The Supply of Child Care Centers across Latino Communities

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The Supply of Child Care Centers across Latino
Communities

• National Task Force on
• Early Childhood Education for Hispanics
• Review for AERA - San Francisco April 2006
• Margaret Bridges, Alejandra Livas, and Bruce
  Fuller
• PACE / University of California, Berkeley
  

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Why examine the availability of child care
centers (preschools) in Latino communities?

• We know that some Latino subgroups benefit from
  center enrollment in terms of early cognitive and
  language development, without a slow-down in
  social development.
• Yet enrollment rates among low-income and
  immigrant Latino children are low, compared with
  every other ethnic group.
• Two explanations have been posited Cultural
  preferences and family structure, or unequal
  levels of organizational availability?

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Aims of our community-level analysis
Variation in center supply and enrollment demand

• To examine the supply of child care centers among
  zip codes in counties with large Latino
  populations.
• Special focus on Cook County (Chicago), Los
  Angeles County, and 14 focal counties.
• To detail national variation in center supply and
  enrollment rates, and associations with
  concentrated Latino populations.
• A look at variability among Latino communities
  (zip codes).

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The data Measures of center supply and
enrollment demand

• Two indicators Counts of center organizations
  from two sources, and enrollment estimates for
  children, age 3-4 years old. Standardized by
  child population.
• Plus a proxy for center size (counts of staff).
• Several predictors at the zip-code level ethnic
  and linguistic composition, child poverty,
  maternal education levels, family structure.
• Notes Census of Business Patterns, 2001
  (CBOs only). Correlated counts and enrollment
  capacities for Cook and L.A. counties. Population
  and Housing Census, 2000. We always report
  population-weighted means.

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Comparing Cook County and Los Angeles County
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Cook County The supply of child care centers
declines in heavily Latino zip codessplitting
146 zips into quintiles
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Los Angeles County The supply of centers
declines in heavily Latino zip codessplitting
258 zips into quintiles
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Local variability Miami-Dade, where supply is
flat, then rises in heavily Latino zip
codessplitting 68 zips into quintiles
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Center supply data available for 12 additional
countiesEmail b_fuller_at_berkeley.edu
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Next, shifting to nationwide analysisData
structure for n13,756 zip codes

• Reduction in data for zip codes Of 32,356 zips
  in the decennial census, 19,264 had 100 or more
  children under 5 years of age.
• Of these, 13,898 had at least one nonprofit or
  for-profit center operating then, computed
  count of centers per 1,000 children
• Finally, the top 1 of outlying values were
  deleted (perhaps unreliable counts). Then, we
  logged values to approximate a normal
  distribution.

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Nationwide Similar decline for heavily Latino,
but not for heavily African American,
communitiesn13,756 zips, weighted means
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Latino supply generally low after taking into
account zips poverty level, mothers
educationresiduals analysis
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Maternal education and Latino population
concentration strongly associated with center
supplyFor each 30 increment in the share of
population, Latino, one less center is operating
(relative to 4.1 centers per 1,000 children in
the median zip code).
Maternal education 1.06 sd
Share pop., Latino 1.01 sd
Supply Centers per 1,000 children
Share pop., black 0.22 sd
Share pop. in urban area 0.65 sd
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Major Findings

• 1. Disparities in the supply of centers and
  enrollment rates are attributable in part to the
  concentration of Latino populations.
• 2. This association does not disappear when other
  covariates are taken into account, such as child
  poverty, maternal education, and family
  structure.
• 3. Counties with high concentrations of Latino
  families vary in their supply of child care
  centers. Local policy and family demand factors
  matter.

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Major Findings Future Research

• 4. The supply of centers and enrollment rates
  no longer covary with concentration of African
  American families. Demography is not destiny, and
  40 years of targeting public resources have
  yielded results.
• Future research remains difficult to predict
  demand response for low-income Latinos (when
  maternal emp. low) how centers covary with
  community infrastructure little known on the
  distribution of quality.