Shortchanging Child Care (Part 1): News 8 Austin takes a critical look at how Texas cares for its young in our five-part series: Shortchanging Child Care. Part one examines how children fare in a complex bureaucracy.

Angelica Cruz, the mother of six-month-old Estella, is a single teen parent living in East Austin. She works in a grocery store deli. When asked what she wants for her daughter's future, she said she wants Estella to be whatever she wishes.

A few miles west of Cruz's one room apartment lives Jane Gray, the mother of two-month-old Maya. Gray is a psychologist and married. She said she just wants Maya to be happy.

Though the two girls were born equally innocent and cherished, the disparity between their families' income will likely create two unequal paths as they grow, beginning in infancy.

According to the Texas Association for Infant Mental health, 85 percent of a child's capacity to learn is determined by age five. Unfortunately, Cruz and Gray have unequal access to the kind of child care that give children an advantageous start.

The structure of Texas' child care system can aggravate the problem. The state oversees child care through five government agencies: The Department of Family and Protective Services, Texas Workforce Commission, Head Start, the Texas Education Agency and the Children's Learning Institute.

The agencies don't always play well, Mainspring Schools Director Rudi Andrus said. She uses her own non-profit preschool in South Austin as an example.

The Texas Workforce Commission pays Mainspring to care for children from poor families. But for each dollar the school needs to maintain its operations, the government gives it 40 cents, Andrus said.

"I laugh about my hands are so knotty from crossing my fingers from hoping it will all work out," she said. "I wonder how strong this system can stand and continue to operate."

The Department of Family and Protective Services sets minimum standards for child care. Standards in Texas are among the nation’s lowest. For example the legal maximum class size for 2-year-olds is 22 children, while the national average is 14.

The department is considering raising the standards, according to DFPS Assistant Commissioner for Licensing Sasha Rasco

"It is just very difficult to supervise that many children, particularly if you're new to the field and have only had eight hours of training, which is what we require," Rasco said.

However higher standards will mean higher operating costs, creating an unequal equation when paired with the low subsidies providers receive for helping low-income families.

"The budget just doesn't work," Andrus said.

DFPS is expected to decide whether to improve minimum standards in October. If the proposals pass, providers said they'll have to pass the cost onto parents.

According to a 2009 survey by the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, the average price to send a newborn to day care in Texas is $7,176 a year. The tuition to send a student to college at Texas State University in 2009 was $6,458.

For many, the battle to get into a good college begins at birth. Unfortunately, it’s a longer climb for poor children like Estella Cruz, while children like Maya Gray are lucky enough to be born into families with the money and education to navigate Texas' complex child care system.

Angelica Cruz uses a cheap, unregulated child care provider. It's the only one she can afford for her daughter, she said. "They're supposed to get an education now, and it's too expensive for me to afford it."