[Senate Hearing 107-377]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 107-377
GOOD BEGINNINGS LAST A LIFETIME: HOW THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN PROMOTE
AFFORDABLE, QUALITY CHILD CARE
[Star Print]
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HEARING
before the
OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT,
RESTRUCTURING, AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
SUBCOMMITTEE
of the
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
FIELD HEARING HELD AT ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
__________
JANUARY 28, 2002
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Governmental Affairs
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
78-615 WASHINGTON : 2002
____________________________________________________________________________
For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
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COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut, Chairman
CARL LEVIN, Michigan FRED THOMPSON, Tennessee
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii TED STEVENS, Alaska
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
MAX CLELAND, Georgia PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi
JEAN CARNAHAN, Missouri ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah
MARK DAYTON, Minnesota JIM BUNNING, Kentucky
Joyce A. Rechtschaffen, Staff Director and Counsel
Hannah S. Sistare, Minority Staff Director and Counsel
Darla D. Cassell, Chief Clerk
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OVERSIGHT OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, RESTRUCTURING, AND THE DISTRICT OF
COLUMBIA SUBCOMMITTEE
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois, Chairman
DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio
ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey TED STEVENS, Alaska
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
JEAN CARNAHAN, Missouri PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico
MARK DAYTON, Minnesota THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi
Marianne Clifford Upton, Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Angela Benander, Legislative Assistant to Senator Durbin
Sandy Fried, Legislative Assistant to Senator Carnahan
Lisa Jaworski, Legislative Aide to Senator Carnahan
Caroline Pelot, Deputy Director, Eastern Missouri to Senator Carnahan
Andrew Richardson, Minority Staff Director
Julie L. Vincent, Chief Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Opening statements:
Page
Senator Durbin............................................... 1
Senator Carnahan............................................. 3
WITNESSES
Monday, January 28, 2002
Lisa Eberle-Mayse, M.A., Director, Childgarden Child Development
Center......................................................... 4
Steve J. Cok, a parent of children in day care................... 6
Jo Ann Harris, a parent of children in day care.................. 8
Janice Moenster, a parent of children in day care................ 9
Teresa M. Jenkins, Director, Office of Workforce Relations, U.S.
Office of Personnel Management................................. 17
Sarah Kirschner, Missouri Childcare at Work...................... 18
Penny Korte, Daycare Owner/Director, P.A.L.S., Highland, Illinois 21
Corinne Patton, Manager, Missouri Child Care Resource and
Referral Network............................................... 23
Kim E. Hunt, Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral
Agencies (INCCRRA)............................................. 26
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Cok, Steve J.:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 37
Eberle-Mayse, Lisa, M.A.:
Testimony.................................................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 33
Harris, Jo Ann:
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 39
Hunt, Kim E.:
Testimony.................................................... 26
Prepared statement........................................... 62
Jenkins, Teresa M.:
Testimony.................................................... 17
Prepared statement........................................... 43
Kirschner, Sarah:
Testimony.................................................... 18
Prepared statement........................................... 52
Korte, Penny:
Testimony.................................................... 21
Prepared statement........................................... 56
Moenster, Janice:
Testimony.................................................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 40
Patton, Corinne:
Testimony.................................................... 23
Prepared statement........................................... 58
Appendix
Janet E. Maruna, Director, Early Childhood and Family Services,
letter dated January 25, 2002, with general views.............. 65
GOOD BEGINNINGS LAST A LIFETIME: HOW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN PROMOTE
AFFORDABLE, QUALITY CHILD CARE
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MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 2002
U.S. Senate,
Oversight of Government Management, Restructuring,
and the District of Columbia Subcommittee,
of the Committee on Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m., at
the Childgarden Child Development Center, 4150 Laclede Avenue,
St. Louis, Missouri, Hon. Richard Durbin, Chairman of the
Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Durbin and Carnahan.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR DURBIN
Senator Durbin. Good morning. I want to thank all of you
for joining us today at this field hearing of the Senate
Subcommittee on the Oversight of Government Management. I am
particularly happy to be here in St. Louis with my good friend
and fellow Subcommittee Member, Senator Jean Carnahan. Thank
you for joining us today in discussing a topic of importance to
families all around America.
I come across the river from Illinois. But since I grew up
in East St. Louis, I know the St. Louis area a little bit. And
it is great to be over here on this side of the river to meet
with Jean and to talk about an issue that I think you will
find, during the course of the day, is important to so many
families.
Typically, we conduct our hearings on Capitol Hill, but
these hearings on the road give us a chance to meet with people
and face their real problems. I can not think of a more
appropriate setting to have a hearing on child care issues than
this facility, which is innovative and colorful. Jean and I
have had a chance to walk around to some of the classrooms and
see the kids, who are in good hands, and apparently still
celebrating the Rams' victory.
Jean has been an enthusiastic champion in the U.S. Senate
on the issue we are examining today: How are we going to be
able to provide affordable, quality child care for working
families across America. Primarily as a result of Senator
Carnahan's leadership, Congress enacted legislation last
November permanently authorizing the use of appropriated funds
by executive agencies to provide child care services for
Federal civilian employees. She deserves a round of applause. I
was proud to be a co-sponsor of Senator Carnahan's bill.
Parents rely on outside child care arrangements now more
than ever. Whether by choice or necessity, balancing the
competing demands of work and raising a family is a terrific
challenge. The Children's Defense Fund reports that an
estimated 13 million children under the age of six spend part
of their day in the care of someone other than their parents.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported for the first time in 1998 a
majority, 51 percent of married couple families, had children
and both parents had at least a part-time job. That is up from
33 percent in 1976. In my home State of Illinois, 61 percent of
all children under the age of six have working parents.
When I grew up, of course, my mother worked. But she was
home during the early years of my life. And then when my wife
and I were raising our three kids, my wife stayed home and gave
them special attention and care. And it was not until our first
grandson came along and I started talking to my daughter about
him that I realized that someone was going to have Alex all day
long. And I said, ``Who are these people who are going to have
my grandson?'' This was an important issue. Well, it is an
issue that families face every single day. More and more
families are turning to child care arrangements outside the
home.
Working families also have to struggle to pay for it, to
try to make sure that they have the very best care that they
can afford. Full day care can cost $4,000 to $10,000 a year,
surpassing sometimes the tuition costs of public universities.
According to 2000 data, child care for a 4-year-old child in
the urban area of Illinois costs an average of $5,300 a year.
Average public college tuition in Illinois was $3,845 a year.
At the same time, Children's Defense Fund reports that more
than one of the four families with young children earn less
than $25,000 a year.
The child care profession is also a demanding job. We want
to make sure the very best men and women are taking care of our
kids and grandkids. And a recent report by Education Week
reveals the startling fact that a child care professional in
the United States can expect to earn about as much as a parking
lot attendant in the course of a year. Think about that.
Someone is being paid as much or more to watch an empty car
than to guard our greatest treasure: Our kids. In Illinois,
child care workers fared slightly better than average, with an
average annual income of $18,000 a year.
We know there is a big gap between what children need and
what we are providing them. And the Federal Government has an
interest in making sure that families do have the very best
tools so that their kids can grow up in a very positive and
learning environment.
A century ago, we learned the importance of a public
investment in public education. It has paid off. It has made
America a greater Nation. Now we have education reaching down
to infancy, education at centers just like this one, where you
have good, qualified people helping kids to learn the basics,
spending an important part of each day with them.
We are going to be hearing from several panels, but first I
would like to recognize and thank her for her leadership:
Senator Jean Carnahan.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARNAHAN
Senator Carnahan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to
Missouri. We share not only a common border, but we also share
a common concern for our youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
I am pleased that we have the opportunity today to put the
spotlight on the issue of child care.
As a mother of four and a grandmother of two, I know
firsthand how much children learn and develop in those early
years. They are exciting times. Every day is full of new
experiences, new lessons, and new accomplishments. A child's
brain, as we all know, is literally like a sponge. It soaks up
everything around, appreciating the small joys in life that
sometimes we adults let go unnoticed.
Parents have known for a long time what research is now
only proving: That development in those early years is key to a
child's success. What does that mean in terms of child care? It
means that quality matters. It matters not only for those early
years, but for a lifetime.
This is not news to any of you in this room. You are the
parents, and you are struggling to find a place that is good
for your children that is within your means. And you are the
child care center directors who work to create quality learning
environments with insufficient resources. And you are child
care workers who make a real difference in children's lives but
barely make above the minimum wage. We ask a lot of each of
you, and I want to recognize the outstanding contribution that
you make to the lives of our children.
The problems in the current child care system are not news
to you, because you strive to overcome them every day. However,
I think that many Americans would be shocked to learn about the
gap between what we want for our kids and what the current
system is actually able to provide.
The reality is that child care is expensive, and parents
can only afford to pay so much. Child care is a significant
expense even for well-to-do families. It can be an
insurmountable expense for low- to middle-income families. They
have to make difficult choices about how to pay for child care,
and all their other bills as well. Today, we will hear from Jo
Ann Harris about the sacrifices that she is making for her
family to pay for her child care bill.
To have a quality learning environment for children, you
need a trained staff. A child care director is competing for
staff just like every other business. But while the little ones
needing our care are priceless, the wages of the care givers
are often low and cannot compete with higher paying, less
demanding jobs in other fields.
Even after a child care worker is hired, on average, 30 to
40 percent will leave in less than a year. About 70 percent of
the average child care center's budget is allocated for labor
costs, and parents are not likely to be able to afford to pay
more.
How can this situation be improved? How can this self-
perpetuating cycle be changed? These are difficult questions
with no easy answers. Today we will hear from Lisa Eberle-
Mayse, the director of this beautiful center, speaking about
how she manages to balance the competing demands. These are
real challenges even for model centers such as Childgarden.
Today we will hear from the stakeholders involved in child
care in Missouri and Illinois about their experiences and
concerns, and their suggestions for how to improve the current
child care system. We will explore the resources that are
available to parents, businesses, child care workers, and child
care centers to make better, more informed decisions. And we
will also identify ways the Federal Government can assist
families and employers and child care providers in the search
for affordable quality child care.
Last year, I introduced legislation to assist low-income
Federal workers afford their care. And I am pleased to report
that the proposal passed both houses of Congress, and President
Bush has passed it into law.
As this hearing will highlight, there is a shortage of
trained professional child care workers. I will be announcing a
plan that will pull together the resources of businesses,
educational institutions, and government to address this
pressing need. The proposal will be a public/private
partnership aimed at three goals: (1) recruiting new people to
enter the child care profession, (2) upgrading the quality of
child care staff, and (3) creating incentives for civic,
business, and not-for-profit participation in these efforts. I
will reach out to the relevant child care stakeholders in
Missouri, including parents and employers, to ensure that their
views are represented.
I would like to extend my thanks to all of you today, all
the panelists who will be speaking, and the audience for
joining us today. Mr. Chairman.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much, Senator. We will be
hearing from two panels of witnesses, and I will call the first
panel, which will describe the key challenges faced in
obtaining and providing child care services, including
availability, quality, and affordability. The second panel will
be talking about best practices and innovative solutions which
we might be able to use as national models. Let me welcome the
first panel of witnesses, if they would please come forward.
Lisa Eberle-Mayse, director of Childgarden, our host today.
Thank you for being with us. Steve Cok is here. Jo Ann Harris
from St. Louis. And Janice Muenster of Highland, Illinois. Mr.
Cok, Ms. Harris, and Ms. Muenster are all working parents
residing in Missouri and Illinois who depend on out-of-home
child care for their kids. Thank you all for coming. We look
forward to hearing your testimony.
If you could confine your spoken statements to 5 minutes,
we will make sure that your written statements in their
entirety are made part of the record. And then Senator Carnahan
and I will ask some questions. Ms. Eberle-Mayse, would you like
to kick off. And thank you again for opening up Childgarden for
this meeting today.
TESTIMONY OF LISA EBERLE-MAYSE, M.A.,\1\ DIRECTOR, CHILDGARDEN
CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. Absolutely. We are very glad to be able
to host.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Eberle-Mayse appears in the
Appendix on page 33.
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My name is Lisa Eberle-Mayse, and I am the director of
Childgarden Child Development Center, which is an Easter Seals
and St. Louis ARC child development center. Childgarden is an
accredited early childhood program committed to providing the
highest quality care and education. The center serves children
and families from a wide range of socio-economic levels,
racial, and ethnic backgrounds. We are intentionally inclusive
of children with special needs, with more than 25 percent of
the children enrolled having a diagnosed disability or
developmental delay. In addition to child care, we also offer
therapy services for children with special needs.
Childgarden opened its doors in 1989 with this commitment
to diversity and inclusion, and in specific response to the
fact that it is extremely difficult for families of children
with special needs to find appropriate child care. We remain
committed today because this need still exists, and because of
the long-term impact of this philosophy. In a world that all
too often fosters separation and segregation, the children of
Childgarden grow up learning and growing together, exploring
and celebrating the things that make us the same and the things
that make us different. It is our passionate belief that these
early experiences will yield a lifetime of benefit as these
children carry a greater sense of tolerance into adulthood.
Fulfilling this vision requires one thing above all others:
A staff comprised of individuals who actively choose to do this
work, who have the knowledge and skills to do their jobs well.
At Childgarden, we are proud of our staff and the care,
dedication, expertise, and love that they show to our children
each and every day.
However, attracting and retaining such a staff is without
question the single biggest challenge we, and other child care
providers, face every single day. Unemployment remains at low
levels, which has driven up wages across many industries. The
impact for child care is profound. In addition to competing for
qualified candidates within our own field, we find ourselves
competing with fast food restaurants, retail stores, and other
industries. Yet the vast majority of child care providers
cannot simply increase their fees to cover the current actual
cost of care, much less to cover significant raises for staff,
because only a handful of families could afford such increases.
For example, at Childgarden, while our weekly infant fee is
$198, the true cost of care for an infant is $324, or roughly
$17,000 per year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the
median family income for a family of four in Missouri is
roughly $56,000 a year. The full cost of care in this situation
would be 30 percent of the family's gross income, and that is a
pretty significant figure. The impact becomes more real,
however, when you consider that 50 percent of families fall
below that median income.
Consider another example. In the State of Missouri, a
family of four earning $22,000 per year is not eligible for any
State assistance with their child care costs. For this family,
paying the true cost of care for one infant would represent 77
percent of the family's income. The result? In our case, with
no significant funding stream for child care scholarships, the
result is fees that push the limits of families' abilities to
pay, but that do not cover the true cost of operating a center.
This, in turn, leads to continued low staff wages and higher
staff turnover.
The most recent statistics from the Center for the Child
Care Workforce tell us that, nationally, the mean hourly wage
for child care workers is $7.42. Occupations earning higher
mean wages include service station attendants, tree trimmers,
and food service workers. These low wages lead to turnover
rates that range from a low of 25 percent annually to well over
60 percent. And the saddest truth behind these statistics is
that even individuals with the education, the skills, and the
desire to remain in child care must sometimes choose to leave
it in order to support themselves and their families.
The impact of this cycle on our children and on our future
as a Nation is enormous. We know from current research that, in
order to learn and develop, children need to be actively
engaged with an environment that is carefully designed. We know
that children must have primary care givers with whom they can
have strong relationships, and that these care givers must be
knowledgeable about child development, a lot to ask of someone
working for an hourly wage of $7.42.
And yet we do ask it, and we will continue to ask it,
because the needs of our children and our future demand no
less. For centers like Childgarden who are fortunate enough to
have the financial and program support of two established
parent agencies and assistance from the United Way, the St.
Louis Variety Club, and other donors, the task is a little
easier. We are able to be relatively competitive within our
field. We are not, however, able to come close to wages paid by
Head Start, early childhood programs within the public schools,
or other service industries outside the field of child care.
It is sometimes said that one does not solve a problem
simply by throwing money at it. While those of us in the field
of child care would absolutely acknowledge the importance of
good stewardship of our resources, the plain and simple fact is
this: Sometimes there are problems that need money thrown at
them. The care and education of our youngest children, our
future, is one of them.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning and for
your interest in supporting our future.
Senator Durbin. Thanks, Lisa. Steve, you will be the first
of three witnesses, parents who are dealing with finding good
day care. Can you tell us your experience. And with your
testimony, we will make it all part of the record. Give us 5
minutes of summary.
TESTIMONY OF STEVEN J. COK,\1\ A PARENT OF CHILDREN IN DAY CARE
Mr. Cok. Thank you for inviting me to this panel. My name
is Steven Cok. My wife and I have two children: Philip, who is
7\1/2\, and Nina, who is five. We both have full-time jobs and
are highly dependent on child care outside of the home.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Cok appears in the Appendix on
page 37.
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We have had experiences with two day cares: First, the
Child Enrichment Center, or CEC, which is housed and governed
by the Richmond Heights Presbyterian Church, and second, Zelda
Epstein Day Care Center, which I refer to as Zelda's, which is
corporate-sponsored day care.
Our experiences at the two day care centers shared
similarities, but also had distinct differences. Both centers
are not-for-profit, relatively small, and had warm family-like
atmospheres. More importantly, these centers had a core group
of teachers that were warm, loving, and had been working at the
center for an extended period of time.
CEC offered services for infant and toddlers, and was able
to maintain these rooms at full capacity. However, there was a
large attrition rate for children greater than 2 years old. And
since the payroll of the day care was funded entirely by
tuition income, a large variation in children enrolled for the
older-aged classrooms created a financial burden to the day
care as a whole. The church lacked the financial resources to
make up for budget deficits, and in some instances, the
director was forced to lay off employees in order to balance
the budget. When enrollment increased, they were required to
search for replacement teachers to maintain the proper student-
teacher ratios. These circumstances created overall instability
to the day care environment, and the best-qualified and
hardest-working teachers were over-tasked with filling in for
teacher vacancies.
Finally, because CEC had operated with limited financial
resources, they were unable to provide competitive salaries and
employee benefits, which made it even harder to attract
qualified child care providers.
Ultimately, fire safety regulations required the child care
center undergo extensive renovations. And the inability to
perform these changes resulted in closing of the day care.
Zelda's is also financed through tuition income, and
fluctuations in enrollment create significant strains on
balancing the budget. In contrast to the CEC, budget deficits
are corrected with loans from the sponsoring business.
Moreover, Zelda's is able to provide teachers with the same
employee benefits as company employees. And all of these
factors contribute to the ability to attract and maintain
qualified teachers, which provides a strong sense of stability
and security for the staff and the parents. And I believe that
providing a dedicated and qualified staff is crucial to a
successful day care center and, most importantly, to the well-
being of the children.
During the course of our day care experience, we have been
challenged with some very difficult decisions. When Philip
reached 2 years of age, he was moved to a new classroom with a
new day care provider. It was clear from the beginning that he
was not happy and obviously not adjusting to the new situation.
Additionally, we were not satisfied with the quality of the day
care provider. My wife and I adjusted our normal work schedules
such that Philip spent the least required time in the day care.
Knowing that our son was not happy created constant strain on
us as parents, and it became increasingly difficult for us to
concentrate on our normal daily tasks. It is hard enough to
leave your child in the care of someone other than yourself,
and it becomes nearly unbearable when you know that the child
is truly unhappy.
It was at this point that we chose to move Philip from CEC
to Zelda's, and from the moment we enrolled Philip, we knew we
had made the right decision. He made an immediate bond to his
day care provider, and responded to the secure and loving
environment that permeated the entire center. Our son's
happiness was also reflected in the general well-being of our
home and work life.
When we joined Zelda's, the day care was made up of a
diverse group of people that represented a variety of racial
and social economic classes. Over time, this diversity began to
disappear. The board of directors decided that the demographics
of the center no longer reflected that of the community that
the day care was charged to serve. It was at this point that
Zelda's formed its scholarship fund. The scholarship fund
provides tuition assistance based on income and family size.
Since formation of the scholarship fund, Zelda's has seen
an increase in minority representation at the day care center,
and the majority of these were eligible for the scholarship
assistance.
My family is lucky. We were able to find quality day care
for our children, and we have been able to afford it. This is
not always the case for other families. As a member of the
board of directors of Zelda's, I am proud that we were able to
initiate a scholarship program so that lower income families
can afford quality day care for their children too.
And as the number of families with two working parents
increases, so does the demand for quality affordable day care.
It is increasingly difficult for not-for-profit day care
centers to compete for qualified, well-trained care providers.
And the ability to provide a choice for a safe, loving, and
stable day care environment is the minimum that this country
should offer to working parents.
Thank you.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much, Mr. Cok. Jo Ann
Harris.
TESTIMONY OF JO ANN HARRIS,\1\ A PARENT OF CHILDREN IN DAY CARE
Ms. Harris. Good morning. My name is Jo Ann Harris, and I
am 22 years old. My family consists of my husband, who is 26,
my 2-year-old daughter, Aliyah, and my 4-year-old son, Keith. I
am very grateful to have an opportunity to share my family's
experiences with child care, because my husband and I both work
full time, and we do not have a lot of help from relatives. So
it is essential that we have a reliable and trustworthy
environment for our children to be in 40 or more hours every
week.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Harris appears in the Appendix on
page 39.
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My children attend preschool at South Side Day Nursery,
which is located on Iowa at Arsenal in South St. Louis. My
children arrive at the center at 7:30 a.m. and are picked up at
5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Therefore, my children are in
school up to 50 hours every week.
The tuition I pay at South Side Day Nursery is based on our
household income, and my children's tuition is $100 per week,
which averages to $400 per month. I do not like to complain
about the cost of my child care, because I have checked into
prices at many other centers, and we are very fortunate and
blessed to have found the quality of child care that we have
for the price that we pay.
But still, at times, my family has found it difficult even
to afford the $400 a month with other household bills. I have
been working a second job one night a week as a waitress,
specifically to pay for child care each week. However, income
reviews at the center are coming up in a month, and I am almost
positive that, with the second job, the tuition fees will
increase because my income has increased.
But regardless of cost, quality child care is a necessity
to working families. And I have had experiences with other
centers when my children were younger that cost more than their
current center, but did not have the quality of their current
center. I could not afford a reputable center, so I had to take
my children, who were not old enough to verbally communicate at
the time, to a home-based day care center that was not very
responsible or stimulating to my children's development. And as
a mother, that was very unsettling for me, because I had no
other alternative and no way to afford better child care for my
children.
But now my children have been at their current center for 2
years, and I do not have to worry about them when I am at work,
because I see their scheduled curriculum every week, and their
teachers are genuinely concerned about my children's progress.
I would suggest to any parent who is looking for child care
to look into a few different centers before committing to one.
There are quite a few Head Start locations here in St. Louis
that offer tuition fees that are based on sliding scales, as do
a lot of other centers that, in my opinion, are very good
quality centers.
What I hope is accomplished from this hearing is foolproof
monitoring of parents' work or school attendance that do
receive child care aid so that child care benefits are not
abused. I think it would be fair to offer middle class families
partial or temporary child care assistance based upon their
income, their family size, and possible emergency situations.
And as compensation for the aid, I think it would be very
beneficial to families on aid and to the child care facilities
if the family was required to attend monthly or weekly
meetings, conferences, and support groups that many centers
offer.
And that is basically it. Thank you very much for your
time.
Senator Durbin. Thank you for your testimony. Janice
Moenster.
TESTIMONY OF JANICE MOENSTER,\1\ A PARENT OF CHILDREN IN DAY
CARE
Ms. Moenster. Thank you, Senator Durbin and Senator
Carnahan, for the invitation to speak this morning. My name is
Janice Moenster, and I represent a two-parent working family
with two children.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Moenster appears in the Appendix
on page 40.
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Having two children, we have used almost every type of
child care available: Relative care, family child care, center-
based care, Illinois State Board of Education Pre-K at Risk,
and most recently, school-age care. I am going to talk
specifically about one experience that had a tremendous impact
on our family.
When our son was three, we were using a family child care
provider, and she recommended that we take our son to the early
childhood screening offered by the school district. We took our
son, and 3 months later, we were notified that our son had some
speech and auditory delays. The good news was that he qualified
for the State Board of Education Pre-K at Risk program. The bad
news was that the program ran from 8:30 to 11:30, Monday
through Thursday, 9 months out of the year, and there was no
transportation, and the program was 20 miles away from where we
lived. In addition, all parents had to volunteer once a month
in the classroom.
We knew our son needed the services in order to be ready to
enter school ready to learn. But the challenges of how do we
get him to and from the program, how do we volunteer in the
program without losing our jobs, and who will care for our son
when he is not in pre-K, will our current family child care
provider accept our son for part-time care, or would we have to
find new child care.
After several stressful months and emotional moments, we
worked things out. My employer understood my situation, and I
worked my flex schedule. I organized a car pool and paid
someone to car pool. Our family child care provider cared for
our son part time, but we paid full-time care rates.
Our family was fortunate. We found solutions to our
problems. The big question is how many other families can not
work through these issues, and how many children go unserved.
Every parent wants to provide the best for their children.
Sometimes, our ability to provide the best is not within our
reach because of a variety of challenges, including a lack of
financial resources to afford the best and highest-quality
child care. Our family did not qualify for any child care
assistance programs, and high-quality child care is expensive.
However, it is an expense we felt was well worth it. When both
of our children were in child care, we spent 15 percent of our
gross family income on child care. Child care was our biggest
monthly expense, higher than our mortgage or even food cost.
Even when finances are not a barrier, you are presented
with additional challenges, and that is a lack of accessible
child care that meets your needs for an infant, a school-ager,
or even a child with special needs; or finding a child care
program that provides child care services on the weekend or
midnight, which is very common for parents doing shift work;
lack of extended family or a role model who can provide
parenting support or education, information, and are resources
on how to be a good parent; how to promote reading; or
recognizing red flags in children's development; or even
understanding developmental milestones so, as a parent, you
have appropriate expectations for your children.
Another challenge is the lack of employers who recognize
that balancing work and family responsibilities is extremely
difficult. Employers find that employees are more committed and
more loyal to their employers when they support them with
flexible workplace programs and policies that show they care
about their people.
How can Federal Government improve and support child care
and families? First and foremost, we, as a society, must
acknowledge that all families, regardless of income, should
have access to the highest quality child care possible, and
that child care should include all children. Recognize that one
size does not fit all. Families need a variety of program
options to meet their needs. Programs that provide full-day
care, half-day care, full year, evening, weekend, before
school, after school, and more are needed.
All families are confronted with difficult times because of
unemployment, exposure to substance abuse, sexual abuse,
domestic violence, and mental health issues. Comprehensive
social service support should be accessible and readily
available to families.
We have all heard the slogan, ``Good beginnings last a
lifetime.'' Then let us give children and families a good
beginning by continuing to fund or even expanding funding to
programs like Parents as First Teachers, model parental
training programs, and child care resource and referral
programs that provide information, education, and support to
families. Through proper support, families can be the most
important teacher to their children.
And support the other care givers that shape and mold our
children, such as family child care providers, child care
center staff, Head Start staff, early intervention, directors,
and even grandparents and relatives who take on the care-giving
role. This support is critical. Too many care givers leave the
business of care-giving because of the lack of pay, benefits,
respect, and growth opportunities. We need investments in the
care giver through programs like T.E.A.C.H., Great START,
credentialing, college loan forgiveness programs and other
incentives, and livable wages so that people will want to enter
the profession of teaching.
When both of my children finally entered school, I assumed
that my child care dilemmas were over, and that assumption is
incorrect. School-age care is even more difficult to find since
care is needed on a sporadic basis like holidays, school
closings, or teacher in-service training days. Many families
resort to leaving their children at home alone, without adult
supervision. Therefore, incentives for schools to provide
before- and after-school care on the premises is also
encouraged, as well as full-year schooling.
Curriculums for schools and child care should also focus on
the whole child. A child's intellect, as well as their social
and emotional capabilities, should be developed through
character education programs, violence prevention, or even the
peace builders program.
Last, provide more incentives or give recognition to
employers who provide vouchers for child care or provide on-
site child care or provide innovative workplace programs and
policies.
The children are our future. Good beginnings do last a
lifetime. Let us put actions to our words.
Senator Durbin. Thank you. Thanks for your testimony.
It strikes me that, if you try to step back and look at the
big picture and a little bit of history, that we are in an
unusual moment. Basically, education as we view it in America
was defined in the 19th Century. We decided in the 19th Century
that, at the age of five, society would have an obligation to
children to create public education. We also decided in the
19th Century that it was a pretty good idea for schools to be
in operation only 9 months out of the year, because kids had to
get back and work on the farm. And we also decided that turning
loose kids at 2:30 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon was perfect,
because Ozzie and Harriet were waiting at home with cookies and
milk. My, how the world has changed.
Janice, your testimony here talks about how important it
was for your child to get special attention and special help at
an early age. Son or daughter?
Ms. Muenster. Son.
Senator Durbin. Your son, so he would be ready to come into
the classroom and learn. And so early intervention and early
opportunity made all the difference in terms of what he needed.
So his education started a lot younger than the five years of
age, thank goodness.
You had a lot of help from your employer. It sounds like
your employer was pretty supportive. What is your advice to us
in terms of encouraging employers to be more receptive and more
cooperative?
Ms. Moenster. Well, I think that many employers look at on-
site child care as the first option. And I think typically that
really should be the last option. I think employers really need
to look at their policies in place. Can they take sick time for
both their children as well as for yourself. Are there
opportunities to really look at flexing people's starting and
ending times. Or looking at 10-hour work days versus the
traditional 8-hour day, or 40-hour work week. So I think
employers need to be aware of options. I think they need some
incentives to do that. It does not work for all employers. It
depends on what kind of employer they are.
Senator Durbin. And I think we have to share the success
stories.
Ms. Moenster. Yes, absolutely.
Senator Durbin. When employers cooperate, and they get a
lot more productivity and morale out of their employees, that
is a plus for businesses.
Ms. Moenster. And I think it is also economy driven. Right
now, there is not this huge drive to find employees to work.
And so employers do not have to offer wonderful packages to
attract employees. Right now, employees are just thankful to
have a job.
Senator Durbin. Jo Ann, do you sense that this hill is
getting steeper? The more you work, the more you are going to
have to pay?
Ms. Harris. Oh, yes. Luckily, my day care center and my job
has both helped me a lot in both aspects also. I am not exactly
sure what type of increases are going to go as far as getting
more income in per month. But we are on a sliding fee scale, so
I do know I am making $400 more a month. So that could possibly
put me up in a higher bracket. But hopefully, though, I will be
able to just stay on my feet, keep my head up.
The day care center helps a lot as far as they even offer
side scholarships of that sort to help reduce your rates even
further when you do fall upon emergencies. So I was really
blessed that they had those basically available to me such as
scholarships and things like that, because had I been at a
regular child care facility and was paying full fees, that did
not offer sliding fees, my kids would have been out of day
care, and I would have lost my job.
Senator Durbin. Steve, now you found that Zelda's is a much
better opportunity for your children, and you are involved in
it personally. Is it a company sponsorship?
Mr. Cok. Yes, INDEECO Corporation.
Senator Durbin. And do they put a substantial subsidy into
the operation of the center?
Mr. Cok. Well, the center would not be operating at this
point if it were not for INDEECO. The budget shortfalls always
occur because you have basically a group of people that are
eventually going to leave. And that is where all of your income
comes from. And they all leave at the same time. But they do
not all come in at the same time. And so there is a lot of
balancing the books that is necessary. And without INDEECO
acting, basically, as a friendly bank, I think this day care
would have fallen apart, or we would have lost teachers.
Senator Durbin. Lisa, let me ask you about the teachers.
Does Childgarden offer health insurance for its employees?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. Yes. We offer it currently for the
individual staff member at a very low cost. The cost for staff
who have children, the coverage for the dependents is not
something we have been able to do much with yet, and that is
pretty high.
Senator Durbin. My experience, in looking around my State
and asking people, is that a lot of day care facilities do not
offer health insurance.
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. No. They can not afford to.
Senator Durbin. They can not afford to because, obviously,
it is expensive. And that expense has to be passed along to
parents who are struggling with their own expenses.
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. Right.
Senator Durbin. I have introduced legislation called care
givers insurance. The State of Delaware has already done this.
They have said that, if you work in a child care facility, you
qualify for Medicaid in their State; you are covered. I think
that ought to be extended beyond child care workers to people
working in nursing homes, personal care attendants for disabled
people. Why is it that we are going to trust members of our
family who are disabled, our parents, and our kids, that we
would not want that worker to have the peace of mind of health
insurance coverage. That strikes me as something that would
create an incentive for some to come to this profession and
others to stay.
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. Absolutely. I think one of the really
difficult choices that sometimes centers have to make is, do I
put this--the money that I have, do I put it into making my
salaries the highest they can be, so that I can be more
competitive, and what has to give if I do that? Is it health
insurance? Is it not as many resources for the kids? But one of
the things--our highest percent should be salaries, no
question. But there are lots of tough choices that end up
happening for lots of centers relative to salary versus
benefits. Is it money in your pocket, or is it money that is
going to insure your continued health? It is a tough choice.
Senator Durbin. Senator Carnahan.
Senator Carnahan. Thank you. Tell us some more, Lisa.
Follow up with that line of thought some more with the costs of
your center and how sometimes you maybe have to cut corners.
How do other child care centers handle this balancing act that
you have to go through every day?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. It is a balancing act. And really the two
pivots of the balance are staff salaries and fees. Every year,
we have usually a fairly minimal fee increase. But every year,
we struggle over exactly how much that is going to be, because
the higher our tuition gets, the less likely we are to be
able--as you talked about with Zelda--to be able to really
maintain that amount of diversity that we have always had at
Childgarden. We also know that we have to be competitive in
terms of, at least within our field, the salaries that we pay
our child care staff.
We try to really minimize our non-salary expenses. We shop
cheap. We are fortunate that we have two separate development
departments that do lots of fund-raising for us, both for
capital improvements and all the way down to art supplies from
girl scout troops. So we get creative about finding ways to
supply our classrooms and the things that we need.
The other thing that we have put a lot of effort into is
trying to make the workplace pleasant and supportive for staff
in ways other than straight salary. That needs to happen too.
But in the meantime, what can we do to make this a supportive
and welcome place to work? Do you have places to put your own
stuff? Do you have the opportunity to take classes and somebody
is going to pay for you to do that? So we try to find ways to
make it a good place to be in addition to the salaries that are
paid.
Senator Carnahan. Do you make use of volunteers? And is
that an effective thing to do?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. Yes, it is. For us, it is a way of
getting more hands on deck. And we participate in the foster
grandparents program. We currently have three foster
grandparents in our building. We just had a whole batch of
students from SLU High School leave. They have been with us for
a month. They worked with kids, but did tons of manual labor
too, I will tell you what. So yes, we really try to recruit
volunteers.
The catch there is that, in our situation at least, we
choose not to use volunteers to meet our State-mandated ratios,
because we want to be able to have more control over the
education, the training, and the performance of those
individuals. So we use paid staff to meet those ratios, and our
volunteers to be an extra pair of hands and to help bring the
ratios down a little bit, but not officially. Did that answer
your question?
Senator Carnahan. Yes, thank you. Steve, you mentioned
Philip?
Mr. Cok. Right.
Senator Carnahan. What did you see as the difference in a
well-trained child care worker and one that was not, and how
that impacted Philip, for instance?
Mr. Cok. I think the ability to bond with the children. It
was clear during drop-off times that he was unhappy at the CEC
situation. He did not want to go to the teacher, did not want
to be there at all. Transition times are always difficult for
children, but this continued even on the pick-up. So it was
clear that the teachers were not bonding. The way they talked
about it, it was like they talked about, ``Yeah, he's having a
difficult time. Yeah, it's difficult. It's not working well.''
What we found when we went to Zelda's was that there was an
immediate welcoming bonding of the teacher to the child. When
issues came up, there was more discussion about ``Is there
anything going on at home? '' ``What could explain this?'' So
they were obviously reaching out, trying to understand the
child as well as the family situation. That kind of quality
just shines through. It is training, I guess, and a desire to
be there, rather than just to have a job.
Senator Carnahan. Miss Harris--Aliyah and Keith?
Ms. Harris. Yes.
Senator Carnahan. What other options would you have had for
them if it had not been for this sliding scale arrangement?
What would you have done?
Ms. Harris. Honestly, I have no idea what I would have
done. Actually, I think the only other alternative that my
husband and I would have is to find new jobs. One of us would
have had to switch our job, and one of us would have had to
work on a different shift, so that one of us would have been on
a day shift, and someone would have been on a night shift. That
would have been the only other option we had. We both have very
little family here, and the little family that we do have work
the same hours that we do, Monday through Friday. So there is
no other help from there. And we can not just go out and find
another job paying a lot more. That all depends on your
qualifications and your education. So that would have probably
been our only other alternative, to work around each other's
schedule, because I would not have been able to afford a
regular facility, and I am above the income guidelines to get
aid for child care.
Senator Carnahan. Janice, how common would you say the
experience is that you had? How common is it among your
friends, for instance, having difficulty in meeting some
special need? I imagine you have met others.
Ms. Moenster. For most families, it is extremely difficult.
Our son was actually on the waiting list for services. So we
were thrilled when he got in, but then juggling and trying to
make the arrangements to make sure he got those services. And
all I kept thinking, when he was fifteenth on the waiting list,
that was 15 kids who went without services because their family
could not make those arrangements. So it is very common.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much, Senator Carnahan.
Lisa, let me ask you this question. I think, in Illinois, to be
a day care worker, you have to have an associate's degree, 2
years of college. Is it the same requirement in Missouri?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. No. And I am not familiar with what is
required in Illinois.
Senator Durbin. I think that is the case. Does that sound
right? Some say yes and some say no. We will have to check
that.
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. In the State of Missouri, there are
requirements for college credit hours for directors.
Accreditation requires a higher level of education or training
for directors on down to assistants in the classroom. But what
licensing requires is that----
Senator Durbin. Ratios?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. Right. But they also require that people
working in child care get 12 clock hours of training every
year. They are getting ready to implement a more mandatory
orientation and a first round of training that providers would
get. But my opinion is that the requirements are fairly minimal
in terms of licensing. Programs like ours that are accredited
agree to subscribe to a higher level of training. And the
baseline for that is typically a child development associate's
credential or an associate's degree.
I will tell you, though, that one of the things that we do,
addressing the issue of having a place to go, having a lattice
or a ladder that you can go up, we have people come work in our
facility that we know have good practice, have good instincts
with kids, have some training and education. And then we try
really hard to grow those people. We invest money in training
for them or school. We try to find scholarships and other kinds
of things that we can do to help move them up the ladder. And
there are salary increases that are attached to those higher
levels of education. It is one of the things that came about
because of the joint venture between Easter Seals and ARC.
Senator Durbin. What kind of turnover rates do you find in
the industry or in your facility?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. In our facility, we are fortunate. Ours
are pretty low. Last year, ours was right around 18 percent,
which is pretty low.
Senator Carnahan. What do you attribute that to?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. The turnover?
Senator Carnahan. Is it money?
Ms. Eberle-Mayse. Yes, I think it is. And, actually, most
of the people that we lost--that sounds like a terrible thing
to say--were folks that were sort of trying out this business.
And it is hard work. There are people that will come and start
working as a sub or a volunteer, and they realize that they are
going home exhausted every night, and they are not making much
money. I think it is one of the reasons why the people that
tend to stay are folks that look at what we do as a mission,
quite frankly, that they see the importance of it.
What is frankly criminal, however, is that the care of
kids, and especially quality care, is actually being subsidized
by substandard wages and by parents struggling to pay the fees.
Senator Durbin. Steve, what is your experience at Zelda's
with the people working there, the turnover rates?
Mr. Cok. Well, I think Zelda's is much like this day care
here, where they have a director who is very much interested in
training and promoting child care as a career. And so rarely do
they lose teachers due to unhappy environments. The majority
probably moved on into the public education system for higher
wages. And occasionally, people--this is just too much work for
this kind of money. They can find better ways to make a living.
Senator Durbin. Do you know what your turnover rate was
last year?
Mr. Cok. Last year, I do not know the exact percentages. It
was probably 20 percent. And I do not know how the director
ever finds replacements, but she always manages to come through
and find qualified people.
Senator Durbin. Great. Thank you all very much. I want to
thank the first panel: Janice, Jo Ann, Steve, and Lisa.
I invite our second panel of witnesses to please come
forward: Teresa Jenkins, Director of the Office of Workforce
Relations for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in
Washington, DC. Sarah Kirschner, from Missouri Childcare at
Work. Penny Korte; she is with PALS of Highland, Illinois, a
child care provider. Corinne Patton, Missouri Childcare
Resource & Referral Network. And Kim Hunt, Illinois Childcare
Resource & Referral Network.
Well, Teresa, since you have come the furthest, you are
undoubtedly the expert. We welcome you from Washington, DC,
Teresa Jenkins.
TESTIMONY OF TERESA M. JENKINS,\1\ DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF
WORKFORCE RELATIONS, OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
Ms. Jenkins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator Carnahan.
I appreciate being invited here today to discuss with you the
child care subsidy program within the Federal Government.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Jenkins appears in the Appendix
on page 43.
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On November 12, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the
Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act of 2002,
which permanently authorizes executive agencies to use
appropriated funds otherwise available for salaries and
expenses to provide child care in a Federal or leased facility
or through contract for civilian employees. And as you
mentioned, Senator Carnahan, you introduced this important
legislation.
Amounts provided are to improve the affordability of child
care for lower income employees. The legislation covers the
children of Federal employees from birth through age 13 and
disabled children through the age of 18. Congress previously
provided the authorization to Federal agencies as a pilot
project.
An increasing number of Federal employees are discovering
that affordable child care is getting more difficult to find,
even when their own agencies sponsor on- or near-site child
care centers. The affordability of child care for lower income
employees remains out of reach as child care costs can
translate to as much as 50 percent of total family income.
Reduced child care tuition as a result of agency
contributions permitted by law can have a significant impact on
employees' ability to utilize safe and reliable child care.
Benefits to the agencies include improved recruitment and
retention of qualified personnel, lower absenteeism rates, as
well as improved morale. Improved retention also results in
significant recruitment and training cost savings to Federal
agencies. And, of course, employee productivity is increased
due to the reduced concern about child care.
The Office of Personnel Management's regulations to
establish a child care subsidy program provide Federal agencies
with maximum flexibility to define lower income Federal
employees and determine the size of the subsidy each employee
receives, as agencies have different needs.
The Office of Personnel Management provides agencies with
models for determining employee eligibility and the amount of
the tuition assistance subsidy. There is no cap on the
percentage of child care tuition that will be subsidized.
Twenty-three agencies currently offer a child care tuition
assistance program for their employees. The use of the program
by Federal employees has increased significantly over the
years, as has the amount of funds the agencies dedicate for
this purpose. The number of Federal employees utilizing the
child care subsidy has also risen significantly since the
inception of this program. Initially, 205 lower income Federal
employees received tuition assistance, supporting 253 children.
During the year 2000, the number of Federal employees grew to
more than 800, supporting 1,033 children.
Federal employees at pay grade levels GS-1 through GS-13
received child care tuition assistance. But the majority of
Federal employees receiving child care assistance is between
GS-4 and GS-7, which equates to an average salary between
$20,000 and $37,000 annually.
The subsidy program allows Federal employees to use center-
based child care, as well as care in family child care homes,
as long as they are licensed or regulated by the State or local
regulating authorities. Our studies show that the majority of
children are enrolled in child care centers versus family child
care homes.
The Office of Personnel Management is committed to
supporting Federal programs that assist employees who are
caring for children, as well as providing work and family
flexibilities that help to balance these responsibilities.
Although initial numbers of Federal employees utilizing the
program were low, interest and participation grew rapidly.
Agencies raised the eligibility threshold to allow for maximum
utilization and used multiple and continuous marketing
strategies to educate and encourage employees to utilize the
program.
During the pilot phase of the program, when the legislation
was temporary, the Office of Personnel Management received
comments from both agencies and employees stating their
interest in implementing and using the program, but fearing the
program would not be made permanent. Now that permanent
legislation has been enacted--thanks in large part to you,
Senator Carnahan--OPM expects a significant increase in agency
and Federal employee utilization.
Additionally, in past years, the pilots were implemented at
a time of year normally difficult for parents to change child
care arrangements. With permanent legislation, employees can
take the time to secure quality child care at more convenient
times throughout the year.
This concludes my testimony. Thank you for inviting me here
to be with you today, and I will be happy to respond to any
questions.
Senator Durbin. Thanks, Ms. Jenkins. Sarah Kirschner.
TESTIMONY OF SARAH KIRSCHNER,\1\ MISSOURI CHILDCARE AT WORK
Ms. Kirschner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Senator
Carnahan, for the opportunity to discuss child care with you
today. I will be focusing on what businesses do and how they
are impacted by child care issues in the community and the
workforces in which they operate.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Kirschner appears in the Appendix
on page 52.
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Approximately 10 percent of a large, diverse workforce has
children under age six. Of the St. Louis area labor force, 24.5
percent of workers have children under age 15. Employers are
impacted every day by the children who are in unsafe or
unregulated care, by the hundreds of school-age children left
home alone, by the low wages paid to child care workers, and by
the lack of funding for infant care.
Some companies recognize the impact, but many do not. Yet
employers are the biggest indirect consumer of child care
because it is working parents who require child care, and it is
those children now in care who are the future labor force.
The private sector, including companies and philanthropic
organizations, contributes only about 1 percent of the total
spent on child care in this country. Because child care is
funded primarily by parent fees, there is always a gap between
what parents can afford and what it actually costs to run a
program. When an employer sponsors a child care center, the
company typically provides 20 to 40 percent of the annual
operating budget.
Missouri Childcare at Work was a unique project undertaken
by Fred Epstein, a St. Louis business owner, and operator of
Zelda's that we heard about earlier, an on-site child care
center at his plant, and then-Missouri First Lady Jean
Carnahan. It was a project to encourage businesses to consider
on-site child care for their employees. Over the course of the
project, about 300 people around the State attended meetings
and listened to Mrs. Carnahan and Mr. Epstein.
Two things made this project unique and valuable: The
willingness of two visible people outside the child care field
to speak out about the issue and capitalizing on Fred's
business perspective and Mrs. Carnahan's knowledge of early
childhood education, and the availability of funding to offer
technical assistance to projects as they started out. Even with
corporate dollars pledged to support a center, the staffs at
these companies are not child care experts, and they have their
own full-time job to do. Starting a project requires extensive
research and legwork before anything can happen. In Missouri,
there are limited start-up funds available for any child care
programs, including those with employer sponsors, and few, if
any, dollars for planning and community resource assessments
that should also be done.
Over the past 10 or 15 years, some employers have come to
realize that child care is not as far removed from their lives
as they once thought, and it impacts the entire workforce, not
just those with children. The benefits of offering some type of
child care program to workers are many. The obvious is that
stable quality child care settings translate to fewer
breakdowns and emergencies, fewer frantic phone calls during
the workday, and fewer last-minute absences because the sitter
called in sick.
Many companies have documented other gains. At a small
manufacturing company in Rolla, Missouri, there are 4 of the 25
workers who are absolutely essential to plant production. All
four currently use child care. And if just one of them is out
for the day, the company loss is about $5,000 for that day.
That loss affects the entire workforce, and it affects the
bottom line.
NationsBank estimated that, by using a child care resource
and referral service, their employees save 12 to 15 work hours
looking for child care.
Although on-site child care is widely publicized and
visible, it is very expensive. It may only serve a portion of
the workforce, and it requires a long-term financial
commitment. Fortunately, there are other options available to
employers. Offering information on parenting or family care
during work hours is one of the easiest, cheapest things an
employer can do. Resource and referral is another low-cost
option. These services match parents with care that meets their
needs.
There are two types of resource and referral services.
There are the not-for-profit, usually State-funded, community-
based agencies, and there are for-profit vendors who buy
databases of child care providers and sell them to companies.
Both can offer lists to parents. But what the for-profits do
not do is improve and expand the supply of child care in the
community by training, recruitment, and so forth. This is an
important distinction not often recognized by employers.
Other options that employers consider are family leaves and
other personnel policies, especially sick time and parental
leaves, flexible work schedules, pre-tax savings plans, direct
financial assistance to help pay for care, direct community
support of scholarships, training opportunities, and other
initiatives.
Each option has costs and advantages and disadvantages. For
a company with a young, primarily female workforce, the cost of
an on-site center may be outweighed by the reduction of
turnover costs. For an older, more stable workforce, offering
information and referrals may be the best approach. And for a
company that values their image as a corporate citizen,
contributing to local child care improvement efforts may be the
right approach.
In the St. Louis area, there are many examples of companies
who support child care and families. Brown Shoe Company has
extensive scheduling flexibility. Washington University and
Blue Cross/Blue Shield offer child and elder care resource and
referral services. Twelve area hospitals or nursing homes have
on-site child care centers, as do Monsanto, Ralston-Purina, and
INDEECO. IBM, AT&T, Citicorp, and UAW-Ford have all directed
money to the St. Louis region to improve child care and to
recruit and train providers. And Bank of America provides a
direct subsidy to low wage workers to help pay for care.
My recommendations for how the Federal Government can
promote affordable, quality child care are to continue to offer
tax credits and other direct incentives to employers who commit
resources to child care in their own workforces and in the
community; to continue to offer information and resources
through the Department of Labor Women's Bureau and other
avenues; to offer start-up, expansion, and enhancement funds so
that new programs can get started and existing programs can
expand and improve; to support the national system of
community-based resource and referral agencies who are in the
field every day, working with employers, providers, and parents
to build a better child care system; and to recognize and
encourage others to recognize that learning begins at birth and
that child care includes everything from infant care to
programs for school-age children during summers, holidays,
before and after school.
Thank you again for your interest.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much. Penny Korte, from
Highland, Illinois.
TESTIMONY OF PENNY KORTE,\1\ DAYCARE OWNER/DIRECTOR, P.A.L.S.,
HIGHLAND, ILLINOIS
Ms. Korte. Thank you. My name is Penny Korte, and I own and
operate a small day care center in Highland, Illinois, which I
started on my own 12 years ago February 27 of this year.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Korte appears in the Appendix on
page 56.
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As most of you here are well aware that a myriad of issues
face child care professionals on a constant basis, it is my
belief that the lack of respect given to my colleagues sparks
most of these concerns. This lack of respect is then heightened
as the many programs that are continually in focus of the media
are negative when it comes to day care or pertain to the public
or private sector of education for grades K through 12. Before
children enter what most consider their formal education
settings, the voice of many consider that children only need a
babysitter to tend to their needs. But anyone that is familiar
with the education system now understands that this is not the
case anymore.
I would be remiss to include everyone in that thought.
However, those not in day care can not really ascertain what is
involved. In Illinois and Missouri, day care centers are to be
licensed and follow a set of guidelines that require knowledge
of legal reading. We have to be educated in developmental
issues, both physical and mental, be able to care for and teach
at a variety of age levels, know medical symptoms, and be
trained in first aid and CPR, complete a food preparation
class, along with the knowledge of health safety issues in
general, know how to recognize signs of abuse and report when
necessary, nurture and encourage each child, yet second-guess
every touch we give to protect ourselves from the many
liabilities now forced on our profession.
We take care of children from 6 weeks to 12 years for
sometimes 11 hours or more a day. Even though we ourselves may
not work the entire time, we end up spending more awake time
with many of these children than their parents. At the same
time, we are expected to react, protect, and educate four,
five, eight, or ten children to one worker, depending on their
ages. This emotional stress in itself of reacting or trying to
prevent chaotic situations is one that I am sure many of you
here today would agree is not where you might want to be.
Yet my workers and those others in day care do this exact
job Monday through Friday, more depending on the center hours,
52 weeks of the year. And that in itself is an issue that
everyone faces: Scheduling. How long should you be open, how
many hours a day, what types of care do you provide.
With a job description like that and the stress it entails,
you might think the salary would be equal to that of a teacher.
Wrong. In my town, employees are paid anywhere from $6 to $9 an
hour, with the average being right around $7.50. This would
make your annual income $15,600, and who can survive on that?
Many times, these workers have children of their own too, and
that cuts right into the already low figure that they are
trying to live on. My current average pay is right at $6.25 an
hour for my teachers. But I have other issues that I face
myself.
Recommendations I come to you with today are as follows:
Make Federal money more easily accessible and acquirable to
assist States for retention and continued education in day care
for such programs such as Great START and T.E.A.C.H. in
Illinois.
Look into ways to fund programs that would also help in
attaining health care and retirement benefits for job stability
and continued education, somewhat similar to what K through 12
teachers have. You choose child care for your life because you
believe in what kids need and love children, not to get rich.
That does not mean, however, you should remain at the poverty
level all of your life. But you are pretty much guaranteed no
retirement money if you can only barely survive on what you
receive now.
I would also suggest offsetting what the parents pay with
increased tax benefits. This would make them more willing to
pay the prices that we have to ask.
When children are in school, they are being taken care of
for their parents too. Yet they are being taught English, math,
etc. But what we teach is how to learn, how to get along, and
how to succeed. And though some would argue that teachers have
a 4-year degree, I would counter with the question, how many of
you would pay $6,000 to $8,000 for 4 years to enter a
profession that pays back yearly less than $20,000 in most
cases? Is there some way that the Federal Government could give
State money back to offset real estate taxes already being paid
to create some type of funding similar to that of public
schooling? I am not asking for more taxes. Nobody would.
I know that I am considered a for-profit independent
center, but I am not sure why. I am still regulated by a
government agency, and I would like to know what kind of profit
is in my $17,000-a-year salary myself.
My last request would be that the coverage given day care
be more positive, or at least more in-depth. I would like to
say that it is easy to get caught in the guidelines and
requirements set forth by many agencies overseeing day cares.
Many times, those who set up the rules have never even set foot
or worked in a real center. Or maybe they have been in a pilot
program, and that is great.
It is easy to see how, in meeting the requirements of
hiring an education-qualified individual, you might be ignoring
a more experienced candidate who would naturally have been able
to recognize the needs of that infant who is now in the
hospital from being shook by your newly-hired 4-year-degree
employee.
I would like to congratulate Illinois on what steps they
have taken to create some assistance for day care workers. I am
not as familiar with that for Missouri; I am sorry. I would
like to see more input from those people actually hands-on,
however, versus those in offices, reading manuals and making up
the rules and guidelines. Maybe more paperwork and rules are
not what is necessary. Maybe just the right paperwork. Then we
might all have more time to do our job better.
To briefly summarize my key points, day care workers
deserve the respect and compensations due them for their job
description; Federal help would best be sought through funds or
more funds to assist in retention and furthering education of
workers, benefit programs for health care and retirement,
bigger tax breaks for parents; and people in the field should
be helping to make those guidelines.
Thank you very much.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much. Corinne Patton.
TESTIMONY OF CORINNE PATTON,\1\ MANAGER, MISSOURI CHILD CARE
RESOURCE AND REFERRAL NETWORK
Ms. Patton. Senator Durbin, Senator Carnahan, thank you for
holding these field hearings today, and thank you for choosing
``Good beginnings last a lifetime'' as the title of the
hearing. I believe good beginnings, indeed, last a lifetime,
and I am proud to be part of an organization that helps
families make their own good beginnings.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Patton appears in the Appendix on
page 58.
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I represent the Missouri Child Care Resource and Referral
Network. Our agency coordinates the activities of the eight
Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies that serve Missouri,
CCR&R's for short. Each independent nonprofit agency serves a
designated portion of Missouri's 115 counties. The Network
manages contracts between the State agencies and local CCR&R's
and handles several special child care related projects.
Child care resource and referral agencies provide a number
of services and special activities. And we have lots of printed
materials outside in the hall. I hope you and the audience will
take some.
Finding, deciding on, and beginning to use child care
becomes one of the earliest and least supported challenges for
the working parent. CCR&R agencies support families in their
search for child care. Each local agency maintains a database
of child care providers and the pertinent information about
their services. Referral specialists at each local CCR&R share
that information with families in telephone interviews and
through mail, fax, and E-mail daily.
Last year, our eight agencies served over 20,000 families
who were seeking care for more than 28,000 children. This is
the referral part of resource and referral. These families
received a list of referrals to help them narrow their search
in finding the best child care provider for their child. Each
caller also received printed consumer education material that
offered points to consider in making the choice and questions
to pose to prospective providers.
For example, we recommend that a family consider the
child's point of view and the kind of people and activities
that will make the child comfortable. A child may wonder, who
will care for me, are there plenty of toys that I can reach and
enjoy, where will I keep my stuff, is everyone having fun, what
will I do all day.
The right child care provider will develop a positive,
loving relationship with the child. This is a key indicator of
quality care. The right care giver will also relate well to the
parent and have values and attitudes that are similar to those
of the family. Parents, and especially parents who are placing
an infant and toddler, should watch the provider interact with
children and consider these issues. Are children happy and
involved? Does the provider seem warm and friendly? Is she or
he calm and patient with the children? Does the provider listen
to the children? Does the provider talk to them and encourage
them to express themselves? And does the care giver have
special training or credentials?
Making a smart child care choice involves visits to several
programs to compare and observe the program and the physical
setting, as well as interviews with providers. The consumer
education material that CCR&R's offer to every family puts the
questions together in a concise package and details ways to
continue to monitor the child's successful adjustment to child
care.
Families with children with special needs receive enhanced
services from Missouri CCR&R's. Each local agency has an
inclusion specialist on staff that works to help families find
inclusive child care. This means that children with special
needs are placed in program with typically-developing children.
The inclusion specialist also offers services to providers to
ensure that they have the training and skills necessary to
serve the children.
CCR&R's offer families help in navigating Missouri's child
care regulatory system. The agencies can define terms such as
licensed, license-exempt, unregulated, and accredited. The
agencies refer parents to the Bureau of Child Care offices in
the Department of Health and Senior Services for additional
information and access to public licensing records.
Our agencies also offer services to child care providers,
the community, and to employers. Last year, our agencies
provided almost 36,000 technical assistance contacts to child
care providers. We offered over 9,000 technical assistance
contacts to parents, 1,200 technical assistance contacts to
employers, and over 12,000 technical assistance contacts to
other people in the community who needed information such as
things related to supply and demand data. And our local
agencies mailed 162,000 child care-related publications.
All the activities detailed above make up the resource part
of resource and referral. The Network and the local agencies
compile, analyze, and share information about child care. Our
agencies develop and maintain databases by collecting detailed
information about the supply of child care, the availability of
subsidies, and other valuable community resources for families.
We are acutely aware of the special hardships that low
income Missouri families face when they seek affordable quality
child care. Missouri may not have a waiting list for subsidized
child care, but that is only because the subsidy eligibility is
so restricted that very few families qualify. Missouri ranks at
the bottom of the 50 States in our eligibility for child care
subsidy.
Child Care in the Workplace is the Missouri network's
toolkit for employers interested in developing family-friendly
workplace policies. This material was written so that employers
can consider the full array of options available to them. As
Sarah Kirschner indicated, there are many different kinds of
options, such as seminars, leave policies, scheduling policies,
financial assistance, support for community-based child care
programs, and on-site and near-site child care centers. What
our CCR&R's do not have right now are the staffing resources to
dedicate themselves to really working on employer initiatives.
We sit on many community boards, partnerships, and
initiatives. We collaborate with community partners and
encourage efforts to improve and shape services. Community-
based CCR&R's have a big-picture perspective combined with good
local information. We exam systemic problems, identify
barriers, and link other partners in finding solutions. We know
that these solutions require the involvement of all sectors and
segments of the community if we are to be successful in
offering families that good beginning.
The Network coordinates several special initiatives
involving training, offering family child care providers an
entrepreneurial or business aspect to their program,
coordinating Heads Up reading literacy training, and offering
consultation services to child care programs working toward
accreditation.
You have heard about T.E.A.C.H., mentioned before. We also
manage the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood Program in Missouri.
T.E.A.C.H. stands for teacher education and compensation helps.
Missouri and Illinois are two of 19 States participating in
this national initiative to increase education and compensation
and reduce turnover in the child care workforce. Presently in
Missouri, there are almost 100 early childhood teachers taking
college courses through funds provided by T.E.A.C.H.. Each
teacher receives either a raise or bonus from her or his
employer at the end of a 1-year contract, and in return, agrees
to remain employed at their sponsoring program. We hope that
eventually our child care workforce will make more than those
parking lot attendants.
The Network and local CCR&R's are also members of NACCRRA,
the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral
Agencies. NACCRRA represents almost 700 community-based CCR&R's
from every State in the country. NACCRRA provides us with
vision, leadership, and support, and promotes national policies
and partnerships committed to learning and development of all
children.
While the demands for services from families, providers,
and communities increase every year, our funding from our State
contract does not. As Missouri struggles with its budget
shortfall, core service funding to the Network, and
subsequently to the local CCR&R's, was cut by 15 percent in the
current fiscal year. This has resulted in the inevitable
decrease in availability of some services.
Funding a system of CCR&R services in each State with an
entity such as the Network to coordinate and support services
would ensure that child care resource and referral activities
continue to reach families, child care providers, employers,
and other community partners in that they collect and
disseminate the data that leads to sound decision making.
Language in the proposed reauthorization of the Child Care and
Development Fund supports an earmarked funding for such a
system, and that would help ensure that these services continue
to be available for Missouri families and communities. And I
ask that you support that language.
Tomorrow is Child Advocacy Day in Missouri, and I thank you
for the opportunity to get a little jump on being an advocate
today.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much. And our last witness
on this panel, Kim Hunt.
TESTIMONY OF KIM E. HUNT,\1\ ILLINOIS NETWORK OF CHILD CARE
RESOURCE AND REFERRAL AGENCIES (INCCRRA)
Ms. Hunt. Thank you, Senator Durbin and Senator Carnahan,
for the opportunity to address you this morning on behalf of
child care providers. I will be addressing the services of the
Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
(INCCRRA) and how the services support child care providers and
quality child care in Illinois.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Hunt appears in the Appendix on
page 62.
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INCCRRA is an organization of 17 regional child care
resource and referral agencies, R&R's, working together to
improve access to high-quality child care in communities
throughout Illinois. INCCRRA maintains the most comprehensive
data on child care supply, child care program characteristics,
and factors that influence a parent's choice of child care. The
State network and local partners are currently involved in a
number of initiatives that address the availability of quality
services for children and families. One initiative is a part of
First Lady Lura Lynn Ryan's Futures for Kids program, Quality
Counts.
INCCRRA administers several programs that are coordinated
through individual R&R's. They are:
The T.E.A.C.H. project, started in 1996 with 35
participants. The program currently serves over 1,200
recipients working in 81 counties. The program has assisted 39
current providers in completing their degree. T.E.A.C.H. has
effectively reduced the turnover rate to 6 percent for
participants, compared to an annual turnover rate of 15 percent
for child care teachers and 24 percent for assistant teachers.
Professional development funds provide providers with the
opportunity to attend activities that include college tuition,
attendance in conferences, and credentialing programs. In the
fiscal year 2001, providers completed 918 semester hours of
college credit. An additional 4,868 providers completed
training that applied towards credentialing and in-service
hours.
Gov. Ryan signed Great START, a wage supplement program for
early childhood providers, into law in May 2000. Implemented in
March 2001, there are currently 2,500 participants receiving an
average wage supplement of $1,700 per year. For participants
renewing their applications, the rate of attrition from the
field was 7 percent.
The Illinois Network for Educational Development is the
beginning of a training tracking system. The system tracks
Great START participants and their educational achievements,
including credentials, degrees, and course work.
Illinois Child Care is an AmeriCorps program to enhance R&R
services and build literacy skills in young children, 185
members have served within the R&R system since 1994, earning
educational awards and valuable experience.
The Illinois Trainer Network is a statewide training
approval program that supports and compensates skilled trainers
who deliver high quality and accessible training to providers.
Over 350 certified trainers conduct 6 to 32 hour trainings in
10 topic areas for 3,900 providers.
Quality Counts Child Care Grants were implemented in
January of this year to improve and expand early care and
education services, $1.5 million has been allocated, with $.5
million targeted for programs that serve infants and toddlers.
Grants are awarded for equipment, materials, projects that
improve quality or maintain space for infants and toddlers.
These funds are also available to license-exempt or relative
care providers.
The statewide R&R training activities are delivered in many
forms to respond to the diverse training needs of the child
care professionals. Training workshops are the most common
methods, followed by conferences. The use of self-study
materials has steadily increased since 1996--37,000-plus child
care professionals attended 2,339 workshops statewide, while 58
conferences were sponsored and 895 child care professionals
used self-study materials.
Comments that I have heard from the field:
``Through Great START, a staff person was able to increase
her salary by $1.90 per hour.''
``New directors receive their training on the job, and not
necessarily through college courses. These funds enabled me to
get additional training and support through more non-
traditional methods such as conferences and intense seminars.''
And you can hear them in the halls: ``I got my check from
Great START today.''
For the past 2 years, Illinois has been recognized as one
of the top 10 States to have made a difference in who is caring
for kids. It is our hope that Illinois remains in the top 10 by
continuing to be a role model for other States, maintaining and
enhancing existing programs, and developing new and innovative
initiatives.
Thank you for today and your future successes to champion
the welfare of children and families.
Senator Durbin. Thank you very much. Senator Carnahan,
would you like to ask the first round of questions.
Senator Carnahan. Well, thank you for being a very
interesting and informative panel. We will start here with
Teresa. Based on the experiences that you have had at OPM in
setting up the Federal Employees Child Care Assistance Program,
what kind of advice would you give to employers who want to do
this? Or even to State and local entities?
Ms. Jenkins. Well, to follow up on something that the
previous panel member, Janice, was talking about as far as
workplace flexibilities, I think that that is absolutely
important. And I am sure you know the Federal Government has
been a leader in the use of alternative work schedules for
Federal employees for many years. That allows Federal employees
to vary their work week as well as vary the time at which they
report to work. And that allows them to take care of family
needs.
Also, a relatively recent piece of legislation is the
Family and Medical Leave Act, which also provides Federal
employees with more options to take care of their child care
needs. And as I am sure you know, Congressman Wolf and
Congressman Hoyer are very much pressing telework within the
Federal Government. And it too, I believe, can have a benefit.
Again following up on something that Janice was saying,
where Janice has a very unique and specific child care need, if
employees are allowed to either work from home or from the
office, it perhaps can open opportunities for selecting the
appropriate child care center. So I think the workplace
flexibilities are absolutely critical, the leave that employees
are allowed to take, as well as part-time employment. Just a
multitude of flexibilities to allow employees to balance the
work and family responsibilities.
Senator Carnahan. Thank you.
Sarah, what would cause a business or employer to decide to
have on-site care or provide care for their employees? And how
can we encourage them to do this? What factors come into play
here?
Ms. Kirschner. That is an interesting question. I think
there are two common ways. One is truly a bottom-up kind of a
grass roots, where a company keeps hearing this issue over and
over and over, and someone at the top is listening, and over a
time of hearing that--child care, child care, child care--
begins to be willing to look at some options, and in the end
may decide on on-site child care or some other option.
The other way that this happens, I think, is the opposite.
It is the top down, where the person at the top says, ``This is
important to me.'' And typically it is because of something
that has happened to them. Senator Durbin mentioned his
grandchildren, and you will often hear that the president of a
company, it did not click until his daughter went to work, and
suddenly, ``We have to have child care.''
So I think it comes from both ways.
Senator Durbin. That sounds familiar.
Ms. Kirschner. What we can do to encourage that, I think,
is something that we have mentioned. And that is to continue to
talk about the success stories, to continue to offer some
incentives. The tax reform of last year does have a tax credit
for employers that own and operate on-site child care centers
or that use resource and referrals. So I think those are steps
in the right direction, to continue to incent those efforts as
well.
Senator Carnahan. Thank you.
Penny, what would you say is the single most important
thing that we could do to encourage people to choose child care
as a profession?
Ms. Korte. That is an even better question. To make it more
attractive. You can not make people choose. They have to have a
love of working with children, because I have had people come
to me that have thought that child care was an easy profession
to be in. And they found out very quickly it is not an easy
profession.
However, to provide more funding for the Great START
program, or just in general, health benefits and those types of
things. I think that, to make it more attractive, we have to be
able to compensate them for what they do.
And that, I feel, is one of the biggest problems that there
is, because, as many of us know, and it has been mentioned
numerous times today, when you are competing with parking lots,
where you do not have to think on the job and the stress is
very minimal, compared to what you have to do on a daily basis
in a child care setting, you want some compensation for that.
You do not want to go home and feel like you have not only
spent 8 or 9 hours, whatever your daily schedule is, working
and stressing and emotionally burned out, but then to come home
from that and feel like you have gotten nothing for it, it is
not worth people's while.
Senator Carnahan. How would you say, Corinne, that the
T.E.A.C.H. program has benefitted the staff members that you
know who have participated in it?
Ms. Patton. Thank you. T.E.A.C.H. has had a wonderful
impact, and we are in our baby steps compared with our
colleagues in Illinois. T.E.A.C.H. is relatively new to
Missouri. But I have had the privilege to speak with providers,
early childhood teachers, who are going to school, whose
tuition and books are being taken care of. And the feeling of
support and professionalism, it is wonderful to hear. I think
that they are feeling that this is giving them the recognition
that this is a valuable profession. It is not babysitting; it
is a serious and valuable profession. And supporting them in
getting the opportunity to earn a decent wage and to be
compensated and recognized for their learning and for the work
that they put into it every day. It is such a tremendous job,
and that is such a tremendous responsibility that they take on.
But we have got to support these folks. And we can not do it on
the backs of parents. There is no way we can charge parents the
true cost of high-quality care.
Senator Carnahan. It is a morale booster then?
Ms. Patton. It is. It definitely is.
Senator Carnahan. Kim, what would you say is the most
frequently asked question by parents who seek your services?
Ms. Hunt. By parents that are seeking referral services for
child care?
Senator Carnahan. Yes.
Ms. Hunt. They are looking for that list of people who have
vacancies. When we give them a list of providers, they want to
know, ``Am I going to find a program that has a vacancy?''
Senator Carnahan. Are they thinking quality? Are they
thinking cost? Or some combination?
Ms. Hunt. Right now, it is a vacancy issue. And then it is
can I afford it, is it a place that I want my child to stay. It
is a little bit of everything. But most cases right now in our
areas, we are looking at vacancy issues, that there are not
spaces available for infants and toddlers. And school-age care.
There is a big demand in Illinois for school-age care. There
are not enough programs to serve the needs.
Senator Carnahan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator Durbin. Thanks, Senator.
Let me give a jump-ball question here. I would like to know
if any of you could comment on the impact of two things that we
are facing as a country. One is the recession, with eight
million people unemployed. What impact has this had on your
workforce, the number of people who are using child care, and
the participation of businesses in child care? And the second
one is welfare-to-work. We are about to reach a limit here, 5
years, of people on welfare benefits. And I am wondering what
impact this is going to have on some of your workers and
whether any of you have people who were once on welfare that
you know of, working in a child care setting, and perhaps you
can tell us for the sake of this hearing what your experience
has been with this transition. I will leave that open to anyone
who would feel comfortable with trying to answer either one of
those.
Ms. Kirschner. I will jump in on the recession and
participation of businesses question. I do not know that we
have seen yet what the recession is going to do, how that will
impact employers in whether they are going to be involved in
child care.
I guess what I would tell you is that good times did not
cause them to just jump right in either. So I think employers
are very reluctant to get involved in this issue, and with some
good reasons certainly. But they, I think, mostly still see it
as, ``This is not my problem, and I am not going to walk into
this.'' And so I think, as I said, we did not see everybody
jumping in with both feet during good times, so I can only
imagine that that would continue during bad times.
Senator Durbin. And what has been the impact of the
recession; can anybody say?
Ms. Patton. I would say that, strangely enough, the hard
economic times brings more folks into the child care workforce,
because those jobs are available and people are desperate for
them.
When the economy was very good, it was absolutely
impossible to find a child care worker. So that is a rather
bizarre turn. But because these jobs are not well paid, and
there are often not many benefits, and it is difficult work, if
folks can find a better-paying job somewhere else, they will
take it. So that is an impact that I think we will see if this
continues.
With respect to welfare-to-work, I think that one of the
real tough issues are folks who have left welfare, who have
gotten modest paying jobs, and who need some help. They need a
transitional period when they leave subsidy. You can not go
from having your child care fees fully paid, and you get a
dime-an-hour raise, and you have to pay them all yourself. That
just does not work. We could not do that either if it came to
us.
So what we are not providing people is that gradual
transition where they pay more and more, and eventually they
pay it all, as their economic situation improves. We can not
cut folks off, because then you have got people saying, ``No,
do not give me the raise; I can not afford to take that raise.
I can not afford to get a promotion; I will lose everything.''
That is a crazy situation that we have set up.
Senator Durbin. I wonder who dreamed this up. Could have
been Congress. We had better be careful.
Any other reactions on those two issues, on the recession?
Penny?
Ms. Korte. Personally, as a day care owner, we have lost 8
percent of our enrollment.
Senator Durbin. Eight?
Ms. Korte. Due to the recession, because we have had local
businesses that have laid off staff or switched their hours
from first shift to third shift or first shift to second shift.
So now there are parents home, boyfriends at home, or whatever,
that they do not need the day care during the day and that kind
of thing.
The welfare has not really hit me too much other than there
are a lot more people putting in applications to come and apply
for jobs. It has not changed the quality or the qualifiedness
of that individual per se. I have many, many of the aide
applicants, but not many teacher applicants. So if I lose a
teacher, I am still not gaining anything by that. But I do not
have any staff that is ready to leave looking for better-paying
jobs right now, because there are not many out there to find.
Senator Durbin. I asked the question earlier. Does Illinois
require an associate's degree for direct aide workers?
Ms. Korte. For the teacher-qualified individual, you have
to have 2 years of education credit. You do not have to have an
actual associate's degree. You can also substance that through
1 year of work experience, full-time work experience, with 1
year of education, but you must have six semester hours
directly related to early childhood education.
Senator Durbin. Teresa, let me ask you. When it comes to
the day care centers for Federal employees, what quality
standards do these centers have to meet?
Ms. Jenkins. Well, regulations and the law governing the
subsidy program require that the centers or the homes be
licensed and/or regulated by State or local authorities. So
what we require, then, is the only way that one can have a
subsidy provided to them is if they choose a facility that is
licensed or regulated by a State or local facility.
I can give you an example of a welfare-to-work situation
that I experienced. We had an individual in one of our Federal
agencies. She was a GS-1, a welfare-to-work employee. And she
was absolutely thrilled to have the child care subsidy provided
to her, because she was using unregulated child care. She left
her office early 1 day to go to the home to pick up her child--
she was using a home-based, unlicensed facility--only to find
her child locked in a closet. So, I think, for the lower income
employees, the subsidy is absolutely critical. And we are
finding, within the Federal Government, that the lower the
income, the greater the percentage of the subsidy.
Senator Durbin. Both Illinois and Missouri must have some
sort of life safety code, or they must be subject to
inspection, I take it, for the facilities to meet certain
qualifications. I look at this wonderful place with all of the
things. That is the case in Missouri as well as Illinois, I am
sure; is it not?
Ms. Patton. It is, with the exception that there are
numerous loopholes in Missouri licensing laws that exempt
certain kinds of programs from being fully licensed. Church-
based programs are inspected for fire safety and health, but
not fully licensed. So that means staff-child ratio, director
qualifications, teacher qualifications, guidance and discipline
do not fall under the regulation. And there are numerous other
regulatory loopholes in Missouri.
Senator Durbin. The reason I asked that, following up on
Teresa's comment, was that we may soon face the debate on the
faith-based initiatives, and the question as to whether or not
certain standards applied to everyone else will apply to these
new initiatives. And, I think, in many instances, at a minimum,
we need to have parents notified that different standards are
going to be used, and let them know that going in. At a
minimum. There could be argument made that there should not be
any variance on some very basic life safety questions when it
comes to schools or day care centers. But we will save that
debate for another hearing. Jean, do you have any other
questions?
Senator Carnahan. No.
Senator Durbin. Well, I want to thank this panel very much.
And I would like to thank the first panel and everyone who
attended this hearing today.
I would just say in closing that it is amazing to me that
an issue as broad as this, that affects so many people, has not
become a major national cause. When you take a look at where
our country is headed and what families want the most, the most
that they want is ``Take care of my kids. Help me. Give me a
helping hand. Make it affordable.'' And time and again, I think
we have all paid lip service to this at every level of
government, and have not followed through on it.
I really go back to a point I made earlier. If you are
talking about the well-being and education of children, stop
thinking in the 19th Century. This is the 21st Century.
Families have new needs. Families have new demands. Children
have new needs. And we had better be responsive, or we will pay
the price for it down the line.
I want to thank all of you, particularly those of you who
are directly involved in day care. You do make a sacrifice to
make it successful. And the parents who are struggling, we are
going to try to do our best, at least, to give you a helping
hand in meeting that burden so that those happy kids that I see
at Childgarden I can see all across this country.
Jean, if you would like to make a closing statement?
Senator Carnahan. Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for
coming over and holding this hearing and inviting me to be a
part of it.
I thank both of the panels. You have given us great
information and wonderful ideas. And to hear the stories of
your strength and your struggles is an inspiration for us. And
we will take what you have told us back to Washington.
I would also like to thank Lisa for having us here in this
wonderful facility. Childgarden is a model, and it is something
that we would like to have in a lot of other places around
Missouri and Illinois.
We know that the quality of a child's interaction in the
early years has a significant impact on their brain development
and their temperament, personality, and their ability to learn.
Quality is especially important in a child care setting because
children spend so much of their time there, and you have heard
that today already, some as many as 40 hours or more in a child
care setting. So we as a community need to make it a goal that
quality care be available to all of our parents. Good
beginnings do last a lifetime, and we need to make a good
beginning the birthright of all our children. Thanks.
Senator Durbin. Thank you all very much.
[Whereupon, at 11:48 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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