Nevada’s future starts with child care

In June of 2006, I made a difficult decision to relocate to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, away from my family and support system, due to the rising costs of housing and overcrowding in our community.

With three young children in tow, we were on our way to Nevada. At the time, my children were 6, 2, and 1. Of course, child care would be essential for my success, but I had no idea how difficult it would be to find affordable, quality child care.

I secured work as a manager at KFC, which required me to work swing shifts. My two younger children were not school age and the shift I worked would have them home after school hours, which presented another problem of finding a good in-home daycare with flexible hours.

In a new city with small children, I struggled to find resources that could help me pay for child care. In 2007, child care was running $140 a week — per child. I had three children. That cost also does not include their meals or transportation to and from the facility.

After some time, I found the Urban League, a local nonprofit organization that helped with child care assistance, but there was a wait list upward of six months. I found a teenager who could help me watch my little ones until my child care assistance would come through.

I sometimes found myself late to work or needing to call off due to my babysitter not being available, which posed another problem because now my job was at risk — especially given that it was a management position. This also would cause a loss of pay for my family, which was desperately needed during this time.

Trying to juggle all these circumstances while being a single mom was tough.

Recently I met with a single mom of three who works in a casino and who is receiving child care assistance from a local nonprofit agency. For three months there was a delay on child care payments to be paid to the provider, which was out of the mother’s control but almost resulted in her losing access to child care.

I also had a chance to speak with her provider, who was on the verge of closing because half of the families she serviced received funding from the same source — which had not paid in months.

How are parents supposed to work, further their careers through education and ensure their children’s safety and wellbeing when child care is so unaffordable and assistance is so difficult to access?

Sadly, lack of affordable child care is only getting worse in Nevada.

The First Five Years Fund just released its annual report and the data for Nevada is bleak. It showed that the typical annual cost of child care in Nevada is around $11,000. That is more than the tuition for a Nevada student for an academic year at UNLV.

The report also shows that Nevada’s economy loses over $1 billion annually due to child care challenges like those I experienced in 2007.

As we enter the general election phase of this critical election season, the economy and cost of living are at the top of Nevada families’ minds, especially affordable and accessible child care. The cost of child care is part of the conversation at kitchen tables across our state and should be a priority for every candidate leading up to Election Day.

Nevada families need relief and should not have to wait another 20 years for real action on this issue. Candidates must highlight the crucial role the state and federal government can play in providing that relief.

Akiko Cooks is mother of three who lives in Las Vegas.