TABLE OF CONTENTS FRONT PAGE NEXT ARTICLE PREVIOUS ARTICLE
A presentation on children's day care highlighted a June 9 Employee Forum
Community Meeting.
Given by Sue Russell, executive director of Carrboro-based Day Care Services
Association, the presentation covered the three day-care issues of most
concern: quality, affordably and availability. Finding the right mix of the
three is key to meeting child-care needs, Russell said.
"We can have very affordable day care that's not good quality. We can have
quality day care that's not affordable," Russell said.
According to Russell, quality depends mainly on teachers' level of education
and pay, administrators' experience and teacher-to-child ratios. North
Carolina, she said, suffers in all three measures.
"We have a poorly educated, poorly paid, poorly compensated work force," she
said.
A 1992-93 study found that only 32 percent of day-care teachers in North
Carolina had at least a two-year college degree. They earned an average of
$5.25 per hour and 29 percent had no health insurance.
Such working conditions lead to high turnover rates, Russell said, leaving
children without needed stability.
"That person whom they're with is someone with whom they've bonded, and then
that person leaves," she said.
Russell cited statistics showing that day care is more expensive in the
Triangle than in the rest of the state. While the state average for 2-year-old
care in a center is $356 per month, Orange County averages $520, Wake County
averages $440 and Durham County averages $431.
Russell showed that a full-time worker earning $15,000 per year, or about
$7.20 per hour, can't afford day care in the Triangle. After taking care of
other expenses such as food and housing, only $39 would be left each month.
The availability picture is brighter, according to Russell, as the three
Triangle counties all have openings in licensed day-care centers and registered
family child-care homes.
Russell's presentation came with the backdrop of a new on-site center opening
at the University this fall.
Sponsored by the University and UNC Hospitals, the University Child Care
Center will be next to the Friday Center and will accommodate 120 children.
Tuition rates range from $620 per month for 3- through 5-year-olds to $970 per
month for infants.
Victory Village Day Care Center will oversee the University facility. The
program will meet the state's highest licensing standard, AA. Included in AA
rating criteria are the state's strictest teacher-to-child ratio requirements:
infants, 1-to-3; toddlers, 1-to-4; 2- and 3-year-olds, 1-to-6; and 3- through
5-year-olds, 1-to-8.
For more information about the University center, call Leigh Zaleon at
929-2662. Call Sue Russell at 967-3272 for more information on area child-care
resources.
To UNC-CH Home Page