Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Jan. 24, 2015, Sacramento Bee.

There are few realizations as sobering for working parents as that moment when the actual cost of child care becomes clear.

In California, a year of infant day care – in a day care center, not with a nanny – averages $11,628, roughly the cost of buying a new Nissan Versa every year until preschool. A typical family with two kids in child care can expect to spend less on a year’s rent than on baby-sitting.

And California isn’t the exception. According to Child Care Aware of America, which tracks child care costs in this country, this state isn’t even among the least affordable places to raise a child while drawing a paycheck. (Memo to working couples: Don’t procreate in Massachusetts.)

An analysis last year by Vox found that since 1994, child care costs have risen at nearly double the rate of prices economy-wide. Another, by the Pew Research Center, marked a concurrent uptick in working mothers opting to stay home rather than pay for day care.

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