Dear future Mr or Madam President,

In today’s economy, affordable and reliable child Care is hard to come by. In New York, the average cost per child care is around $14,939! That is just for one child too. That means for an average family living in New York that makes about $121,000, they are spending almost 16.5 percent of their income on child care just for one child. That is a major problem, especially for families with two or more children. In fact, child care costs in the U.S have almost doubled in cost since the year 2000! A lot of families struggle with these high costs, but the lower class struggle the most. If an average family spends 16.5 percent of their income on child care per child, what about the lower class families who make less money? The families that make less money for their income, but pay the same price for child care as the upper and middle class are spending even more of their income on child care, leaving less money for taxes, bills, food, etc.

Not only is affordability a problem, but dependability is too. With child care costs becoming higher in recent years, parents struggle to find a daycare that is affordable, that’s why so many parents are choosing to turn to home daycares. The problem with home daycare though, is that in many of these daycares, they don’t meet the adult supervision laws set by the U.S government. Not enough supervision and under trained staff can affect with how a child is given critical attention, especially if they are hurt or injured. Also, safety hazards may be lurking in the corners with food borne illness, stair gates, electrical outlets and recalled toys and equipment being the most common safety hazards.

Another problem with our child care system today is how it has such a lack of availability. The lack of availability is a major problem because it affects our economy greatly. If child care is too expensive (as it is now) or not available where a person lives, a parent will have to stay home or quit their job. 76 percent of parents say they have had to stay home from work to take care of their child. This affects an employer which has a big effect on the workers working the businesses, companies and other major job providers. This affects how much or how well the company, business, etc. are able to do their job or produce their product. This affects stores that carry the product.

Child care is causing many problems throughout the United States, from affordability, dependability, availability and how it causes a major impact in our economy. How will you, if you become our next president help end this crisis, and help solve our child care problems?

Sincerely,

Helena R