Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Country Highlights – The child care center that Michelle McFall runs in Union, West Virginia, has been around for about 40 years. Just keeping it open has been something of an accomplishment. Read the full article.
Union sits on the state’s hilly and rural southeastern border. With a countywide poverty rate that is about 38% higher than the national average and a median income about 39% lower, almost nobody can afford to pay much for child care there. Three-quarters of the center’s kids receive government subsidies. Others could benefit from assistance but aren’t eligible, because a grandparent is their primary custodian (a consequence of the opioid epidemic).
These factors limit tuition revenue, McFall told HuffPost, and covering expenses with the center’s annual operating budget of about $200,000 has frequently been difficult. “There were many days,” she said, “when I said, ‘OK, how am I going to make payroll? How am I going to make the mortgage payments, cover the taxes?’”
