Can you afford Home Daycare?

Bill 9-2010 – An Ordinance amending Title III, Public Safety Code, Part VII, Fire Laws, Section 3-903.14, day-care homes and center occupancies of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Harrisburg to eliminate the automatic sprinkler system requirement that is financially onerous to existing businesses, operates as a deterrent to new development, and ultimately raises costs of day care for City residents.

This is what Harrisburg City Council was working on the night of April 6, 2010 in a hot sticky City Council Chamber at City Hall. On one side was the State of Pennsylvania, the Harrisburg Fire Department, and the Fire Fighter’s Union. On the other side was a state daycare union and parents with children.

The State and the Fire Fighters

According to our State and Fire Fighters, our daycare centers are disasters waiting to happen. They argue what if a fire starts, How would the children, some not able to walk, get out of the daycare? They argue that they care about the safety of these children who can’t take care of themselves. A sprinkler system would put out most fires before they become serious enough to kill children. They claim that a system can be put in place starting at $8,000. The Fire Fighters President Eric Jenkins said that “You can’t put a price on a child’s life.”

The Plight of the Parents

I asked my daughter Stephanie Ann Tulloch about the cost of daycare and this is what she said about her son in daycare today. Her husband Damine Tulloch is from Western Jamaica and is a Satellite TV Installation Manager. Stephanie and Damine are about to have a second child in a few months. That child will also has to have daycare. They are in the upper working class but still struggle with daycare expenses. Here is what she said.

“Daniel goes to KinderCare on Londonderry Rd. The full time cost for a 4 year old is $172 a week. The cost for a 5 year old to go there for a half day because they are in Kindergarten for the other half is $118/week. The full time cost of an infant is $200 per week. Keep in mind that KinderCare, as well as many other daycare centers, offers a sibling discount of 10% off of the oldest child's tuition. Every year the costs rises so when the kids have a birthday and are transferred to another room (e.g. moves from the 3 year old room to the 4 year old room), the parent assumes that their price will drop since the price goes lower as the child’s age increases. But that is not the case because tuition rises along with inflation. For example, when Daniel was 3, we paid $172 per week. When he turned 4 we saw that the price for a 4 year old was $168. But soon after he turned 4, KinderCare informed us about their rate increase which put us right back at $172.”

“As long as the demand is high for childcare, the price of daycare will be high. Parents can no longer afford to stay home with their kids. Both parents must work in this economy. Also, the times when grandparents watched their grandchildren during the day are long gone due to the increase in the retirement age. Furthermore, most grandparents can't even afford to retire when they reach the retirement age. A parent(s) only alternative is daycare. Daycare is becoming a necessity, and is becoming an inelastic service like gasoline.”

Stephanie is a line manager of a Multinational Computer Service Company. She is also the Secretary of the Darnell L Williams Corporation. She has ideas about owning a large corporation of her own one day. This is what she believes. “My dream is to one day own my own daycare center and possible turn it into a franchise. We live in an area where the demand is high so there is a lot of money to be made. Daycare workers are cheap yet the revenue is high due to the high prices I would be able to charge in this market.”

http://www.kindercare.com/

Stephanie attended this same school, then called “Little Peoples Daycare” in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At that time, I paid $60 per week for her to attend Daycare. KinderCare is not the typical daycare. A KinderCare preschool education is for parents who want to give their children a head start in Grammar School. Some KinderCare organizations teach languages as well as advance subjects. By the time many KinderCare children start Kindergarten, they already know how to read on a first grade level, add and subtract numbers, and write the alphabet.

This is the Reality of the Situation!

At the meeting, the daycare workers said that they are the lowest paid workers in their industry. Most daycares are not as big as KinderCare. Most daycare services are run by a mother just trying to get by. State license Home Daycare can only have up to six children. As President Gloria Martin Roberts put it, they are not in it for the money. They are in it for the “love of children.” By mandating that these mothers place an $8,000 to $15,000 sprinkler system in their homes, the home child care mother would be forced out of business or forced to run an underground daycare center. If so, the state that regulates a home daycare today will not be able to regulate them if made to go underground. If that happens, the hopes and dreams of the fire department will not be realized. An unregulated daycare would place the children in more danger than they are in now.

Most parents that use home daycare in the City of Harrisburg are poor. Many are single family mothers who must work and can’t stay home with the children. Many make so little on their jobs that their income is supplemented by welfare. They cannot afford KinderCare caliber daycare.

My Opinion

First, Stephanie is a line manager and is working on getting her MBA. Once Stephanie runs the Business Plan Numbers, she will forget about starting a daycare center. The children will drive her crazy as well as the parents. The people in the daycare business love children and that is the primary motive, not money. If you like children barfing up on your carpet, if you like food fights, if you like to treat bumps and cuts, or if you like parents skipping their payments then this is the business you should start.

Second, why would the state pass such a law and mandate that every home daycare business have a sprinkler system? It is obvious that home daycare businesses can’t afford it. The parents that use these daycares can’t economically support it. But corporate daycare like Stephanie’s KinderCare can. It looks to me like the corporate daycare lobby talked to the State Legislators and got them to pass this law with the objective of running home daycare out of the business. Then corporate daycare would have less competition. They can raise prices more than what they are raised now. They can also control and take over the home care industry dictating prices and market share. The poor don’t have a lobby and they don’t have a clue that they are being attacked by corporate daycare companies.

Third, Harrisburg City Council is made up of five mothers. Mayor Linda Thompson is also a mother and a grandmother. They are not about to pass a law to put the Cities home daycare services out of business. Even the two men on Council didn’t like the Bill. Gloria Martin Roberts is not taking this bill out of committee in its present form. All six of the present council people want to create a compromise bill that will satisfy the state, the fire fighters, and home daycare providers.

Last, this bill affects a lot of families in the area. If it affected me, I would contact my State Representative and State Senator and complain about this law or if you like this Bill, give your support. I would also contact Harrisburg City Council and make my views known.

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Harrisburg City Council Website. http://harrisburgcitycouncil.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=51

Present your view about this Bill to City Council by phone, email, or slow mail.
The Pa. State House of Representative’s Website.

http://www.house.state.pa.us/

If you are against this law, contact your Representative and tell him that you want it changed. The Pa. State Senate Website

http://www.pasen.gov/index.cfm

If you are against this law, contact your Senator and tell him that you want it changed.