10 - JACKSON HOLE WOMAN, Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Thank You
to all of the gals of Teton Mountaineering!
PRICE CHAMBERS / NEWS&GUIDE File
Courtney Marvin dishes out snacks at the Sunshine Station preschool in 2011. Teton County has a shortage of affordable child care options.
County child care
costly, scarce
Recent state and federal cutback don’t help. By Mike Polhamus
Pictured from left to right: Chessie, Blake, Pui, Lynette Missing: Melinda and Alexa
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ome of the time Mike Durr stays home with his daughter. Sometimes his wife, Nicole, has child care duties. The rest of the time the toddler goes to a day care center. It takes the kind of juggling and budgeting that only parents of young children can understand. But it’s the choice the couple made in order to live in an expensive mountain ski town with limited affordable child care. “We can pay for it because we’ve made that choice,” said Mike Durr, a Jackson real estate agent. “We made a conscious decision to stay living in a ski town and make it work.” Durr’s family is not alone. A 2012 study for Teton County by Susan Eriksen-Meier Consulting showed nearly 1,300 children in the county under the age of 5. That’s about 6 percent of the population. The county’s 24 licensed child care centers can accommodate about half that number, the report states. And with infant care reaching $90 a day at some centers, many parents struggle to pay for the child care they need. More than 200 of Teton County’s children qualify for child care assistance, according to the report, and the consultant estimated that more than 400 children receive child care through “some kind of unlicensed situation.” Durr’s daughter is enrolled at Sweet Spirits in Jackson. He and his wife shuffle their work weeks and cut
Left to right: Shelly Pew, Monique Gustin, Carol Saez, Anpeytu Raben, Kelsie Remer, Kathryn Parker, Charlene Smiley (not pictured)
back where they can. He works from home and schedules business calls during nap time. The decision didn’t come lightly, he said, and it entailed some concessions. “You’ve got to have compatible jobs,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t do it in my 20s. We chose to structure our lives around our child, which isn’t what all people do.” The couple limits date nights to save money. “A lot of times we can’t go out at night, because you might have a $100 bar bill and dinner bill, but you also have a $100 child care bill. ... I think a lot of people don’t expect that.” The county study projects little change in the number of child care spots over the next 20 years. In 2015, Eriksen-Meier estimates, Teton County will have 779 day care spots, but 1,343 kids under the age of 5. In 2030 the county will have fewer than 200 additional spots and 1,589 children under the age of 5. The consultants advised county leaders to consider child care an investment in the future. Aside from allowing parents time for work and occasional relaxation, sufficient child care prepares kids for a lifetime of learning, the report says. “In 2011, 18 percent of Teton County kindergartners arrived at school academically unprepared to learn and 20 percent of kindergartners needed remedial reading assistance mid-year,” the report states. “If we do not invest in these children during early childhood, we will pay for their needs later in the education process — literally. It is far more efficient to invest in children during See CHILD CARE on 11
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