Almost 70 percent of census tracts in the Southern Tier qualify as child care deserts. That means there aren't enough spots for the number of kids who need care.
WSKG’s Aurora Berry has been exploring what that means for families in the region. Managing Editor Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo asked her about why she decided to focus on child care now.
This transcript has been edited for clarity. ________________________________________________
Aurora Berry: We're seeing this larger push for more children, and part of that is coming from the White House, so that's including legislation that's supposed to make in vitro fertilization more accessible. But they had also reportedly been hearing out ideas like medals for moms who have had more than six kids and bonuses for babies. And that comes alongside this larger discussion about the birth rate. And, you know, even more abstractly, I would say, conversations about what the composition of a family is supposed to look like.
That's got me thinking more about the conditions in which people are currently raising children, as we see some powerful people asking them to have more kids.
Phoebe Taylor Vuolo: You have that quote in there from an economist that you spoke with, saying that having a child is becoming almost like a luxury good. I mean, that was a striking thing to say. Can you talk a little bit about these income divides that are developing because of how costly and inaccessible child care is?
AB: What she says is that, at the end of the day, people are going to do what they can afford. And for people who make less than the cost of childcare, oftentimes that's leaving the workplace, which can have serious financial implications for the parent that does that.
But for parents who can afford childcare, a lot of times, even if they want to stay home or cut back their hours, that's not financially viable. So it's not that people are free enough to really make decisions about their care based on what they want. It's what they can get away with financially, which is, I think, contrary to some of the narratives that we've been seeing around parenting.
PTV: Who do you want to talk to next? What's next for you?
AB: Well, I mean, I think what's most important to me right now is to talk to individual families and spend time with families who are dealing with this issue. And you know, the way that we've been doing that so far is through this child care survey.
Aside from that, obviously we want to talk to families, we want to talk to families in different circumstances, people who've left the workforce, people who, you know, have different needs in their child care, too. That's something that we want to talk about.
But, advancing from that, I think that we want to talk to providers. We want to talk about what it's like to be providing childcare at a time when it's in such high demand, but we know that childcare workers are making low wages.
Something else that I'm interested in looking at is places where childcare is working for people. We've gotten a lot of responses talking about issues, but I think that sometimes it can be okay for us to say, let's look at a place where people are happy with what they've got, and see how that's similar or different from what we have right now.
PTV: Well, I'm really, really excited about this. If you're listening and you haven't filled out the survey, but you have an experience with child care or the lack of it, please head to wskg.org/survey. You can also just go to our website to see WSKG’s continuing coverage of this issue in our region. WSKG’s Aurora Berry, she covers the Ithaca area. Thanks, Aurora.
AB: Thank you.
This interview is part of WSKG’s continuing coverage on child care in our area. To share your experience with child care, visit wskg.org/survey.
