The High Cost of Early Childhood Education

Chris Berleth, President
The Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce

At 4:45 am this morning, as I left home to head to the Capitol, with my kids still sleeping soundly (thankfully), and my wife starting to stir, no doubt at the smell of coffee. She’d be out the door in an hour, in order to proceed to her job as a school bus driver, but only after her sister arrived to watch our kids. Kali would get home from the bus, and Kenna would go off to her job as a bank teller. On days when I need to be out the door earlier than my wife, this is what we do - a childcare juggle that depends on family and accommodates a part-time job.

The irony of this particular morning of course was that my early meeting was at the Capitol in Harrisburg, advocating for childcare solutions. That’s right - we needed childcare so I could go talk with the legislature about childcare. Join me in smirking broadly, won’t you?

This problem isn’t even remotely close to falling on our family alone. A recent report by Ready Nation and the PA Early Learning Investment Commission shows that 70% of Pennsylvanians struggle with access to childcare. 61% struggle with affordability, and 51% with the high costs.

In Columbia County, 92% of children under five years old who are eligible for childcare are unserved, and in Montour, that number is 71%. (Neither are acceptable numbers.)

We’re in a full-blown childcare crisis.

I know what you’re thinking - people throw around the word “crisis” a lot these days. The problem is, the numbers don’t lie.

Childcare staff wages are low across the Commonwealth, averaging $12.43 per hour, and turnover is high. In Montour County, staffing issues have closed five classrooms, and 120 youth sit on waiting lists. 100% of providers have confirmed that the staffing shortage affects their facility. In Columbia County, an additional 55 children are waitlisted, with two classrooms closed and six open positions available.

In the Capitol, I was joined by Senator Lynda Schlegel Culver and State Representative Michael Stender, and together we had the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Kathryn Edwards, a labor economist, who shared that the PA economy cannot right itself regarding labor force participation without public intervention. I was pleased to be joined later this morning by Representative Leadbeter and share some thoughts.

Before a bipartisan commission on Early Childhood Education, Dr. Edwards highlighted the importance of public investment to support childcare providers directly. My colleagues Bob Carl (Schuylkill Chamber) and Laura Manion (Chester County Chamber of Business and Industry) reiterated that there is broad support from our coalition of 55 Chambers for such investment. In reiterating, Ms. Manion shared her own story, saying that last year, she paid a whopping $2,200 per month in childcare, albeit in the most expensive county in our state.

Costs are a problem here, too. Too often, families keep a spouse out of the workforce entirely, arguing that it doesn’t make sense to pay someone else to watch their kids when wages become a net zero.

It’s such a problem that there are statistics that estimate the drag on our economy at $6.65 billion per year.

Working parents annually lose $16,490 in lost earnings and reduced participation in the workforce due to childcare issues. Businesses lose $3,200 per worker in reduced revenue and turnover costs, and taxpayers lose $4,230 per working parent in federal and state/local taxes.

This issue is as big as any we’re facing in Columbia and Montour Counties, and given the housing issues we’re also facing in Columbia and Montour Counties (estimates place the numbers at 1,000 fewer homes than the market demands), the transportation woes especially in the rural most parts of our community, and our worker shortage, we must consider that future growth depends upon investments that attract and support working families. How else can we attract businesses and investment if we cannot support the community we have now?

Dr. Edwards highlighted the top question on our bipartisan commission’s minds. How can they (legislators) steward resources effectively and invest in childcare wisely? After all, historically, support intended for providers which is paid first to families has translated into the cost of childcare going up per family by precisely as much as said public support. On the surface, paying to providers doesn’t seem to solve the rural issue and is feared to be a slippery slope, where rural families who “figure it out on their own” won’t see any help and the Commonwealth once bringing tax dollars to bear, may be forced to perpetuate the support indefinitely.

The best solution, suggested Dr. Edwards, is a multifaceted approach, that deals with the current crisis via direct support to providers who by investing as they see fit in wages and more can shore up their facilities and the resources currently at-risk. “No regulatory change, no alleviation of licensing requirements or loosening of staffing requirements (which ensure child safety) for these facilities can singularly solve this problem.”

Consensus in the industry seems to agree that recruitment and retention investments are a key next step, and families may continue to benefit by keeping alive and or growing a childcare tax credit program which we advocated for last year. Unfortunately, these investments won’t go far enough in solving the issue - they represent a tourniquet to stop the proverbial bleeding.

In addition to public sector help, we’ll need to work together to find opportunities for private sector engagement - like the recent “family care room” created at Wellspan Evangelical Community Hospital, which serves as an on-site program which services five or fewer families at a time. Staffed by former childcare workers who had found part-time jobs in custodial services at Evangelical (making more than they ever did in childcare), the program is on-site and small, and falls outside the licensing requirements due to the on-site access to parents and guardians.

Today, I applaud the Chamber members who do the hard work of serving our children, and encourage all of our members to continue to voice the challenges they face as well as the creative solutions they have to address big issues like this. For now, please know your Chamber is working closely to bring your voices to our elected officials, and to assist you wherever possible in stabilizing and growing our workforce, which will continue to be at risk if we do not address the high costs of the gaps in early childhood education.