NEW HANOVER COUNTY –– The childcare system is fragmented and strained, on the precipice of a national crisis emerging from the pandemic.
In New Hanover County, 748 otherwise eligible children with working parents –– bigger than an entire elementary school –– are currently on a waitlist to receive public vouchers to help offset the cost of childcare.
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“When we think about public school, we’ve decided as a community, as a country, that we’ll pay for school with taxes and school will be available to everybody as a public good,” said Jane Morrow, executive director of Smart Start New Hanover County. “But not so for childcare.”
The pandemic agitated pre-existing failings, leading to troubling trends in a quiet industry, an important bedrock of the economic system. “Because it is something that families struggle with individually, it’s hidden,” Morrow said. “It’s you trying to figure it out on your own.”
North Carolina and New Hanover County lost 3,382 and 76 childcare workers respectively between the first quarter of 2020 and 2021, according to the latest state commerce data. It represents a 10.8% and 8.7% drop in the workforce.
The exodus is having a crippling effect on childcare facilities, which by state law must staff by ratios, with one employee for: every five babies under 1; up to 20 4-to-5-year-olds. With depleted staff, established centers are forced to lower enrollment numbers; this has left families vying for spots in a competitive market where waitlists abound.
It’s hard to blame employees for leaving, overwhelmingly women and disproportionately Black, who have endured low wages and likely lacked benefits. Compensation in New Hanover County is on par with the state average, at $14 an hour, or $29,190 a year, according to the latest state commerce data, a few thousand shy from the federal poverty line (starting teachers made $10 an hour, according to a 2019 survey that yielded responses from nearly three-fourths of all New Hanover County childcare directors).
Less than half of the surveyed New Hanover County centers provided partial or full health insurance to its employees.
“If Target or Costco or somewhere is offering $15 an hour and benefits, you can earn more money there than in childcare,” Morrow said.
Making it work
High-quality childcare –– provided in facilities with more than three stars in the state’s five-star rating system –– is expensive. In New Hanover County, the market rate in 2018 was…
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