Child Care in ‘Crisis’ Status, Survey Claims

Nearly 40% of the country’s working parents, rich and poor alike, are so dissatisfied with child care that the situation has become a “national crisis,” according to a poll released Tuesday by Louis Harris and Associates.

The survey results--telecast by satellite from New York to five cities around the country, among them Mission Viejo and Los Angeles--also showed that single and black parents are paying more for child care than white, married couples.

And, the poll uncovered a broad mandate for federal support of day-care programs.

“This is an area where people wake up every day, 19% of the population, and say, ‘What will I do with my kid today?’ ” said Harris during the telecast.

If there is no action soon from Congress enacting new tax credits for child care, “I tell you all hell will break loose,” Harris said. “I’d say it’s reached crisis proportions.”

‘Not Very Well’

Harris’ firm, from Dec. 22 to Feb. 8, questioned some 4,050 adults on national policies toward child care and also asked a sample of those, some 2,009 adults with a child under the age of 6, to describe their experiences with child care.

The survey showed that although 53% of those surveyed thought the child-care system was working “somewhat well,” another 38% said it was working “not very well” or “not well at all.”

The report said the negative numbers indicate parents are putting up with a “just tolerable” situation.

In Mission Viejo, the telecast and a follow-up panel discussion by seven local child care experts was held at Saddleback College. The panelists praised the survey. Typical was Roberta Berns, a Saddleback College official who trains day-care providers, who called the survey “the first step that has provided national awareness to the problem.”

In comments on his survey during the telecast, Harris described those surveyed as having “a deep, deep unease over the plight of children generally” and said they worry that “most children in the U.S. today are shortchanged.”

Respondents believed the overall quality of life for children has deteriorated. Some 63% said children are “objects of neglect,” and 65% said children were worse off today than when they (the respondents) were growing up. Only the poor and the elderly were ranked as being more neglected than children.

‘Basically Happy’

But at the same time, Harris’ poll showed that 47% of those surveyed believe most children had loving parents; 44% believe they got medical treatment when needed and 42% believe the statement that most children “are basically happy.”

The survey also looked at typical costs of child care, reporting the mean cost for all those surveyed as $190 per month or $2,280 per year.

(However, in Orange County, according to Lisa Carpenter Velarde, who runs a day-care referral service for the Children’s Home Society and who spoke in Mission Viejo after the telecast, infant care costs between $95 and $125 a week; care for a preschooler is at least $85 a week and care for a school-age child is $65 a week and up.)

But Harris said he discovered an irony: “Many of those who can least afford to pay, in fact, are paying almost as much as the very wealthiest families do for child care.” Single mothers pay $211 a month and black parents pay $258, but business executives pay $244, professionals pay $226 and married couples pay only $185.

Explaining the disparity, the survey noted: “Parents pay what they have to in order to get proper care--if they can find it. . . . However, even when parents pay high sums for child care, there is no guarantee they will receive high quality or real value for their money.”

Added Harris, when asked to explain why blacks were among those groups paying top dollar for child care: “It’s very difficult for them to find child care, and they’ve got to pay through the nose. It’s an old, old story in this country; you gotta pay more to be poor.”

Strong Idea

Parents of all income levels had strong ideas of what they wanted in a day-care center. Ninety-seven percent of them cited as a key concern “the quality of people running the center.” But in answer to national policy question, Harris noted that 9 out of 10 of those surveyed were concerned that better day-care staff must be attracted “by higher pay, not paid the level of a parking attendant, as today.”

The survey also asked all its respondents to consider President Bush’s child-care program--a tax credit of up to $1,000 a year for low-income parents--as well as the Democratic alternative, funds to low- and middle-income parents for child care, as well as uniform federal standards for providers. According to the Harris survey, those polled favored both proposals but liked the Bush idea by a margin of 76% to 21%, slightly more than the 72-26% who favored the Democratic bill.

The Harris poll was commissioned by the Philip Morris Companies of New York, the largest food, beverage and tobacco company in the United States. Philip Morris executive Guy Smith said the company offers flexitime and parental leaves to its 100,000 employees and was seeking to contribute to a “‘meaningful” national debate on child care.

Philip Morris is the parent company of the Mission Viejo Co.

In their wide-ranging discussion of child care needs, participants in Mission Viejo mentioned a recent tragedy at an unlicensed North Tustin home day-care center in which a toddler died and two others suffered severe brain damage after falling into an algae-covered pool.

Craig Berg, program director of the Saddleback Valley YMCA, questioned the priorities of county and state licensing officials. They had criticized the offering of “snacks” and the location of a fire extinguisher at a licensed center, “yet we have all these unlicensed homes and children falling into pools. I wonder if the emphasis needs to be redirected?” Berg said.

But Ann Tonouye, a child-care ombudsman in Orange County for the California Department of Social Services, said that licensing was “for the protection of all children. We can’t be in every home every minute of every day.”

Berns added that parents need to educate themselves on the characteristics of a quality home.

However, in Orange County, quality child care that is also affordable may be difficult to come by, one participant noted. Because there is little affordable housing, “a family may be paying an exorbitant price” for a home but “they can’t or don’t put the money into child care because there’s not any left,” noted Dixie Bullock, Saddleback College dean for health sciences.

Child-Care Poll

Amount parents paid for child care in thousands of dollars*

Total Parents: 2.3 $50,000+**: 4.0 Postgraduate degree: 3.5 Blacks: 3.1 Separated parent: 3.0 Business executives: 2.9 Parents 40-49: 2.8 Big-city residents: 2.8 Professionals: 2.7 4-year college grads: 2.6 White-collar workers: 2.6 Single mothers: 2.5 Married couples: 2.2 Suburb residents: 2.1 $35,000-$50,000**: 2.1 * Base: parents with children 6 and under

** Income

Society is doing too little for...

Poor: 73% Elderly: 72% Children: 63% Minorities: 42% Women: 33% Parent satisfaction with today’s child-care system

Doesn’t work well: 38% Work’s somewhat well: 53% Work’s very well: 8% Don’t know: 1% Source: Philip Morris Cos. Inc.