UC Santa Cruz to close child care center

UC Santa Cruz is planning to close its faculty and staff child care center because of a $500,000 and growing annual budget deficit (that's for the center, not for the whole university). Apparently their Title 5 program for students will continue. Their academic senate is pissed and is asking the administration to "speedily develop a plan to provide affordable, high-quality child care." Some employees tried to start a non-profit to take over the center, but the president said it would have to be competitively bid. Their 22 families, with 30 kids, will have to go to the off-campus open market for child care.

This is just another example of the fact that affordable high-quality child care is a self-contradiction. The facility, teacher education, and ratios you need to run, for example, your typical Title 5 center can't be bought for what any but the rich can afford to pay.

And you cannot run a Title 5 program based solely on CDD contracts. It can't be done. Every successful program I know of succeeds by getting outside grants, or finagles free rent and in-kind gifts, or all of the above. I heard just yesterday about a school district relinquishing its State Preschool program, because they can't afford to subsidize it, and you can't run it on the SRR.