AFFORDABLE CHILD CARE

Again and again, when asked what is the most important issue affecting financial stability, mothers talk about the cost of child care. For middle income families full time childcare is unaffordable.

Mothers are under great stress to find care for their children while at work. The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies has noted that even families living at twice the federally designated poverty level struggle to afford child care, and single parents face an especially immense challenge. Nationally, a family of three living on about $36,000 a year – twice the federal poverty level – would pay more than a quarter of that income to send an infant to a child-care center, the report said.