The child care crisis is familiar to most working parents looking for a place to enroll their children.
Child care is expensive: in Durham, the average cost of infant/toddler care in a five-star center is more than $20,000 a year. And in some parts of North Carolina, it may be next to impossible to find a space in a center or home-based daycare, especially in rural areas.
Day care operators, child care workers, and Durham legislators gathered on Thursday to talk about the roots of the problem and what can be done.
“We have to have a sustainable model and program,” said Sen. Natalie Murdock (D-Durham).
One major factor is money. Child care workers made an average of $10.73 an hour last year. Many don’t have jobs that provide health insurance. For many child care business owners, profit margins are slim.
Child care workers and advocates said employees deserve better treatment and higher pay.
“The rubber band has already snapped,” said DeeDee Fields, a former child care provider who now works for the National Domestic Workers Alliance NC.
“We don’t have economic security,” she said. “The system is broken. We’re not asking for charity. We worked like dogs and slaves.”
DeeDee Fields, right, a former child care worker, says workers deserve more respect at a Durham roundtable on childcare on Feb. 26, 2026. At left is Sen. Sophia Chitlik (D-Durham) (Photo; Lynn Bonner/NC Newsline)Sen. Sophia Chitlik (D-Durham), said more funding would solve the problem, and outlined a child care legislative package she sponsored with Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake).
“This is a bipartisan issue,” Chitlik said.
The state House, the state Senate and Gov. Josh Stein all included money in their proposed budgets to increase the child subsidy rate – the amount the state will pay to help eligible families afford child care. But House and Senate Republicans failed to agree on a comprehensive budget last year, and none of the mini-budgets that did pass included a subsidy increase.
The child care system can’t depend on the state or federal government for all its needs, said Rep. Zack Hawkins (D-Durham). He suggested finding churches or other spaces where child care businesses could operate with low overhead costs, and connecting area employers to child care centers.
“We have to take care of ourselves,” Hawkins said.
The roundtable was held at Kate’s Korner child care in Durham, where CEO Kate Goodwin says teachers make more than the state average and have health insurance.
It was at Kate’s Korner where Stein announced his bipartisan Task Force on Child Care and Early Education nearly a year ago. The task force issued interim and year-end reports in 2025.
The group developed a half-dozen recommendations, but has not reported progress toward its goals. In the meantime, child care centers continue to close.
Between January and October 2025, 280 licensed child care providers closed, according to the task force. In August 2025, more licensed child care providers closed than opened.
The task force is developing a list of recommendations for the legislative short session. But Republican state budget-writers are not required to consider them.
“Governor Stein is committed to increasing access to affordable child care for North Carolinians and will continue to urge the General Assembly to make these critical investments. He looks forward to the task force’s continued work to identify creative solutions and opportunities,” a Stein spokesperson said in a statement.
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