's earliest, most important, learning experiences. Children who lose their regular caregiver tend to suffer in language and social skills, studies indicate and, in one study, showed more aggression.
Many dedicated day-care workers do their jobs as a labor of love, or to bring home a little extra money. Some may stick with it despite the pay, but parents should not kid themselves that ridiculously low earnings have no effect.
A 1993-94 study conducted by the University of Colorado found that among 401 child-care centers in four states, the annual staff turnover rates were 37 percent. More than a third of the workers changed each year, compared to 9.6 percent reported by all U.S. companies in 1992, and 12 percent reported by government, schools and other nonprofit organizations.
And who could blame even the most loving caregiver for leaving when the same study found that the mean wage in 1993 for day-care teachers was $7.22 an hour, and for aides was $5.70 an hour. On average, day-care teachers earned $5,238 a year less than they could in other professions, given their education, race, gender and age. Aides earned $3,582 a year less.
Considering the importance of the job they do, shouldn't market forces eventually improve their pay? Maybe not. Cost and convenience, as it happens, are the main factors that determine what day-care arrangements parents make.
Researchers have found that most parents have little knowledge about the quality of care their children get - and, unlike most purchases, they cannot rely on cost to indicate quality. Fees simply do not reflect the true costs of care. Donated facilities, equipment, materials, volunteers, along with foregone wages, keep fees artificially low.
What's more, the difference between the cost of mediocre care and the cost of good care is greater than actual fee variation in the marketplace, argues one report on the economics of child care, so providers have an economic disincentive to improve quality.
Low cost is essential if day care is to be within the reach of families that are not wealthy. How, then, to ensure quality? Consumer education; higher - definitely not lower - state standards; more public and private investment tied to implementing higher standards. These steps would be a start. Meantime, we need to address a larger question with a bearing on the distribution of cost: Should early-childhood education be part of public education?
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB