Confronting the Child Care Crisis

PREFACE

It often has been noted that the measure of civilization is its concern for the care of its children. Parents, the public and the government must recognize that children deserve, need and require protection and care. Adults who care about children also must be determined to do something about children’s well-being, even if it means fighting for the right to raise them in a healthy environment.

Neglect of children is reflected by segregation, poverty, inaccessibility of educational opportunities, an overwhelming bombardment of television, the impact of violence and abuse, as well as lack of basic care such as maternal-paternal support, consistency and continuity of care from parents or well-chosen surrogates.

We will continue to have children, but how we have and raise them is a serious dilemma. Because children do not vote, and their parents are often unable to organize themselves, children’s issues, and particularly provision of child care services, are often shunted aside. Children face many problems today, not only from their environment in general, but in their basic care and well-being as fragile filaments of this country’s future. If we are concerned about our economic, social and political structure, and the future of our country and its people, then we must be concerned now about what is happening to our nation’s children.

The care for children begins prior to their birth and continues right through adulthood. The nature of parents’ economic situation and social, physical and psychological environment will affect the children enormously. In fact, how we treat our children from the moment of birth reflects how we, as a society, regard ourselves. If, for example, babies enter the world drugged, deprived of loving human contact, quiet and nurturing conditions, or later are abused or mistreated, is it any wonder that their subsequent development can be drastically affected? Whether we want to or not, we all share in the responsibility of child care. Bad nurturing or negative experiences result in a society that is, in fact, weakened. Look at today’s schools, violence and depression. Yet, we can do something to forestall these negative trends if we are willing to join together to achieve positive results.

The availability of good quality child care has been an issue that has affected children and their families for more than twenty years. What has happened in child care services, what might happen, and what can happen, is the context of this book. Confronting the Child Care Crisis reports on the factors influencing the state of child care in America today. It is an attempt to cut through the public’s confusion and clarify important issues. This confusion acts as a barrier to action and resolution. The book will point out some of the possible directions that can be taken at the national, state and local levels. The perspectives brought to the book have been influenced by years of work in education and child care as a professional, a mother, a stepmother, a single and married working woman, as well as a politically oriented citizen who is deeply concerned about the future of this country.

My experience has been gained from many places. I grew up in New York City, and later, while working in Washington, D.C., visited child care services throughout the country, from Boston to Oregon, California to Florida. After moving to California, I looked at the system of child care in San Francisco and California over a period of years. I have, over the years, listened to hundreds of parents, professionals, politicians, program and research specialists, all discussing, debating or just arguing the various aspects of child care. After attending countless meetings as a government employee, a doctoral student, group leader, participant, teacher, student, wife or working mother, I have noted time and again that parents are rarely given the opportunity to express their positions, political concerns, or obtain information. I, too, have felt helpless as I watched political actions taken that were less than effective, and, more often, damaging or insensitive to families, including my own.

Before it is too late, we must attempt to circumvent or change the course of some recent negative decisions which resulted in actions that seriously hamper the health and growth of millions of children and will ultimately damage the well-being of our nation. It is possible to have excellent child care resources available, but it is not possible without everyone’s attention and action.

Child care advocates have been disappointed countless times over the years because of their dependency on unstable amounts of federal funds and the resulting political ploys that have opened and closed programs. Many important services have been shut down after becoming essential to the parents who used them. As a result, many frustrated parents were left desperate and wondering what to do next.

The decisions made in Washington do affect everyone, whatever their economic level or needs. We, as a family encompassing all of society, are affected by these policies, programs and pressures. The fate of one group of children will, over a period of time, affect all of America’s children. Let us confront the crisis in child care and create the best environment for all of our children, for the sake of what is right for now and in the future.

ONE

WHO NEEDS CHILD CARE?

The American family today faces many complex challenges. The basic problem the family must confront is sustaining itself as a viable institution in the midst of numerous economic, social, psychological and personal pressures. There are no easy solutions but there are hopeful signs that indicate new directions.

The challenge of maintaining and providing for a family is very real for millions of people. There never seems to be enough money to clothe, feed, house, entertain or educate children. Even in the face of continued inflation, cutbacks in government spending and political dissension, the issues of child care and the continued needs of children must gain the interest and support of the public.

Our potential rests with our children. The example adults set for them now reflects how we care about them and will help them grow as responsible and loving citizens. The philosophy of child care, and world of work and the family, should be based upon a premise of mutual support, concern and responsibility.

Enormous transformations are taking place in society, and in the attitudes of women as they actively seek to re-evaluate themselves in their new roles as mothers, workers, students and responsible citizens. Millions of women have returned to work over the past decade. The necessity or interest in returning to work has forced a new definition of mother/wife/career woman on husbands and children. Men, as fathers and partners in the new working and shared home-work combination, have had many adjustments to make in redefining their own role in the family. The two partners need to find ways to share jobs at home with each other and the children. Many other millions of women, and an increasing number of men, are singly responsible for the care and upbringing of children, which poses special and different challenges for adults and children.

An article in the book Toward a National Policy for Children and Family observed:

Any report on child development must examine the environment in which most children grow, learn, and are cared for—the family. The American family has been undergoing rapid and radical change and is today significantly different from what it was only 25 years ago. Changes in the structure and functioning of the family have significant implications for children and for all institutions concerned with their growth and development.

The working woman and the changes for families are reflected in data compiled by the U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau:

• In 1978, 60 percent of married women with children between the ages of six and seventeen and 44 percent of those with children under six were either working or looking for work. Of those who had jobs, two-thirds were working full time.

• In 1974, there were 970,000 divorces or reported annulments involving roughly 1.2 million children. This rate is increasing sharply.

• In 1978, nearly one in every five children under eighteen was living in a single-parent family, more than double the figure in 1950.

• In 1977, more than 16 percent of American children were living in families with incomes below the government-defined poverty line.

• Of the 3.2 million children in families with incomes of less than $5,000, 60 percent live in single-parent families.

• In 1975, there were only about 1.7 million children in all licensed day care centers, Head Start programs, and approved family day care homes—compared with a total of 18.2 million children under six in the United States. About 6.5 million of these live in families in which the mother is in the labor force.

• The quality of care provided in such facilities varies enormously, and a majority of family day care homes and centers are rated as only poor or fair by observers trained to evaluate programs.

• In 1974, approximately 4.7 million children aged three to five were in some form of preschool program, 75 percent of these children were in for only part of the day. Preschool programs enrolled 79 percent of the five-year-olds, 38 percent of the four-year-olds, and 20 percent of the three-year-olds in the country.

• A substantial majority of substitute (nonparental) care in the United States is provided under informal cooperative arrangements with neighbors, relatives and friends.

• More than two million school-age children have no formal care at all between the end of school hours and the time parents return from work.

• A significant number of women do not receive adequate prenatal care, resulting in high rates of infant mortality and morbidity. Among forty-two nations keeping comparable statistics, the United States ranks sixteenth in infant mortality.

• One out of three of America’s 20 million children do not receive adequate health care, including access to primary care, complete immunizations and prompt and early treatment of disease. A recent survey in Syracuse, New York, for example, showed that 55 percent of children had no demonstrable antibodies to Type 1 polio virus.

Family Pressures Are Society’s Challenge

Society today places a great deal of stress on parents and children. The utmost amount of sensitivity, communication, mutual support and commitment is required to deal with the stress that affects, in varying degrees, each member of the family. How individual members of the family handle the daily pressures is the real test; the assistance the family is given is society’s challenge.

Statistics can show only the surface pressures and stresses on couples, which are reflected in the increasing incidence of divorce over the past ten years. As these changes bring with them a personal, societal redefinition and restructuring of services, the results can only be constructive. The family’s needs require a closer examination, and by taking these aspects apart piece by piece, we may be able to reshape services in a new and, perhaps, more effective and satisfying way.

For example, many women returning to work following divorce or death of their