Time to Care: Redesigning Child Care to Promote Education, Support Families, and Build Communities

Childhood Education, 2003 by Williston, Judy

TIME TO CARE: Redesigning Child Care To Promote Education, Support Families, and Build Communities. Joan Lombardi. Philadelphia: The Century Foundation: Temple University Press, 2003. 230pp. $18.95 (soft cover). Unlike most books on "designing" national child care reform, this book does not offer quick and easy fixes. Joan Lombardi, a leading advocate in the field of early childhood care issues, provides the reader with documented information about what was and is currently available for the American family regarding child care . . . and what needs to be done. Citing statistics and vignettes about caregiving situations in the United States, Lombardi makes clear that transforming the vision of highquality, affordable child care for all children will be a difficult job. She endorses making the issue of highquality child care an item in the public school arena, yet recognizes the unlikelihood of this happening under the current conditions.

The book looks back to the history of early child care in the United States, and offers suggestions for redesigning child care as early education and family support, redefining education after school, rekindling the community's commitment to children, and sending out the call for investment and reform.

In the final chapter, Lombardi pleads: "In the 21st century, we need to usher in a [third] phase, one that recognizes that child care is a public good with long-term implications for children." She offers several recommendations: 1) provide paid parental leave as a choice during the first year of a baby's life, 2) develop early-learning programs that are accessible to all, 3) create neighborhood after-school programs accessible to all, 4) expand upon and reform child care assistance to parents, 5) develop a community support system, and 6) strengthen the professional development systems for early childhood and after-school staff. Each recommendation is accompanied by recommended strategies that will be well-supported by early childhood professionals.

The detailed notes and exhaustive documentation at the end of the book attest to Lombardi's tenacious stand against those opposed to a national child care agenda.

Reviewed by Judy Williston, Professor of Teacher Education, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti