New Approaches Needed To Address Child Care Access in Greensboro, NC

Recently, at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNCG, community members and leaders gathered to face a stark reality: child care in Guilford County is in crisis. After viewing Take Care, a documentary on the state of early childhood education, three local leaders shared their perspectives on how this crisis affects families, employers and the community.

The State of Childcare in Greensboro, NC

For starters, high-quality child care for a 2 year old costs more than $12,100 annually, which represents 19% of a median-income household. To put this in perspective, the moderator noted that her daughter’s UNCG tuition costs about two-thirds of what families pay for quality child care.

What’s Driving the Shortage in Filled Childcare Jobs in Greensboro

In addition, 69% of Guilford County children under the age of six live in a household where the sole parent or both parents work, creating an enormous demand for child care. However, only 31% of children, zero to five (not yet in kindergarten), are in licensed child care. Making matters worse, there has been a 10% decrease in the number of child care facilities in Guilford County since 2019.

And let’s talk about early childhood educators: The average hourly wage for someone working at a childcare facility is $13.50 an hour. Almost half of Guilford County’s childhood educators said they’ve used public assistance.

Melissa Slade Smith, director of workforce development solutions at the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, brings professional and personal experience to the issue. Having worked as a child care educator herself in 2003, making $10 an hour, she witnessed how little has changed over two decades.

Smith recalled a heartbreaking conversation with her child’s teacher.

“She told me that she was going to work at Target because she could make more money,” Smith says. “When she told me her teacher’s salary, it was maybe $3 more an hour than I was getting paid twenty years ago.”

In her current role, Smith sees how the child care crisis is affecting business leaders.

“So many business leaders call me and say, ‘I’m going to lose my employees. What are the resources out there to address affordable child care?’ The number one reason employers are losing their staff is because of child care.”

How Local Business Leaders are Looking to Help

Jon Hardister, former state representative and current president of TREBIC (Triad Real Estate Building Industry Coalition), explained how workforce challenges affect economic development. Representing more than 160 companies, Hardister said that the number one concern that employers have is affordable child care.

With major employers bringing thousands of jobs to the area, Hardister says this is an issue that our community can’t ignore.

“Toyota can afford to provide on-site child care, but not all companies can do that,” Hardister says. “Small businesses are still the backbone of our economy and always will be.”

Meredith Kasten, director of the Early Childhood Center in Greensboro, offered her perspective on what it’s like to run a child care facility. Her program serves 145 children with 48 staff members. She said the only reason she can afford to send her child to the center is because of the staff tuition discount she receives.

Kasten says the current child care system is a “bad business model.”

“Most child care programs rely on private pay,” Kasten says. “Parents can only afford to pay so much. And so those programs can only afford to pay their teachers so much.”

Some families are on waitlists for over a year, and even families with vouchers face challenges because they have to pay the difference between voucher amounts and tuition costs.

“Research shows every dollar invested in early care and education, there’s a return of anywhere from $4 to $16,” Smith says. “If we had more accessible child care in our state, we know that economic output could increase by up to $13.3 billion.”

Looking ahead to what Guilford County could do differently, the panelists shared several new approaches:

• Tri-Share programs: Hardister advocated for expanding the pilot Tri-Share Program, where child care cost is split three ways: the employer, employee and state. “That way everybody’s got a little bit in the game, but if you do the math on that, you’re cutting the cost by two-thirds,” Hardister says.
• Multiple funding streams: Kasten advocates for child care programs with multiple funding streams, including dollars going to child care programs to enable quality improvements and workforce support.
• Employer-led childcare solutions: After Toyota announced onsite child care, many companies expressed interest in doing something similar, Smith says. In addition to on site child care, some companies have explored reserving slots at nearby child care facilities for their employees.
• Learn more about becoming a Family Forward NC® Certified Employer: As North Carolina continues to attract major businesses and compete for talent, companies that prioritize family-friendly policies gain a competitive edge. Greensboro is proud to be recognized as the first Family Forward NC® Certified Community in North Carolina. Find out if your business is eligible.

This event was hosted in partnership with Guilford County Partnership for Children, GenerationEd, Ready for School, Ready for Life, Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNC-Greensboro, and Action Greensboro.