Child care becoming increasingly harder to find in Mississippi
First Methodist Church of Columbus is shuttering its Early Learning Center, a troubling sign of the child care industry struggling.
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Child care is increasingly harder to find in Mississippi.
Especially for those with kids under two.
Among other national issues, it’s a symptom of the business model they have operated under for years, colliding with Mississippi’s Early Learning Collaborative Pre-K program.
State regulations require child care centers to have one worker for every 5 infants they care for and one worker for every nine toddlers.
This means these centers operate at a net loss for these age groups.
Usually, they would make up these costs by taking in older children, but now, more and more of those kids are in Mississippi’s collaborative Pre-K program.
Penny Sansing Mansell, the MUW Center for Education Support director, said they support the Pre-K program but are having trouble adapting to it.
“We believe in that system of care,” Sansing-Mansell said. “But we haven’t really come up with a workforce system on how we support the business model that has been early childhood for all these years. ”
With First Methodist Church of Columbus Early Learning Center closing, the already struggling child care system in the area is feeling the strain.
Angelia Collins, the Columbus Christian School Director, said they can’t accommodate the need in the area.
“We have a waitlist that we actually had to cut off because it is so extensive,” Collins said. “There’s such a lack of child care, especially here in Lowndes County, that we can’t accommodate everyone.”
Mississippi Today reports that 7% of Mississippi’s workforce is not employed full-time because of family responsibilities.
They also report that percentage equates to about $8 billion missing from the state’s GDP.
Collins said the lack of child care can lead to a host of issues.
“When they don’t have access to child care, we have major problems,” Collins said. “That means moms are having to stay at home, dads are having to stay at home. And that affects our local economy. It’s a ripple effect. It trickles down all the way to you waiting an extra hour in a doctor’s office because your nurse now has to stay at home.”
Sansing-Mansell said the ever-shrinking pool of child care centers has a real impact on families.
“It’s really important for families to find a center that fits their personality and what they’re looking for the best” Sansing-Mansell said. “And so, as we take some of these unique businesses away it’s harder and harder for families to find what they need.”
The First Five Years Fund reports that the average monthly cost of center-based infant care is $682.
