BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Rebecca Gonzales said in her 16 years as a daycare owner she has never seen business this bad.
When I spoke to Gonzales, she was at a NYS child care task force meeting in Albany talking about the problem.
"I can not hire staff, so myself, I'm an assistant for my own programs," she explained.
She operates a daycare in the Bronx, but regardless of where you live in New York, she said many parents can't afford to pay for child care and her business is struggling.
"We have to figure out a public system for child care," said Sheri Scavone, CEO of The Western New York Women's Foundation.
Scavone was at the same task force meeting.
She said she's not surprised by a recent report ranking New York as the second most expensive state for child care.
"We have no system in place, no public funding in place," she said.
According to the study from DeMayo law firm, in New York, families spend about 30 percent of their annual income on childcare, with an average annual cost of $17,119.
The report also stated that New York ranks first in the U.S. for preschool costs with parents spending 28.39 percent of their income and school-age childcare costs, with parents spending more than 25 percent of their income.
Scavone said women have dropped out of the workforce in significant numbers as a result of not being able to access and afford childcare.
"Which has a direct impact then on our economy," Scavone said. "You see the businesses, everyone has help wanted. We've had to become really tolerant of going somewhere and waiting not having service that maybe we had 6 or 7 years ago."
She said the solution has to be a federal and public, private solution."
