BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Paying someone for a year to watch your 1-year-old child is more costly in Ohio than paying for your 18-year-old to attend college at a public university, according to a Children's Defense Fund report to be released today.
According to the report, the average annual cost of college tuition in Ohio is $3,834, while the average cost of child care for an Ohio 1-year-old is $4,940. Child-care costs for an Ohio 4-year-old are $4,056 a year.
"We typically think as parents that our costs for our kids are not going to come until our kids go to college, but this shows that is not true," said Eileen Cooper Reed, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund's Greater Cincinnati Project.
"And college is a choice; caring for our children is not if we have to work."
Ms. Cooper Reed said the Children's Defense Fund is lobbying nationally to see that money from a proposed tobacco tax be used to subsidize affordable, quality child care.
The report is being released to help celebrate the third annual Stand for Children event, which began in 1996 with 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall in Washington to pledge to put children first. The theme of this year's anniversary is Stand for Quality Child Care.
A weeklong Tristate celebration will kick off today in Hamilton, Middletown and Oxford with Butler County community leaders signing pledge cards and issuing proclamations concerning their desire to work for affordable, quality child care.
Throughout the week, different Tristate social service agencies will offer information on child-care topics, including after-school and summer activities, new research on brain development of young children, welfare reform and child care, home providers and tips to improving child care.
The week will culminate with Kids Fest on Saturday and Sunday, where members of the Southwest Ohio Child Care Campaign will have a booth, distributing information on child care and helping children make thank-you notes for child-care teachers. Information: 751-2332.
