Being a parent is a huge responsibility, and it is not an easy one. Parents want their children to be successful and productive members of society. However, this task is a daunting one, mainly because in order for the parents of a child to provide said child with the best opportunities for their futures they have to work really hard to obtain the financial means that would enable them to provide then with those opportunities. This creates a dilemma for working parents, if they are working; someone needs to take care of their children. Unlike Wealthy parents, who have no problem affording this valuable service, low income families do not have the luxury to pay for day care, or a private nanny. It is because of this that the government should help these families that are in dire need of this crucial service. Therefore, it is necessary for the local governments, in particular Miami Dade County, to provide free or affordable child daycare to low income single female parents. The funding for these two programs would come from a 4% increase in property taxes; this increase would begin with properties that are worth $300,000 or more.
Society has become an intrinsic set of patterns that are hard to figure out. This is evident in the way that the global competition among nations has become a fierce struggle to see which nation will come out on top of the other. Parents realize this fact, and have therefore arrived at the conclusion that their children will need to learn skills that will help them deal with the challenges that the future has for them. High quality day care is the place where children get a head start developing the kind of learning, and social skills that will help them succeed in their academic and professional life. This service also provides something that is crucial for working parents, that is, the ability to concentrate on their jobs knowing that their children are being taken care of. As stated before wealthy parents are able to afford good daycare for their children, thus, they do not care about whether or not the government is helping the children of low income families that lack the financial resources to arrange for such services. This is something that happens everywhere in the country, but it is of extreme importance that we pay attention to the children of Miami Dade County. According to a study done by Indiana University, 27.5% of all single parent homes in Miami live below the poverty line, 32.3% of single female parents live below the poverty line in Miami, and 17% of all children in Miami from ages 0-17 live below the poverty line; the study also shows that 27.2% of all families in Miami are single parent families (de Martinez). This study shows us that there are a large percentage of single parent households here in Miami.
Most single parents nationwide are females. According to a study released by the U.S Census Bureau, approximately 84% of single parents are female, 79% of them are employed, with 50% having a full time job and 29% working part-time (US Census). This statistics show us that most single parents work full time to be able to sustain their children. Affordable or free daycare will provide these families with the help that they need to be able to work with the peace of mind that the daycare would provide them, or it would allow them to improve their economic status by going to college. In order for them to do this they need someone to care of their children, however, the statistics show that most of these families do not have the financial resources to afford daycare. Because of this reason, the local government has to step up and help these families. If the government is able to provide them with daycare for their children they will be able to work better, because they will have peace of mind knowing that someone is looking after their children, and they will have the time and opportunity to improve their living conditions by attending college classes, or finishing their High School degrees. The way the local government has to approach this problem is by doing the following: first, they have to improve the licensing of daycare and daycare workers. The local governments need to set higher standards and work with daycare centers which lack the proper licenses so that they can get them; this can be done by subsidizing the costs of licenses to daycares and child care training to their employees. After this has been done the local government, as well as the state government, should increase their funding to organizations like The Children Trusts, an organization that helps parents, mainly low income parents, to afford after school programs and summer camps. This increase in funding should be conditioned. These organizations should be required to demonstrate that most of the funds that have been given to them are used to help single parents, especially single female parents, to afford daycare services. This should be done to ensure the government that the funds allocated for this program are indeed helping the people that they are supposed to help, namely, single parents. This program should also work with the USDA Child Care Food Program, which is a program that “…provides nutritious meals and snacks each day as part of their program” (USDA), that way single parents will spend less money buying food, and more money providing for other crucial needs, like clothing or school supplies.
Working single parent most of the times are barely able to get by, many times they have to take two jobs to be able to make ends meet. Therefore, a second program should be created with the sole purpose of helping the poorest of the poor. Females, as the statistics show, are the largest percentage of single parents that live in poverty, so it follows logically that both programs should help them the most. This second program is created with them in mind. As a direct result of their economic situation, Miami Dade County should provide government run daycare centers that are only given to those people who can demonstrate that they cannot afford the other option, namely, the one that works with organizations that help parents get daycare within their economic means. This government daycare centers should obviously have all the certifications and licenses required by the state and local government to function, as well as workers that are well trained to take care of the kids.
These two programs aren’t cheap. Miami Dade County will have to raise a lot of revenue to be able to afford these two initiatives. Local governments get their revenue mainly through property taxes. Therefore, it should be of no surprise to anyone that to raise revenue to fund these two programs the local government will have to raise property taxes. This increase should be a 4% increase to properties that are worth $300,000 or more. This increase in the tax rate is necessary to help those who are less fortunate than they are. In fact, these two programs will help these people improve their economic status, which means that they will need less help from the tax payers.
Single parents have a very hard time making ends meet. They also have a hard time dealing with their children and all the nuisances that come with being a parent. It is the duty of the government, and especially Miami Dade County and where many single parents live in poverty, to help these working parents that toil their lives away hoping that their children will not have to go through the same hardships that they are going through, while others are able to afford $300, 000 properties and private tutors and nannies. Obviously, no one is blaming wealthy families for the poverty of the low income families, but we all have a duty to give back to our society just as much as our society has given us, especially those whom society has given the most. It is the humane thing to do, not only because it lessens the burden that these parents have to carry, but also because in the end these programs will help the county and the country to become more competitive in the global arena.
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