She “Can’t Compete With Free”

Contributed by Libby Sternberg of Vermonters for Better Education www.schoolreport.org

Wanda Haynes of Middletown Springs is closing her childcare business in two weeks, a direct result of her local public school expanding into the pre-k business.

Haynes, a soft-spoken woman with grown children of her own, began her registered childcare business in June of 2002. Before that she was a director of a licensed facility for eight years and only chose to branch out her own after doing some solid groundwork — talking to local townspeople and teachers.

When she first began, she filled her slots immediately, taking in ten children.

In February 2004, the Middletown Springs school decided to open an after-care program. However, people from the school were kind and astute enough to talk to Haynes about how it would impact her business. She didn’t think it would significantly affect her but was appreciative of the consultation.

But in September 2004, things changed. That fall, the school went ahead and opened a pre-k program without so much as a whisper in her direction. The result has been that she works only part-time, picking up children at the school after their half-day program is over.

“I’m working half days,” she says sadly. “It would be nice to think you could work twelve to six and pay the bills.” But obviously, she can’t.

She could take in infants, she says, but state regulations would prohibit her from taking more than two, and she doesn’t feel adequately set up to handle infants anyway.

What bothers her almost as much as losing the business is the fact that no one in the town thought to warn her of the school’s plans, as they had with the after-care program. She only found out about it, in fact, when a cousin happened to tell her.

“I got on the phone and talked to a school board member right away,” she recalls. But her call only elicited sympathy, not action. The school board member was “very empathetic and full of apologies” for not notifying her or considering her business. But the program was approved and in place. Haynes chokes up when talking about the lack of communication from school people about their plans to compete with her business head-on.

“I can’t compete with free,” says Haynes.

She is currently looking for a new job and has applications in at several facilities. She and her husband are also considering moving from Middletown Springs at least partially as a result of the lack of consideration the town gave her when they set up a competing, taxpayer-funded business that offers the same services for free.
Vermonters for Better Education
www.schoolreport.org