Spring Break
Child care puts pressure on HOPE
Issue date: 10/5/07 Section: Opinions
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But who will pay the cost? The McPhaul Child and Family Development Center, the only on-campus child care facility, provides care for 56 children and has a waiting list of more than 250 children in need of care. Parents pay between $140 and $180 a week for child care at the McPhaul Center. However, some low-income parents receive child care for free.
The small tuition paid by only some parents is not enough to pay for the massive cost increase necessary to meet the demand for child care on campus.
More kids means a larger staff, more insurance coverage, a larger facility and other costs. Surely a tuition increase would be necessary to cover these costs. The cost for increasing on-campus child care falls mainly on the student body. The University would have to handle logistical issues, but the funding for increased child care would come from tuition increases.
In her Sept. 21 column "Faculty needs better child care," Jenna Martin wrote she doesn't mind a tuition increase to help University parents in need of child care, but what about the other 30,000 students on campus?
Why should they pay for the child care of strangers? Tuition increases for child care may help the young children today, but the tuition increase ultimately may deprive them of the HOPE scholarship in the end. Many students attend the University for free because of the HOPE scholarship, which is funded by the state lottery. Since I arrived in Athens, I have seen HOPE funds decrease tremendously.
Three years ago I received $150 a semester for books - I now only receive $50. This is a sure sign that HOPE is hurting. Any tuition increase would take yet another bite out of the HOPE budget. No matter how small the bite is, it will affect thousands of college students throughout Georgia.
Having the University offer more child care is a small fix to a large problem. Child care on campus may help a few hundred University families, but what about the thousands of other families in Athens in dire need of proper child care? Will their employers be asked to start funding child care?
Thousands of families in the state of Georgia need child care. Perhaps this is an issue for the state to solve, not the University. I don't know the intricacies of the state and federal budget and how to create social systems - I'll leave that up to the state. But I do know if University families, be they students or faculty, force the University to offer child care, they may be doing so at the cost of a free higher education in the future.
- Richard Hamm is a photo stringer for The Red & Black.
Viewing Comments 1 - 9 of 12
Ben C
posted 10/05/07 @ 8:37 AM EST
What are you complaining about? You get to go to college for free. Cry me a river... you have to pay more for books. People in most states in this country, and many in this state, are going in to huge amounts of debt to get a college education. (Continued…)
anon
posted 10/05/07 @ 9:06 AM EST
What you fail to mention is that the increase in health care and possible increase in tuition, could in turn increase the quality of education at UGA. (Continued…)
LCA
posted 10/05/07 @ 9:34 AM EST
Childcare on campus isn't taking care of the kids of "strangers." These children belong to the faculty, staff, graduate students, and even undergraduate students who work hard to make this University constantly improve and give you a better educational experience. (Continued…)
zaid
posted 10/05/07 @ 11:00 AM EST
Childcare is relatively unexpensive and HOPE is paid through lottery taxes, dude...
twaldo
posted 10/05/07 @ 11:31 AM EST
I have to say I agree with the article. When people CHOOSE to have children, they should not expect their schools or employers to provide care for those children. (Continued…)
PJS
posted 10/05/07 @ 3:16 PM EST
I am really surprised by this student's editorial. Let's assume this person is as selfish as he seems to be and can't imagine the benefits of high quality early learning environments for the society as a whole. (Continued…)
SM
posted 10/05/07 @ 4:21 PM EST
First of all HOPE is not funded by taxpayers, it is funded by the lottery. Secondly, even with HOPE college is hardly free. HOPE does pay tuition for those who keep their GPA up, but it does not pay much on books, and none on dorms rooms, meal plans, etc. (Continued…)
Amy
posted 10/05/07 @ 4:32 PM EST
Thank you for presenting another side of this issue. When people get all fired up about an issue, they tend to forget that everything has a cost. Sometimes short-term solutions can create long-term problems. (Continued…)
Blaise Parker
posted 10/06/07 @ 10:21 PM EST
Some facts:
1) The McPhaul website clearly states that parents whose children use their services for reduced costs or free are paid for by *state- and federally-funded* programs (i. (Continued…)
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