At each stop, my company is donating a CCTV security system to an inner city daycare center. Talking with the directors of these centers is an eye-opening experience. In both Chicago and Kansas City, I was told that parents could no longer pay their children's tuition in cash. As quickly as cash comes into the center offices, it is stolen. Several directors, including those in New York, Seattle and Dallas, said their refrigerators are common targets as thieves search for food.
Vandalism is commonplace at all centers.
These crimes hit daycare centers particularly hard. Churches or other non-profit organizations run many of the inner city centers on a shoestring budget. The tuition for a majority of the students is paid through state and federal subsidies. And the crimes at daycare centers often have a more profound affect on younger children. Perhaps more distressing is the fact that the children are constantly exposed to the meaner side of life when we are repeatedly obliged to explain that someone stole our school equipment.