Who's watching the kids? - child care in America needs revamping - includes related articles on comparing two child care centers and education of older children - Cover Story

Washington Monthly, July-August, 1998 by Michelle Cottle

Why you should give a damn about this nation's child care crisis

Let's face it. Child care in this country is widely regarded as the ultimate "women's issue" Unless you are a working mother -- or the comparatively rare single dad -- the pathetic state of U.S. day care probably ranks near bottom on your list of things to fret about, somewhere between the perils of car phones and the skyrocketing cost of cable. Such ambivalence is hardly surprising. Americans have long viewed day care, with a certain degree of guilt and distaste, primarily as a service that allows parents to work. So long as the rest of us don't have to hear too many horror stories about infants being molested by deviant caregivers or toddlers getting locked in a center after hours (as happened in suburban Virginia this year), we are content to leave this particular crusade to the mommies and daddies.

But increasingly, scientific research is highlighting the folly of this attitude. In April, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development released a report showing that top-notch day care can enhance a child's cognitive and language development, reduce behavior problems, and increase overall school readiness. In other words, we should regard day care as an educational opportunity for kids -- not as baby-sitting. Even more compelling, in the spring of 1997 the Families and Work Institute released a study confirming that the first three years of life are the most critical in a child's brain development, adding heft to a 1994 Carnegie report that showed much the same thing. Left alone to stare at the bars of her crib, an infant will not receive the stimulation necessary to form the neural pathways that guide later learning. Tended only when there is a nose to be wiped or a diaper to be changed, a toddler won't develop the self-assurance to explore his place in the world. Kindergarten is too late. Unless a child receives individual attention and stimulation early on, by the age of three she has already fallen behind. The window has been closed.

Now, consider these findings in light of the changing demographics of American society: An estimated 70 percent of moms now work outside the home, meaning more and more infants and toddlers are being looked after by relatives, friends, and professional caregivers. And in the wake of the 1996 welfare reform, tens of thousands more parents are being herded into the workplace, leaving tens of thousands more tots in need of care. Never has the case for affordable, high-quality child care been clearer -- or the need greater.

Unfortunately, this country's day care situation (it's much too slipshod to be called a system) borders on the criminal. Costs are high, too many providers are unqualified, health and safety standards are uneven, and educational opportunities are woefully wasted. While news accounts of toddlers wandering away from centers and babies playing with cockroaches are not the norm, they are indicative of a widespread problem. A 1995 national study found day care in six out of seven centers to be mediocre to poor, with one in eight potentially compromising children's safety and health. The news for our youngest children was particularly grim: In 40 percent of classrooms serving infants and toddlers, children's health, safety, and development were being compromised. Similarly, a 1994 survey found that the environment in a third of home-based care facilities was jeopardizing children's development.

Hillary Clinton tells a story: During one of her visits to France, which has what well may be the world's best day care system, the First Lady asked a French official why the government had chosen to invest so much money in child care. His response: "How could we not? These are the future citizens of France."

Americans just can't seem to grasp this point. Day care is not a "women's issue" -- or even a parents' issue. The cliche about our having a choice between investing in children's well-being when they're young, or paying for the cost of their prison stays or welfare checks (or their not being able to vote intelligently) when they're older is not much of an exaggeration. Every member of a democracy has a stake in how its citizens are being raised and educated.

What's more, considering the widening gap between the haves and have-nots in our society, particular attention must be paid to the plight of lower-income children, who, research shows, suffer the most from poor-quality care. In addition to being in generally poorer health than middle-class kids, low-income children enter school facing significant learning disadvantages. The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) reports that, while middle-class children starting first grade have been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one reading, their classmates from low-income homes have been exposed to only 25 hours. In addition, CDF notes that low-income kids start school with half the vocabulary of middle-class students. A variety' of studies have found that these "at risk" kids benefit more from high-quality child care and early education than children overall. But low-income families are the very ones shut-out of good programs.