Two newly-released national reports on the cost, quality and availability of child care are shedding new light on the challenges Hoosier families with young children are facing.
The ChildCare Aware of America’s 2017 Cost of Care Report found that in Indiana the annual cost of care for young children exceeds the overall cost for a year at a public college or a mortgage. In fact, a single Hoosier parent spends more than half their income on infant center care, with married parents of two children living at the poverty line spending nearly 90 percent of their household income for center-based child care.
Meanwhile, the New America Care Report ranked Indiana in the middle of the pack in terms of cost, quality and availability of child care. It found that the average Hoosier family spends 32 percent of its household income on child care, with those making minimum wage spending 102 percent of their overall income.
These numbers are disturbing, but not shocking to those who have long advocated for expanding and improving the state’s early care and education system.
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