Cost of Child Care has surpassed the cost of public-university tuition

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Cost of Child Care has surpassed the cost of public-university tuition

A study released last week by the National Association of Child Care Resource Referral Agencies finds that the cost of center-based care has now surpassed the cost of public-university tuition in a majority of states.

In the past 10 years, the agency’s latest survey found, the cost of child care for the youngest children increased twice as fast as the median family income throughout the country, and in half the states it far outpaced the rate of inflation. The recommendation of the Department of Health and Human Services is that parents spend no more than 10 percent of their family income on child care. But in 36 states, the cost of center-based care for an infant exceeds 10 percent of median income for a married couple, and for single parents, the cost of center-based infant care exceeds 10 percent of median income in every state.

Exact numbers vary — from a low of $4,550 per year for infant care in Mississippi in 2009 to a high of more than $18,750 in Massachusetts. Infant care was particularly expensive — the yearly cost of care in a center is higher, on average, than the the yearly cost of food in every region of the United States. But even as children graduate to the toddler room, care hardly becomes a bargain. The monthly costs for center care for an infant plus a preschooler are higher than the median cost of rent, and nearly as high as the monthly mortgage for most families. (Costs for school-age children ranged from $2,160 in Mississippi to $10,400 in New York.)

Comparisons to college tuition also vary from state to state, but almost everywhere the ratio is startling. In 40 states the average annual cost for an infant in center-based care was higher than a year’s tuition and fees at a four-year public college. In Massachusetts, the yearly infant care cost exceeded the yearly cost of tuition and fees by $9,533; in New York, Wyoming and Washington, D.C., the infant-care costs were more than double the college costs.

Author: Paola