SHOULD GOVERNMENT STAY OUT OF CHILD CARE?

• Author: Olsen, Darcy

While the desire to have every child well cared for is commendable, forcibly taking away the responsibility for that care from parents is not.

ON JAN. 7, 1998, Pres. Clinton proposed $22,000,000,000 child care plan that would expand four Federal programs and start five new ones. Slated for expansion are the Child Care Block Grant, Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, After-School Programs, and Head Start. New programs would include a tax credit for businesses, and funds for child care-provider scholarships, early learning, standards enforcement, and research and evaluation.

Certainly, Americans all agree on the importance of nurturing children. The real question is: Are mothers and fathers incapable of raising their kids without help from the Federal government?

In a sense, I was the child for whom the Clinton child care initiative is intended. I was raised by a young, single mother who worked as a waitress from the time I was three years old. As members of the working poor, we benefited from welfare programs like free school lunches and food stamps. I was placed in many types of child care settings: institutional, family, and babysitter. My worst memory is not what one might expect. It was not a feeling of abandonment or a neglectful provider--it was the powdered milk. I often was given it to drink, which, to me, was the worst imaginable suffering. If you've ever tasted powdered milk, you probably know just what I mean. All that may be of interest to you, but, like the dozens of anecdotes put forward by many in the White House and the media, my personal story has very little real significance.

What really matters are not a half-dozen anecdotes, but the hard facts that speak for the millions of youngsters in this country. Those facts show that there is no child care crisis and, thus, no need for a Federal child care program.

Those who study the child care market generally assess it in three ways, looking at availability, affordability, and quality. The facts show that child care in America is available, affordable, and of the high quality parents seek. According to the most comprehensive nationwide survey on the state of child care, co-sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, 96% of all parents queried are satisfied with their current arrangements. That satisfaction rate did not vary with the employment status of the mother, type of care used, family income, child's age, or race. Let us examine possible reasons for that satisfaction.

Availability. The White House has suggested there is a serious problem. Yet, the Profile of Child Care Settings, a study prepared under contract for the U.S. Department of Education, shows there...