Ohio chamber of commerce hosts first childcare summit

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – As Ohio families continue to face challenges when it comes to accessing affordable childcare, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce is trying to help find solutions.

The chamber Tuesday hosted its first Access and Affordability to Childcare Summit. Dave Smith, Executive Director of Horizon Education Centers, was an attendee and panelist. “A lot of families have to decide do I want to deal with that career loss or am I going to have to figure out some way to pony up the money to pay for quality childcare," he said.

Often times, one parent in a household decides to leave their job rather than pay for childcare. With about thirty years of experience in the early childcare and education industry, Smith recognized the situation families are in. “Quality childcare in most situations, a family is going to pay more for childcare than they’re going to pay for their mortgage," he said.

He said paying childcare workers enough and staffing levels on the provider side are other big challenges. He described as a tricky situation to be in because enrollment needs to be up to support staffing but many families can't afford enrolling.

“If we can't get enough people to staff and become childcare caregivers, how do we expect to grow the number of options, how do we expect to grow supply and drive down the price," said Rick Carfagna, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs with the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

The summit brought together national, local, and state partners. “We have to be very three dimensional in how we address this problem, there’s not going to be a one size fits all approach so we’re going to have to attack it from many different levels," Carfagna said.