MIDLAND, Texas — The Permian Basin is a hotspot for young families, but now those families are having a hard time finding people to watch their children, especially babies, when they go to work.
"Most centers in Midland have a waitlist and it's all the way to 2024," said Latoya Mayberry, owner of Toya's Precious Jewels Academy and Infant Center, "I have people come to me when they're eight weeks pregnant, I have people come to me they just found out they were pregnant and they're putting themselves on my waitlist, so it's that urgent."
Mayberry owns one of those daycares as well as an infant center and says some young families can't find any place to put their babies.
"A lot of babies are being born, some months average 200 plus, so there are a lot of children being born. Unfortunately in Midland there aren't a lot of infant seats and so that's the problem, so a lot of parents are happy because they have a baby, but it's like where are we going to put them? So a lot of parents are having to stay home unfortunately," said Mayberry.
Latoya says part of the problem is the pay for childcare workers.
"Midland is an oil city so when you have people making $20-30 dollars an hour its hard to compete with that," said Mayberry. "Most childcare workers make annually $20,000, and I know we're advocating for teachers, but $20,000 annually to live on and raise a family is very hard."
Midland College is opening their new Pre-K Academy which will provide some relief to people with toddlers. There will be almost 300 spots open.
"We need more seats for our Pre-K 3's and our Pre-K 4's in Midland County and this is one way we could help our families the Permian Basin to get childcare," said Leslie Goodrum, Executive Director of Early Childhood Education for Midland College. "It's an exciting time here at Midland College and an exciting time here in the Permian Basin for our families."
Midland College is also in need of pre-k teachers and teachers assistants, if you would like to find out more, visit their website.