If you live in West Lafayette, it now costs twice the amount to send your baby to daycare on Purdue University’s campus than it does to send your 18-year-old to Purdue for their first year of college.
With Purdue’s tuition frozen for 13 consecutive years, it is a (mostly) great time to be a student at Purdue. But to be a university employee with young children? That’s a more complicated story. Purdue’s Child Care Task Force can and should be doing more to make child care affordable.
All summer after the birth of our son in May 2023 — waiting on updates from the seven daycare waitlists we had joined during my first trimester of pregnancy — I’d worried I would have to quit my job. My husband is six years older than me. His salary is twice mine. When child care is unaffordable or difficult to find, women drop out of the workforce at much higher rates than men.
Then, two weeks before I was scheduled to return to work, we received the email that we had gotten off the waitlist for a Purdue child care center. We were thrilled. We were the lucky ones — and I mean “lucky” both sincerely and sarcastically — who would get to pay $17,836/year in order to keep our jobs.
Gratitude is one thing. But to feel lucky to receive what you need in order to perform your job at the basic level? That is a symptom of an unwell society.
Let me be clear: I love our daycare. The facility is clean and bright. The teachers are knowledgeable and kind. All children deserve this quality of environment and this caliber of caregiver. And all caregivers deserve higher wages than the $15-$21/hour listed for the current openings on the website.
I believe it is the responsibility of the government to subsidize the cost of child care — just as the government already does in nearly every other industrialized Western nation. But in the meantime, while we wait however many years it will take for that to come to fruition, the large employers need to help shoulder that burden. Especially if their “goal of attracting and retaining the best and brightest” includes women — and women of all races and abilities.
In July, Purdue invited families whose child care costs exceed 12% of their income to apply for a one-year scholarship opportunity. If a family spends less than 12% but “feels strongly about their financial situation,” they are also allowed to apply.
But there is a disincentive: “The total amount of funds available will depend on the number of applicants and the financial needs of those who apply.” This puts yet another undue burden on families: guilt.
My husband and I anticipate spending 11% of our income on child care costs next year. How could we justify applying for assistance when there are families spending 25%?
According to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank, policies and subsidies are most impactful when families pay no more than 7% of their income toward child care. If child care costs were capped at 7%, more parents would join the workforce — and many of these would be women. The EPI estimates that a statewide reform like this would “expand Indiana’s economy by 1.0%. That’s $3.7 billion of new economic activity.”
Just as the U.S. and the state of Indiana could allocate their budgets differently, Purdue can afford to do better.
One of the university’s buzzwords right now is at scale. Engagement at scale. Excellence at scale. Meaning: It’s a huge university, and they still engage effectively with alumni. Meaning: It’s a huge university, and they still maintain scholarly excellence for students and faculty.
Purdue could subsidize the cost so that no family pays more than 7% of their income toward child care — and so that no family is pitted against another in the quest for this assistance.
If my husband and I had two children enrolled in the university’s child care centers — which we do hope will one day be our reality — the cost of their combined care would surpass my take-home salary. How will I justify staying in the workforce?
Make no mistake: The lack of affordable child care is sexism at scale.
Originally from Bloomington, Mary Ardery is a research analyst and writer in West Lafayette.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue tuition freeze keeps costs low for students but not child care
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