The parent gap: what Arnold Schwarzenegger can teach politicians about winning swing voters.

• Author: Kornbluh, Karen

ON A BRIGHT CALIFORNIA DAY LAST April, Arnold Schwarzenegger was out of character. Instead of shooting up bad guys on a movie set, he was driving to the Los Angeles county clerk's office in a truck loaded with petitions bearing 750,000 signatures in support of a ballot initiative to fund California after-school programs, known as the After School Education and Safety Act. The proposal, spearheaded by Schwarzenegger, would offer a matching grant to every public elementary, middle, and junior high school for after-hours programs that would keep kids safely occupied for those treacherous afternoons when their parents are still at work.

It's the kind of feel-good social program that you might expect to find an old-fashioned Democrat peddling. Except that in this case, it's Schwarzenegger--who, though married into the Kennedy clan, is an active Republican seriously considering a run for governor of California. The erstwhile Terminator now spends his days sounding more like Marian Wright Edelman. "Half of all California kids are now in single working-parent homes or homes with two working parents," he told me. "One million kids under the age of 15 are home alone after school. These are kids that do not have anyone to do homework with them, take them to the sports field, or hug them."

On the campaign trail, he's adopted a similar mantra. "Studies show that after-school programs reduce crime, reduce alcohol and drug use, reduce grade repetition, and increase scores on standardized tests," he likes to say. When asked about whether his initiative would put the government in the position of replacing mom, he responds, "Do we want philosophy or action? I want action"

How did Schwarzenegger turn into an activist for after-school programs? George Gorton, campaign manager for the ballot initiative and one-time chief political adviser to former Gov. Pete Wilson, says Schwarzenegger came to the issue through serving as chairman of President George H.W. Bush's Council on Physical Fitness and founding the Inner City Games after-school program. But he is clearly contemplating a future run for office and needed to define himself with a signature issue that would strike a chord with the voters. So he tapped into the vast and unmet need for the government to do something to ease the stress of working parents whose schedules do not easily accommodate a school day designed for an agricultural society. Not only would the after-school plan give parents the security of having somewhere safe and stimulating to leave their kids after school, the public initiative would also ease the financial strain on parents who otherwise would have to pay for private child care--care that may not be as good or reliable as what the public schools could provide.

Sixty percent of Californians support Schwarzenegger's proposal, which is backed by 100 mayors and a broad array of groups from the right and the left, including the California Teachers Association, the California State Sheriffs' Association, and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. The real mystery, then, isn't why Arnold is on the case. It's why more politicians aren't. Issues like after-school care, paid parental leave, and more flexible workplaces aren't a factor in this year's midterm congressional elections. Instead, the fight for Congress hinges on issues like prescription drugs and Social Security. Most candidates this year from both parties are largely ignoring a critical and increasingly potent issue.

Meet the Parents

California isn't the only state in which struggling parents are juggling the dual jobs of caring for children and earning a living. In 70 percent of American families with children under 18, all parents work. As a result, parents have 22 fewer hours per week to spend with their children than they did in 1969, Yet the workplace, the school day, and the social safety net have been slow to accommodate this radical shift. Instead, the burden has been on parents to adapt, which they've done by individually cobbling together private, makeshift--and often expensive--child-care arrangements that leave much to be desired. Every workday, millions of children are left in unlicensed day care. Twenty percent of children ages six to 12 with a working mother have no adult supervision at all in the hours after school. Women have borne the brunt of these changes, forced to sacrifice financial security--taking dead-end, part-time jobs with no benefits, for instance--to be home when their kids get out of school.

You'd think that this would be a potent political issue. After all, soccer moms--those electoral darlings whom both political parties have recently courted--are particularly attuned to such problems. Yet Americas elected officials are all but ignoring the pressures that face American families...