Cost of child care now more than a four-year college degree at public university

If you thought college tuition was expensive, try affording day care.

Parents in most states are paying more for child care than they would for a public university education. That's according to a recent study released by the National Association of Child Care Resource Referral Agencies .

The exact dollar amount varies from a low of about $4,650 a year for a four-year-old child in Mississippi to more than $18,200 in Washington D.C.

"Child care is essential to working families, and working families are key to economic growth," Linda Smith, the association's executive director, said in a written statement. "But child care today is simply unaffordable for most families."

In Ohio, the average annual cost for full-time infant child care is $7,750, for a four-year-old to go to day care full-time costs roughly $5,900 each year and for a school-aged child full-time, it will cost Ohio parents approximately $4,700 yearly.

So where does that put Ohio on the full-time child care center affordability spectrum? The Buckeye State ranks 11th most affordable for infant care, sixth most affordable for four-year-old day care, but 30th for school-aged care, according to the publication. For single moms, Ohio ranks 27th overall for child care affordability.

Most parents in the U.S. shell out more than 10-percent of their income on infant child care. Add a preschooler to the equation, and the cost is nearly as high as a monthly mortgage for most families.

The 10 least-affordable states for full-time infant care in a center in 2010 were Massachusetts, New York, Hawaii, Colorado, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Illinois, Montana and Pennsylvania.

The 10 least-affordable states for full-time care for a 4-year-old in a center in 2010 were New York, Montana, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Vermont, Colorado and Maine.