April 18, 2005

Child Care By the Numbers

A few more facts and figures about child care, culled from the Morgan paper mentioned below (only because I want to jot these stats down somewhere, for future reference; plus, some readers might find them interesting).
  • In the U.S., only six percent of one- and two-year-olds are in public child care, and 53 percent of three-to-five-year olds. The private sector is growing, thanks to growing paid employment among mothers, but total child-care coverage is less than in Sweden or France.

  • Parents pay 60 percent of all costs for child-care, as opposed to, on average, 25 percent of the costs of higher education.

  • Only 21 percent of parents with under-13 children who are below 200 percent of the poverty line receive help with child care costs, from the government or elsewhere.

  • Social conservatives have often argued against subsidized child care on grounds that it discriminates against stay-at-home mothers.

  • Between 1973 and 1999, as mothers entered the workforce, government spending on child care increased from $2.8 billion to $12 billion, and the private child care market grew 250 (!!) percent.

  • The wages for child care and preschool workers are worth between 53 and 66 percent of the wages of all employed women. (In Sweden, it's 1.02 percent for both, in France it's 1.87 percent for preschool teachers.) Less than a third of child care centers offer fully-paid health insurance. Only one-third of workers earned the minimum wage.

  • Continue reading "Child Care By the Numbers"
    -- Brad Plumer 3:37 AM || ||