Community Corner

Underfunded, Unaffordable: Maryland's Child Care Centers Can't Keep Up

High costs of running childcare centers are making it even more difficult for Maryland's low-income families to afford such services.

By Sonia Siu

Jennifer Rhodes, program director of Downtown Baltimore Child Care, says that quality child care is fundamental to a child's brain and social development—yet Maryland's child care programs remain underfunded and unaffordable for low-income families.

"The cost of running the childcare center is fairly high, and we try to keep our ratios lower than the state's, so in doing that, it raises our overhead quite a bit," Rhodes said.

Rhodes said that despite receiving funding from local colleges, the center ends up subsidizing up to 50 percent of tuition.

The average annual cost for childcare for two children in Maryland ranges from $20,000 to $24,999, according to the Huffington Post, citing Child Care Aware of America. To put that into perspective, costs of center-based infant and 4-year-old care exceed the cost of in-state tuition and fees for one year at a public college.


Economic Policy Institute's 2013 Family Budget report recently found a wide range of child care costs across the nation, with monthly child care costs for a two-parent, one-child household at the highest of $1,318 in Washington, DC.

"Even in the best of economic times, many parents in low-wage jobs will not earn enough through work to meet basic family needs," the institute reports.

Claudia Harrison, center director of The Baltimore City Child Care Academy, said that the rising costs of child care have made things difficult for both the center and low-income families.

Families may decide to go find other, unlicensed childcare centers, Harrison said.

Only 13 percent of Maryland’s child care centers are nationally accredited, according to CCAA.

Maryland's Child Care Subsidy program, which issues childcare vouchers to low-income families to allow parents to work or attend school, is "so underfunded that it hasn't met federal rate guidelines in a decade and still uses income eligibility criteria from 2001," according to the Baltimore Sun.

"We need the funding," Harrison said. "Child care centers are doing the best that they possibly can with the limited resources that they have. Until someone steps in and helps out, it’s always a struggle."

Maryland Statistics

From Maryland Child Care Resource Network’s 2013 Child Care Demographics:
  • The estimated current median family income in Baltimore County is $85,649.
  • There are 1,054 family child care providers and licensed full-day child care  centers in the county as of July 1, 2012.
From Huffington Post's infographic, citing the U.S. Census Bureau and Child Care Aware of America:
  • Maryland is one of the states where the yearly cost of childcare for two children is more than the annual minimum wage.
From the Sun:
  • "The average Maryland day care center charges $13,200 per year for children under 2, who require a higher ratio of staff per child, and $9,400 for preschool age kids. But most low-income families can’t afford anywhere near the average rates, even with a subsidy."
TELL US: What do you think about child care in Maryland?


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