We have a childcare crisis in our community. Why? Because the jobs don’t pay diddly and employers are not stepping up.
While Woods Fuller made many recommendations, HERE and HERE, there really is one reason why we have this crisis; LOW WAGES in Sioux Falls and employers not supplementing child care.
There are programs and grants out there, but the state isn’t allowing some of them.
Law firms are now used as policy think tanks, since when?
This is a national problem, as I’m sure the Mayor would say, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find a local solution to this problem for the local problem.
Let the private sector build the Riverline District…. ( A new convention center in the age of Zoom, really?)….
Further funding could be found by placing a property tax surcharge on homes with a value of $600,000 or greater in this city.
Make childcare a part of the school district’s responsibilities and financing. In fact, such an idea makes this not a City problem, but a District problem. My grandchildren’s daycare calls it “School” and not daycare. So, perhaps we need to change our perception of this issue and who is really to blame, but in a city of $20 million bridges, which are only 160 feet long, and that has a Christmas list that consists of a Riverline District, what we really need to start asking is, who are the ones who are really pro-life in this town?…. Because. life doesn’t end at birth, well, unless you believe Trump when he says they are killing babies.
People stay home and don’t work because they can’t find affordable child care. Should be obvious without council. Makes me wonder if mayor and council know anything about parenting.
“According to the feedback, the single greatest challenge faced by childcare providers is turnover and an inability to hire staff. A major contributor to these staffing challenges is the extremely low wages for childcare jobs.
Childcare workers are in the bottom 2% of pay across all occupations nationally. The mean hourly wage for childcare workers in Sioux Falls as of May 2022 was $12.34 (approximately $25,670 annually), which is lower than [almost] every single listed occupation for Sioux Falls. . . . For further comparison, fast food workers made $13.18 per hour and housekeeping cleaners made $13.76 per hour on average.”
And yet, through scholarship programs we should encourage our youth to enter early childhood education baccalaureate programs at our public universities in order that they can join this lucrative profession …
“- Available childcare staff could be fostered through scholarship programs to receive a pertinent degree from a South Dakota public university.”
The wrong-headed thoughts and circular logic of this proposal is baffling.
“The median household income in Sioux Falls is $66,761 while the average childcare tuition (per child) is $11,385 per year. According to the U.S. Department of Health, “parents should pay no more than 7% of their income on childcare services to be considered affordable, and many families are paying considerably more than this [in Sioux Falls].”
The Mayor, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and our ace economic development authorities should be ashamed of these facts (but they aren’t because they are too busy cheerleading expenditure of government money on play things, increasing the tax burden upon the proletariat).
Example:
“… funding levels in Montgomery County are likely not feasible in Sioux Falls. For example, the WPAP was funded with $3 million of public money by Montgomery County.”
But yet, the City of Sioux Falls and Mayor MisTaken had $1.5 million to piss away for theatre seats for a private property restoration project.
“In South Dakota, as of 2022, it was estimated that “the lack of childcare leads to nearly $150 million in economic losses per year.”
Not one of our community leaders has the courage to connect this opportunity to the initial observation in this reply (workers in Sioux Falls are not making enough money to pay for childcare).
This is a crisis of low wages, low salary and inadequate compensation.
A challenge to the business community – What are you going to pay your employees? What sort and level of childcare support will you provide to your employees in order that you and your business can harvest your piece of that $150 million?