LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Parents, already dealing with inflation, are facing another rising cost: child care.
Tuition at many daycare centers has steadily increased over the past 2 years and now, it’s jumping again.
“We can see how much we were spending in the beginning and what they are now. Prices almost doubled,” said Chrissy Dicarlo, the center director at Angel Face Preschool in southwest Las Vegas.
Dicarlo said everything ties back to inflation. The cost of food, rent, power, and supplies has gone up. To offset the cost, they started charging families more.
“We feel bad. We don’t want to charge more but if we don’t we can’t stay open,” Dicarlo said.
At Angel Face Preschool, operating costs are up at least 30-to-35%. That means some families could be paying thousands of dollars more per year for full-time child care.
“We opened at the beginning of the pandemic. We weren’t sure what was gonna happen but we were doing really well. We didn’t think two years later the prices of everything would go up and that made a big impact on everything. We did have to raise the tuition at the beginning of this year to help offset the cost of groceries especially,” Dicarlo said.
Last Thursday, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a $50 million investment to help make child care more affordable for lower-income families. The money will be used to help cover child care co-pays for families using state-subsidized programs.
