Photograph by David Heller

Jennifer Kenny, a co-teacher at Apple Seed Montessori School, looks on as 4-year-old Sanjana Pandit matches pictures with words.




Baby Blues

While much of the valley prospers, child-care providers struggle to survive

By Daniel Hindin

Lisianne Goldman moved to Sunnyvale three years ago with her husband Todd and their two children, then ages 1 and 3. She spent two full days visiting different child-care programs in the area.

"I was amazed at the places I visited," she says. "Many of them were small and overcrowded and they didn't have enough equipment or even enough toilets."

According to Santa Clara County child-care advocacy group Kids In Common's annual 'report card,' Santa Clara County rates a D- overall in provision and availability of child-care services. Sunnyvale Program Coordinator and interim Child-Care Coordinator Sophie Horuichi qualifies the grade as coming from a watchdog organization. A recent Sunnyvale-led study hardly helps the city's claim that it deserves a higher mark.

The city conducted its own 'Youth Services Study' in order to identify any gaps in their youth programs. City council approved the Youth Services Study Workplan at an October 1999 meeting. They decided to hire a consultant to conduct the study because of the city's own lack of resources and expertise in that area.

San Francisco-based Harder and Company Community Research was hired by the city manager's office to work along with the Youth Needs Assessment Advisory Committee. The committee is comprised of people from all walks of life in Sunnyvale.

The study used a mix of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including telephone surveys, analysis of data, such as census information, interviews of various community leaders, focus group discussions with Sunnyvale parents and an inventory of current resources.

The telephone survey found that 24 percent of respondents reported difficulty getting quality, affordable child care during the past year. Of these respondents, 52 percent cited cost as a barrier and 37 percent cited lack of quality programs.

Harder and Company's analysis of data found that Sunnyvale's child-care capacity is currently at 4,959 children. When compared to the actual number of children in Sunnyvale, the study concluded that there is only room for one of every five children in this city to be enrolled in a licensed child-care program.

The conclusion of the study states that access to affordable, quality day care is one of two "primary gaps" in the services that the City of Sunnyvale provides for its citizens. City's staff mentioned that the city could change its role to that of a child-care regulator, provide financial assistance to parents and offer financial incentives to businesses that provide child-care services for their employees.

Sunnyvale's child-care problem will only get worse in the future if nothing is done now., officials concluded. But in their final recommendation, city staff proposed that the city not stray from its current role. The report also concluded that the city doesn't have the resources necessary to support such changes.

Questioned about the city's apparent lack of action regarding the child-care issue, Katherine Chappelear, who helped prepared the report and presented it to city council, declined further comment.

"The state sets the requirements," she said. She suggested that perhaps the city manager or the assistant city manager could more adequately answer questions on the subject.

Both Robert LaSala and Amy Chan, however, could not be reached for comments last week.

Dave Boesch, during his last week as Sunnyvale's Director of Community Development, said, "The city isn't in the child-care provision business. We can do things to address the issue stopping short of actually funding it." He emphasizes that the problem is more of a county issue than a city issue.

Boesch did, however, say the city is working together with businesses to take creative proactive steps toward solving these problems. He noted that city has staff devoted to the effort, including Horuichi as child-care coordinator.

However, when Horuichi was questioned about recent debates in the city's child-care dilemma, she admitted that she did not know as much as she should. She said that she had been away from her normal job as program coordinator for three months for personal reasons. Upon her return a couple of weeks ago, she was also named interim child-care coordinator, while the city searches for someone to permanently fill the position.

"We are doing all we can, but it's not enough," Horuichi says. "We don't have the resources to support a full-time coordinator. There is no easy solution."

She points to a new state regulation that calls for more teachers per student as the main problem. She said it would take more teachers to create more, quality day care.

Adding more teachers means adding more salaries. And child-care workers are already underpaid by Silicon Valley standards--an average of $19,140 annually, according to a recent survey. "This creates a 'Catch-22' sort of situation," says Horuichi. "Even if thousands of dollars landed in our laps, it would not solve the problem."

City officials think their power to correct the situation is minimal within the present framework of thinking about child care, and the National Economic Development & Law Center (NED&LC) agrees. With the support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, they have launched the Local Investment in Child Care (LINCC) project to help change the situation. The project encourages more "out-of-the-box" thinking in order to come up with new solutions to this worsening problem.

Joel Ervice, a spokesman for NED&LC in San Francisco, says, "We are working toward systemic change. The key is bridging the gap between child care and economic development." In the NED&LC's recent Economic Impact Report for Santa Clara County, they state that because of accelerated economic expansion, Santa Clara County faces a critical situation that requires immediate action.

Figures show employment in the county is expected to increase 20 percent in the next 20 years. The report suggests the this, coupled with a projected 11 percent increase in population during the same period, will lead to an inevitable labor shortage.

The child-care industry already is experiencing that deficit. Jan Tiernan, Preschool Director at California Young World in Sunnyvale says, "We have a lot of difficulty finding employees. We aren't able to pay them enough money, and they aren't able to pay for housing in this area." She reports that her business can't compete with the high-paying high-tech businesses in the area.

Unemployment in Santa Clara County is at an exceptionally low rate of 3 percent. People who work in low-paying jobs such as child care--which pays an average of $9.57 per hour--will often leave their jobs to fill the open spaces in higher-paying industries. If jobs grow at double the rate of population as predicted, industry officials say the problem will only become more acute.

In order to keep workers in the child-care business, child-care owners must be able to pay their employees more. In order to pay employees more, owners need to charge more for their services. But, Tiernan says, "If we charge more, parents can't pay for it."

NED&LC says that it is aware of this paradox. It encourages child care advocates and economic development planners to join forces.

A report from NED&LC states that just as transportation policies and investments relieve traffic congestion, policies and investments that support child care affect productivity and increase the county's overall economic competitiveness. It goes on to say that increases in child care will enable more parents to join the labor force, which will contribute to the County's overall economic growth.

The NED&LC report cites a national study that tracked children over a 27-year period. The study found that each dollar spent on high-quality preschool programs saved $7 in future spending on criminal justice, welfare and other such social programs.

When questioned about the accuracy of the report's figures, Boesch said, "It is clear that early intervention can make a difference down the road, but the fruits of these efforts won't be seen immediately."

This is why Ervice stresses, "New policies have to happen on a local level. Cities need to put child-care goals in their general plans. This will raise the level of awareness and promote action."

Tom Johnston of the Santa Clara County Child Care Commission agrees. He says that Sunnyvale's claims that they can't do anything to solve the problem--that it is the county's problem or the state's problem--is nonsense.

"Adopt streamlining processes, offer developer incentives, make changes in land use policies, make the permitting and licensing processes quicker. It's not readily known how easy it is for teachers to get loans at universities or junior colleges in order to start their own child-care centers. Start an information hotline, or an Internet service," Johnston says. "This is a policy issue."

The San Jose-based Child Care Commission has created a Family Care Small Business Assistance (FCSBA) program with the help of the Packard Foundation. Program Coordinator for FCSBA Monica Kitchiner says, "We provide technical assistance to the child-care community at large. We work with corporations and companies in order to increase their knowledge of child-care problems, their employees needs and how it affects their businesses."

Johnston recommends the City of Sunnyvale start its own FCSBA program. Increasing the number of child-care programs, though, is not the only problem. Sunnyvale parents are also worried about the quality of the programs.

"I was fortunate because I was able to find a quality day care center for my children without having to be on a waiting list," says Goldman. "Many of my friends haven't been as lucky."

Some local cities and businesses are beginning to address the problem, but Johnston doesn't think its enough. "Child care directly affects economic stability. If you don't maintain stability, it makes it difficult for people to stay in an area," he says. "If cities don't start trying to solve the child care problem, it will come back to haunt them. People will leave in droves."

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