Report: Child-care costs exceed cost of college

Despite high costs, day-care workers paid poverty wages.

If paying for child care has come to feel for many American families like putting a child through college, there’s a reason for that.

The average annual cost of full-time, center-based child care in the United States now exceeds the average annual cost of in-state university tuition, according to a “Care Index” released Tuesday by New America, a think tank in Washington, D.C. That amount, $9,589 per child, represents nearly a fifth of annual median household income and 85 percent of the yearly median cost of rent.

Despite the high costs, daycare workers are paid poverty wages, turnover is high and only a small percentage of centers are nationally accredited, a marker of quality.

“The short version,” the report said, “is that the early care and learning system isn’t working. For anyone.”

The report represents one of the most comprehensive looks to date on the patchwork system of in-home and center-based care relied on by families of more than 12 million American children under the age of 5. No single state in the country had a system of care that scored well in each of three key areas of affordability, accessibility and quality, the report said.

“Even in the best states, we still unearthed a really broken system,” said Brigid Schulte, director of New America’s Better Life Lab and lead author of the report.