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Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Clintons back in focus as team, this time to
DOCUMENT 157 OF 343
ATJC9729800231
NATIONAL NEWS
* Clintons back in focus as team, this time to spotlight child care
Cautious proposals may reflect the first-lady's ill-fated effort to
spark changes in the nation's health care system.
Julia Malone WASHINGTON BUREAU
545 Words
3953 Characters
*
10/24/97
The Atlanta Journal; The Atlanta Constitution
A;03
(Copyright 1997 The Atlanta Journal / The Atlanta Constitution)
Washington President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton initiated another national conversation Thursday, hosting a
*
White House conference on child care and warning that lack of quality
*
child care imperils the nation's prosperity.
"It is America's next great frontier in strengthening our families
and our future," the president said in the East Room.
*
"Too often, child care is unaffordable, inaccessible and sometimes
even unsafe," he told those at the conference, which was beamed via
satellite to more than 100 locations in 40 states.
*
Declaring that the cost of child care "strains millions of family
budgets," Clinton said that in January he will offer a plan to help
parents by giving more tax breaks or federal subsidies. He also said
he would ask Congress for a $300 million scholarship fund to train
*
child care workers.
The president offered some small immediate steps, including a
proposal for a law that would give access to criminal records in all
*
50 states so child care centers and parents could more thoroughly
*
check the backgrounds of child care workers. In addition, he
assigned Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to head an advisory group of
business leaders to encourage employers to provide more day care
services.
Although Clinton stopped far short of launching a specific
program, the all-day talkathon tapped into a subject dear to the
hearts of many families. Nearly 30 million children younger than 17
come from homes where both parents or the only parent go to work.
The Clintons, whose last joint leadership of a nationwide reform
effort was the first lady's ill-fated project to improve the health
*
care system, stepped cautiously into the child care issue.
"We hope that this conference will spur the conversations around
Source: Atlanta Constitution, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
kitchen tables and water coolers and standing in supermarket aisles
or at soccer games
whatever it takes to engage more Americans
in this discussion," she said. But she, too, stopped far short of
proposing steps to be taken.
White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry underscored the Clintons'
division of duties. "Policy comes from the president," he said.
"She helps shine the spotlight on issues."
Citing what she called a "silent crisis," the first lady told
ABC-TV on Thursday, "Every national survey demonstrates what
unfortunately we have to recognize, and that is that too much of our
* child care is not adequate. It's not taking care of a child's
developmental needs, and, even worse, there are too many situations
that don't even meet basic standards of safety and hygiene."
*
Her portrayal of child care as being in a state of crisis and in
need of national action was criticized in a report released Thursday
by the Cato Institute, which cited a 1990 survey in which 96 percent
of parents said they were "satisfied" or "highly satisfied" with
* their child care arrangements.
The Cato Institute's Darcy Olsen, author of the report, which
argues against government regulation, said the key issue is who
should determine quality. "There is a split between those who trust
parents' judgment and those who want national standards," she said.
*
Child care professionals welcomed the flurry of interest from the
White House, but they expressed concern that the one-day discussion
would not lead to enough action.
MORE FOR WEB USERS
*
White House Conference on Child Care:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/Childcare,
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Atlanta Constitution, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Concern about child care due local, state
Editorial
*
Concern about child care due local, state initiative
275 Words
2012 Characters
*
10/24/97
San Antonio Express-News
Alamo
04B
Editorial
(Copyright 1997)
*
Initiating a national effort to address child-care issues will
not immediately solve working parents' problems.
*
The quality of child care and rules governing it vary among
states.
*
But a White House conference on child care Thursday was at least
a beginning.
*
The meeting featured President Clinton's proposals on child care,
including:
A public-education campaign and literature to help parents find
high-quality child care.
*
New incentives, such as loans or grants, to help child- care
workers get more training.
*
A campaign to get businesses more involved in providing child
care for their workers.
Advocates for children are right to want even more.
*
A report earlier this year by the Child Care Action Campaign
pointed out that em- ployees with children miss an average of eight
*
days annually because of disruptions in child care, costing U.S.
businesses an estimated $3 billion in lost productivity.
Further, studies show that every dollar invested in good early
*
child care and education saves more than $7 later on in costs of
remediation, social services and jails.
San Antonio is ahead of the curve. The San Antonio Corporate
*
Child Care Collaborative, a coalition of the city's largest
*
employers, have pooled their resources for child-care initiatives.
Aided by grants from the city, the collaborative's fund- raising
*
has helped to pay for child-care providers to receive training and
accreditation.
This summer, the collaborative also established a telephone line
where parents can receive guidance on how to choose a day-care
center and how to help it succeed.
While White House attention is welcome, federal intervention
should not be necessary. States must take the lead in helping
working parents. It is in every community's best interest.
Source: San Antonio Express-News, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
LINTONAPPLAUDS KOHL FOR EFFORTS ON CHILD CARE
DOCUMENT 176 OF 343
XWST9729800081
Front
*
CLINTONAPPLAUDS KOHL FOR EFFORTS ON CHILD CARE
Laura Weisskopf The Capital Times/Medill News Service
846 Words
5487 Characters
*
10/24/97
The Capital Times
All
1A
(Copyright (c) Madison Newspapers, Inc. 1997)
President Clinton praised Wisconsin Sen. Herb Kohl during a
*
White House conference on child care for his efforts to increase
employers' help for parents with young children.
The high-profile conference was convened Thursday to draw
*
attention to problems plaguing the country's patchwork child care
system and launch a national conversation on how to fix it.
*
The administration's attention to the need for quality child
*
care, a problem facing millions of American families, is necessary,
said Kohl, if policy-makers are to take notice and improve the
*
state of child care in the United States.
Kohl, D-Wis., was a member of a bipartisan group of 10
*
congressmen invited to the White House conference by its hosts,
President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The
president recognized Kohl as the author of legislation to promote
the further involvement of employers as partners in providing
* quality child care.
The president also announced a $300 million proposal to
provide training scholarships for day care providers and boost
their wages when they return to work after training. Annual
stipends of up to $1,500 would be provided to as many as 50,000
*
current and future child care providers who agree to stay in the
field for at least a year after receiving the training. The
beneficiaries would receive a bonus when they complete their course
work.
In addition, the president unveiled three initiatives aimed
*
at improving the affordability, safety and quality of child care,
including a measure that would make it easier for states to conduct
*
criminal background checks on prospective child care workers.
Clinton also said his next State of the Union address would
include a new agenda to improve the quality and affordability of
Source: Capital Times & Wisconsin State Journal, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
* child care.
"No government can love a child, and no policy can substitute
for a family's care," Clinton said. "But there is much that we can
do to help parents do their duty to their children."
Kohl said he hopes the president will include his bill, which
would create a 50 percent tax credit for up to $150,000 of an
*
employer's expenditures for increasing the supply of child care, as
*
part of a greater child care policy.
"There is so much that needs to be done," Kohl said. "We as a
* society have not come to grips with child care and its importance
to our society."
Kohl's business tax credit bill was passed by the Senate in
June as an amendment to the balanced budget bill, but was later
dropped from the final bill during last-minute negotiations between
Republicans and the White House. He said he will reintroduce the
measure next year.
Kohl said the White House conference will help focus
policy-makers' attention on the issue of child care. He thinks
*
Congress will follow the Clintons' lead by adopting child care
legislation. "It will be accomplished in bits and pieces over many
years," he predicted.
*
Hillary Clinton called child care in America the "silent
crisis" facing families. "With 45 percent of our children under the
age of one in day care regularly, the issue of quality has a
tremendous bearing not just on individual lives but on the future
of our nation," she said.
Dorothy Conniff, director of Madison's Community Services,
said in a phone interview that she hopes the new focus on child
care will result in additional federal dollars. "The core problem
in child care is money," she said. "We've trained staff in centers
and then had them leave to work in McDonald's where they got a
50-cent raise."
Conniff said that young families struggle the most to pay for
*
child care and are least likely to be able to afford to place their
children in quality situations. "Since 85 percent of the costs in
* child care comes from the parents, you just have to do something
about the cost," she said.
A March 1997 report indicates that 1,447 children in Dane
County, 862 of them from Madison, receive federally supported,
* locally administered child care assistance. Conniff said that
employers can do more to alleviate the situation, and she endorsed
Kohl's plan, with some hesitation.
"The businesses that have been involved on a voluntary basis
have been more affluent businesses with more affluent employees,"
she said. "A couple of things have happened when those businesses
have gotten involved. The more affluent families that help
Source: Capital Times & Wisconsin State Journal, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
stabilize the community-based programs are drawn out of the system."
*
In addition, the businesses that provide child care centers
tend to pay better wages and, therefore, attract higher-quality
staff, she said.
*
Recruiting top child care workers is key, experts at the
*
White House conference said. But it is difficult to find and keep
them when average pay is $6.89 an hour. One-third of workers leave
their jobs each year.
*
Child care has become an increasingly acute issue for
American families; 12 million children under 6 -- representing half
of all infants and 60 percent of all preschoolers -- are in the
care of someone other than their parents. And with welfare reform
pushing more single parents into the work force, the demand for
* child care is expected to grow significantly.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Capital Times & Wisconsin State Journal, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Action plan for child care
DOCUMENT 3 OF 61
FTI9729600234
NEWS: US AND CANADA
NEWS DIGEST
* Action plan for child care
By Gerard Baker
148 Words
1315 Characters
* 10/24/97
Financial Times
USA Edition
7
Digests
Copyright Financial Times Limited 1997
*
CLINTON PROMISE
*
Action plan for child care
US President Bill Clinton yesterday promised he would come up with a
*
plan next year to improve the availability and quality of child care for
working parents.
Mr Clinton spoke shortly before launching a one-day conference on
*
child care at the White House, in which he and the first lady, Hillary
Clinton, heard from a range of experts on the current problems.
Mr Clinton said he would use his State of the Union address in January
to outline measures that could include help for businesses to enable
them to provide childcare for their employees, and efforts to encourage
schools to keep their buildings open after classes.
*
At the White House conference, the Clintons heard from experts that
day care was too expensive for many parents, and that the quality of the
care available was often very mixed. Gerard Baker, Washington
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Financial Times, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Austinites bemoan lack of child-care workers //
DOCUMENT 179 OF 343
AAS9729700064
*
Austinites bemoan lack of child-care workers // Area professionals
*
hope to use White House conference to refocus local efforts
Clara G. Herrera
616 Words
4291 Characters
* 10/24/97
Austin American-Statesman
B1
(Copyright 1997)
*
As national leaders focused on child care at a White House
*
conference Thursday, local experts talked about the crisis in Austin
and the dire need for qualified workers in the field.
The problem is so bad some centers are closing. After seven
years, Clara Spriggs-Adams is closing "The Best Lil' Day Care -N-
Texas," in North Austin. In her years in business, she's gone
through 100 workers. In the last four weeks, she's had to fire four
people.
"Some of these people I would not trust to care for my animals if
I had animals," said Spriggs-Adams, who on Monday informed parents of
29 children about the closing, which will occur later this month. "I
don't want just to put a body in (the classroom). If I stayed in
business that's what I'd have to do. I just can't do it."
The issue isn't new. Nationwide, one-third of workers leave their
jobs in a year. On average they are paid minimum wage.
*
Child-care centers feel caught in the middle. They can't afford
to pay more without charging parents more. They say parents can't
afford it.
*
"A lot of what we're finding is that families want quality child
*
care for their children, but the cost is too high," said Sherryl
Rogers-Adams, executive director of the Ebenezer Child Development
Center, a facility that has three staffing vacancies.
At Thursday's conference in Washington, D.C., President Clinton
said he plans to unveil ways to help parents in January, His
proposal will include tax breaks, new federal subsidies and a pitch
to Congress for a new $300 million scholarship fund to train workers.
*
Local child-care professionals said they welcomed the national
spotlight on the issue. Austin plans to channel that energy to local
*
efforts, said Rhonda Paver, who heads the Austin Child Care Council.
*
The council, which advises city leaders about child-care issues,
Source: Austin American-Statesman (Texas), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
used the Washington conference to relaunch Thrive by 5. Thrive by 5,
officially kicked off in January, is an effort stressing the need for
* good, safe child care for children up to age 5.
The program, with a current $30,000 budget, plans to air
public-service announcements on local television stations in the near
future, Paver said.
By airing an announcement and a telephone number, the group wants
people to pitch in with support and money that can be used to train
* child-care workers, help pay the cost of setting up centers and pay
*
for fire safety kits for home child-care providers.
As first lady Hillary Clinton called the national conference an
*
opportunity to "start a conversation" about a "silent crisis," child
* care is a topic Austin has been focusing on for about a year.
In January, members of the Austin Child Care Council conducted a
one-day conference for employers to talk about collaborating in
*
child-care efforts. Some businesses have launched programs on their
own, but little has been done to forge a citywide public/private
partnership like those that exist in San Antonio and Fort Worth.
*
About 40 people viewed the White House conference in a University
of Texas classroom. Few businesses were represented. Organizers
said they didn't have time to inform businesses about the national
viewing or a local panel discussion that followed.
*
President Clinton said finding solutions to child-care problems is
not "rocket scienceInc., the agency in charge of Head Start programs
locally.
"It's not rocket science," he said. "It's brain surgery. It's
brain molding. What we're dealing with today is we're all fueled up
and ready to launch but we don't have the people trained to be good
* child-care workers."
For more information about Thrive by 5 call 374-0930.
*
What can our community do to improve local child care? Post yourl
thoughts and ideas at www.Austin360.com/news
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Austin American-Statesman (Texas), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
AFFORDABLE CHILD CARE IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS
DOCUMENT 184 OF 343
SETL9729800051
EDITORIAL
* AFFORDABLE CHILD CARE IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS
NORM RICE, RON SIMS
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
1141 Words
8080 Characters
* 10/24/97
The Seattle Times
FINAL
B5
OP-ED
(Copyright 1997)
MANY children with working parents spend at least half of their
*
waking hours in child care. As parents, we entrust the care of our
children to others. Each day, our children are shaped and nurtured
* by child-care staff and the program environment. The quality of
their care greatly influences their success in school and the adults
they will grow up to become. We all have a stake in the care our
children receive.
With the area unemployment rate at its lowest, our economy
thriving, and welfare-to-work initiatives under way, more people in
*
this region are working, with child-care demand greatly increasing.
Nationally, women now work in the overwhelming majority of American
families. Three out of four women with children ages 6-17 work, and
*
three out of five preschoolers are in child care every day.
In response to this need, President Clinton and first lady
*
Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted the White House Conference on Child
*
Care this week in Washington D.C. King County Councilwoman Jane
Hague attended the conference, which examined the strengths and
*
weaknesses of child care in America and explored how the nation can
better respond to working families' needs for affordable,
*
high-quality child care.
*
Many working families cannot afford the full costs of child
*
care, creating unstable work situations and forcing hard choices
*
between paying rent, food and child-care costs. Full-day child care
easily costs $4,000 to $10,000 per year. For many parents in
*
lower-paying jobs, more than half of their wages may go to child
* care.
*
Child-care providers also struggle to make ends meet, since
parent fees are typically the only source of revenue for programs. A
Source: Seattle Times, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
* national wage study found that most child-care workers earn only
$12,058 per year (only slightly above minimum wage) and receive no
benefits or paid leave. Low wages produce high turnover rates among
early childhood teachers - 42 percent a year in Seattle. This
"revolving door" of caregivers is damaging to children's development.
The need for high-quality, affordable child care is everybody's
business. Employers rely on parents as employees, and employees
* must be able to depend on child care. Absenteeism caused by a lack
*
of child care costs U.S. businesses $3 billion per year.
President and first lady Clinton have invited all of us -
community, church, business and school leaders, parents and
providers - to work together in improving the quality and
* availability of child care for all of our children and families.
King County and city of Seattle governments are recognized as
*
national leaders in the child-care arena. But we need your help. We
invite you to join us in the following goals:
*
1. Help working families get affordable, high-quality child
*
care.
The city's Department of Housing and Human Services and county
*
child-care programs support lower-income working families' success
by improving access to quality care that supports their culture and
* diversity. Partial child care financial assistance is provided to
1,650 children and their parents annually. High-quality programs
reflect the cultures and languages of the children and families
served, and also incorporate anti-bias practices into their
* programs. The child-care community in King County benefits from the
research and guidance of African American, Latino, Asian/Pacific
*
Islander and Gay and Lesbian child-care task forces.
2. Support child care professionals with training to improve
the quality of care.
Affordable workshops and college credit classes are provided by
*
Seattle community colleges, School's Out Consortium/YWCA and Child
* Care Resources. Roughly 300 early childhood and school-age care
providers receive technical assistance and monitoring services from
* city and county child-care and public-health specialists.
3. Increase after-school and summer programs for elementary and
middle-school youth.
Learning continues all day long, not just during school hours.
Many of the 23 school districts in King County offer school-based
care, largely driven by parent demand. Roughly three-quarters of
Seattle public elementary schools have school-based care programs
*
operated by community child-care providers. All Seattle public
middle schools have free after-school activities two to three days
per week, coordinated by the Seattle Parks and Recreation
Department. The Seattle MOST (Making the MOST of Out-of-School Time)
Initiative, funded by DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, has
Source: Seattle Times, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
resulted in increased culturally based out-of-school programs for
children and youth from refugee and immigrant families.
4. Volunteer your time and talents.
There are many ways to get involved with our community's youth.
The newly launched "It's About Time for Kids" Initiative asks all
adults to help build youth assets by developing caring relationships
with kids and encouraging their involvement in structured, positive
activities. The Washington Mutual One-to-One Tutoring Program, with
the help of United Way, promotes, recruits and refers volunteer
tutors for schools and after-school programs. Last spring's
"President's Summit for America's Future" resulted in a local
ongoing effort, "A Sound Promise to Youth," to engage volunteers on
behalf of youth.
*
5. Help employees with their child-care needs.
Business investment in child-care benefits have been shown to
result in improved employee retention, higher productivity, reduced
absenteeism and increased employee commitment. Area employers like
Boeing, City of Seattle, King County, Starbucks, the Seattle Times
and Virginia Mason Medical Center are increasing their
*
family-friendly practices, such as child-care financial assistance,
*
on-site child care, sick child care, flex time, child-care
information and referral services, job-sharing, family leave, family
health-care coverage and/or telecommuting. King County will open an
*
employee-sponsored child-care center in 1998, joining the city of
Seattle in offering on-site care.
*
6. Make child care a priority investment.
*
Companies are also making community investments into child-care
and youth programs. The American Business Collaboration for Quality
Dependent Care (ABC) is a national partnership of 22 companies
*
committed to invest $100 million in child-care support through the
*
year 2000. Locally, they fund training for child-care providers.
Boeing, Seafirst and Washington Mutual recently teamed up to print
*
the MOST Neighborhood Guides to Out-of-School Activities. The Child
*
Care Resources' Business/Child Care Partnership aims for higher
*
child-care teacher wages by generating business support of
*
child-care providers. When businesses furnish in-kind supplies,
*
equipment and professional services, child-care programs can budget
more toward teacher salaries and benefits.
There is more to be done. For many working families, affordable
*
child care is still not within their reach. Roughly 850 families are
*
on child-care subsidy waiting lists, and families typically wait for
up to two years for assistance. Studies have shown that families
* waiting for child-care subsidies fall into significant levels of
debt, turn back to welfare, depend on food stamps or quit their jobs
* due to child-care problems or costs.
Broader involvement from all sectors of society, not just
Source: Seattle Times, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
government, can remedy these challenges. Business, neighborhood,
school and religious leaders can work together with parents and
* providers to improve access to affordable, high-quality child care
and to volunteer their time and talents to support children. We ask
that you join us - we can't do it without you.
Norm Rice is mayor of Seattle.
Ron Sims is Metropolitan King County executive.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Seattle Times, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 4
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Clinton Unveils Plan to Aid Child-Care Training,
DOCUMENT 12 OF 19
LATM9729700530
National Desk
*
Clinton Unveils Plan to Aid Child-Care Training, Wages
*
Conference: At White House gathering on day care, president proposes
$300-million initiative. He also outlines steps aimed at costs, safety
and quality.
ELIZABETH SHOGREN
TIMES STAFF WRITER
605 Words
4641 Characters
*
10/24/97
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
A-20
Copyright 1997 / The Times Mirror Company
*
WASHINGTON -- Addressing a White House conference on child care,
President Clinton announced a $300-million proposal Thursday to provide
training scholarships for day-care providers and boost their wages when
they return to work.
In addition, the president unveiled three initiatives aimed at
*
improving the affordability, safety and quality of child care, including
a measure that would make it easier for states to conduct criminal
*
background checks on prospective child-care workers.
"No government can love a child, and no policy can substitute for a
*
family's care," Clinton told participants at the White House conference.
"But there is much that we can do to help parents do their duty to their
children."
The high-profile conference was convened to draw attention to the
*
problems plaguing the country's patchwork child-care system and launch a
*
national conversation on how to fix it. The burgeoning child-care
industry suffers from low wages, uneven quality and a spotty safety
record.
*
Child care has become an increasingly acute issue for American
families. Twelve million children younger than 6 (representing half of
all infants and 60% of all preschoolers) are in the care of someone other
than their parents part of the day. And with welfare reform pushing more
*
single parents into the work force, the demand for child care is expected
to grow significantly.
The modest initiatives that the president announced Thursday are part
Source: Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
of an ongoing effort by the administration to bolster the country's
*
child-care industry without resorting to a big-government solution, which
the GOP-controlled Congress would surely reject.
"We're not interested in some big federal program directed from
Washington that sets one-size-fits-all rules," said Bruce Reed, a
domestic policy advisor to the president. Clinton's goal is "to help more
states and communities succeed at this" and to encourage "companies that
* don't do much in the way of child care to follow the lead of successful
companies that do," Reed said.
The president's $300-million, five-year scholarship plan is designed
*
to improve the qualifications of child-care workers while cutting down on
the rapid turnover of caregivers, as many as half of whom quit every
year. Annual stipends of up to $1,500 would be provided to as many as
*
50,000 current and future child-care providers who agree to stay in the
field for at least a year after receiving the training. Beneficiaries
would receive a bonus when they complete their course work.
The initiative, which will be included in the president's 1999 budget
and must be approved by Congress, is modeled after a North Carolina
program that gives participating caregivers wage increases of 10% for
taking an average of 18 credit hours of classes a year.
*
In an effort to make child care safer, Clinton is asking Congress to
pass a law that for caregiver applicants would waive the prohibition on
the sharing of criminal records between states.
Clinton announced that his Corp. for National Service would train
volunteers so the programs could provide better care to more children.
The president also directed Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin to
oversee a working group of business executives to spotlight companies
* that help provide child care for the children of their employees,
including on-site facilities. Group members then will preach to their
peers about why such programs make good business sense.
*
Some who have studied child care downplayed Clinton's initiatives.
"These are small, somewhat useful proposals that are mixed in their
wisdom," said Douglas Besharov of the American Enterprise Institute, a
conservative think tank. They "are minor stuff compared to the need out
there," and "it would be a great mistake" to expect them to "make any
difference."
Times staff writer Melissa Healy contributed to this story.
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
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AVAILABLE, AFFORDABLE AND SAFE CLINTON:
DOCUMENT 77 OF 121
FLSS9729700346
NATIONAL
AVAILABLE, AFFORDABLE AND SAFE CLINTON: PEOPLE HAVE TO BE ABLE TO
RAISE KIDS AND SUCCEED AT WORK
JILL YOUNG MILLER Washington Bureau
449 Words
3506 Characters
* 10/24/97
Sun-Sentinel Ft. Lauderdale
FINAL
3A
(Copyright 1997)
*
Can you get child care? Can you afford it? Can you trust it?
President Clinton on Thursday promised to present a plan in
*
January to make child care in America more available, more
affordable and safer.
"People in this country have to be able to succeed at work
and at home in raising their children," Clinton said at the opening
*
of the White House Conference on Child Care. "If we put people in
the position of essentially having to choose one over the other,
our country is going to be profoundly weakened."
Clinton said he would pitch a national day-care plan during
his State of the Union Address. Meanwhile, he's asking Congress to
*
create a $250 million scholarship fund for child care providers
and to pass legislation to enable better state-to-state tracking of
*
criminal pasts of child care workers.
*
Accessible, affordable and safe child care is "America's next
great frontier in strengthening our families and our future,"
Clinton said.
*
The conference in the East Room of the White House was long
on discussion and short on broad federal initiatives. Instead of
concrete proposals, the spotlight was on stimulating national
*
discussion about the quality and cost of child care.
Hillary Rodham Clinton called on parents, businesses,
schools, states and local communities to work to solve what she
called a "silent crisis." She said she hoped the conference would
"spur the conversations around kitchen tables, and water coolers,
and standing in supermarket aisles or at soccer games."
"What happens to a child in the earliest years affects how
well he or she learns for a lifetime," she said. "With 45 percent
of our children under the age of 1 in day care regularly, the issue
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
of quality has tremendous bearing not just on individual lives but
on the future of our nation."
*
Industry experts say the White House conference comes at a
time when the country's low unemployment rate and healthy economy
*
have made staffing shortages and high turnover in child care worse.
Under Clinton's direction, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin is
to lead a group of business leaders in search of day care answers.
*
The president said businesses should help employees get good child
* care.
Clinton is sending Congress legislation to help students earn
* degrees in exchange for at least a year's work in child care. In
addition, the legislation would give bonuses to workers who
complete training.
Another measure what Clinton called the National Crime
Prevention and Privacy Compact would improve background checks on
-
* child care workers by eliminating state barriers to sharing
criminal histories.
"We have to weed out the people who have no business taking
care of our children in the first place," Clinton said.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Shining a Light on Child Care / First lady runs
DOCUMENT 76 OF 121
NDAY9729700045
NEWS
* Shining a Light on Child Care / First lady runs D.C. conference
By Glenn Kessler. WASHINGTON BUREAU
832 Words
5405 Characters
*
10/24/97
Newsday
ALL EDITIONS
A07
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 1997)
Washington - In the early years of the Clinton administration,
Hillary Rodham Clinton - an accomplished lawyer, trusted adviser to
the president and controversial first lady - found herself the
subject of intense media speculation for her penchant for rapidly
changing her hair style.
Yesterday, a few days shy of her 50th birthday and taking her
first overt policy role since the health debacle of 1994, she could
laugh about it.
*
During a White House conference on child care, which Hillary
Clinton put together, a panelist noted that only requirement for
* being a child care provider is to be alive and breathing and over 18
years old.
"You know, that just reminds me of how often I've heard it said
that we have all kinds of licensing and professional requirements for
people who do your hair or other kinds of important functions,"
Clinton remarked. "Why did I think of hair first?" she added
mischievously as laughter spread through the crowd. "I don't know.
Can't imagine."
After the high-profile burnout of her health-care initiative and
*
several years of behind-the-scenes "stealth" influence, the child
*
care conference yesterday may be a model for how Hillary Clinton
plans to operate in the final three years of President Bill Clinton's
term.
*
The problem of ensuring affordable child care has long been an
important issue for Hillary Clinton, and yesterday she ran the
day-long conference. She co-chaired the morning sessions with the
president and the afternoon sessions with the vice president.
President Clinton, however, announced the policies - a four-part
* plan that would in part increase scholarships for child care
providers and make it easier for parents and employers to run
Source: Newsday (N.Y.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
background checks. He also pledged to announce even more proposals
in his State of the Union address in January.
"This is a happy day because I have been listening to the first
lady talk about this for more than 25 years now and it may be that I
will finally be able to participate in at least a small fraction of
what I have been told for a long time I should be doing," the
president said.
*
White House spokesman Mike McCurry said the first lady "helps
shine a spotlight on issues that need to be more in focus, both for
the president and for the American people generally
She very
frequently has got the capacity because of her intense interest in
these issues to lift them up and bring greater public attention and
focus on them. But she would be the first to say that the president
is the one who is elected to make policy."
Strikingly, Hillary Clinton's domestic profile is still
significantly different than her image overseas. There, she is
hailed and celebrated, and does not hesitate to make provocative
statements, such as a recent speech in staunchly Catholic Argentina
that alluded to abortion and a tough human rights address in China in
1995. There is even a village named after her in Bangladesh.
Carl Anthony, a historian of first ladies, said she has taken by
far more solo foreign trips than any other first lady - 14 at last
count.
The pace of foreign travel appears to be picking up now that
Cheslea, her only child, has left for college. Hillary departs for
Northern Ireland at the end of the month and is expected to make a
swing through the former Soviet republics in Central Asia by the end
of the year.
At yesterday's conference, there were signs that the criticisms
raised during the health-care battle still rankled her. She insisted
* that she had no particular solution in mind to solve the child care
crisis, noting that the conference only was "meant to start a
conversation."
During the health-care debate, she was accused of scheming to
take away the Americans' choice of doctors and planning to impose
what critics called "Clintoncare." Yesterday, she pointedly noted,
"We also know how important it is to ensure choice for parents in
* their selection of child care. One-size-fits-all child care does not
fit America's families."
Hillary Clinton turns 50 on Sunday, and she will make a
nostalgic return next week to the Chicago area where she grew up. On
Monday, she will tour her school, her childhood home, her church and
the hall where she first heard the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speak.
Mayor Richard Daley also plans to throw a big party for her,
declaring her the city's "favorite daughter."
But in an interview published in the Boston Globe yesterday,
Source: Newsday (N.Y.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Hillary Clinton wondered about one choice she made as a teenager that
ended up pushing her into a career in public policy.
"I'm not sure I would have become a lawyer," she mused. "I might
have studied something else. Maybe I'd have aimed for a career as a
teacher, either at high school or college level. Also, I might have
studied a musical instrument more diligently and persevered longer so
that I might have some of the joy that comes from playing."
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Newsday (N.Y.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
CHILD CARE GOALS CALLED TOUGH TO MEET
DOCUMENT 4 OF 19
LAD9729900060
News
* CHILD CARE GOALS CALLED TOUGH TO MEET
Blanca E. Cordova Daily News Staff Writer
342 Words
2610 Characters
*
10/24/97
Los Angeles Daily News
VALLEY
N17
(Copyright 1997)
*
It might be difficult to provide inexpensive child care for
Americans and improve quality at the same time, San Fernando Valley
authorities and parents said in reaction to President Clinton's
comments Thursday.
The nation's parents need substantial financial assistance to
make quality care available to children, they said.
Dianne Philibosian, associate dean of the College of Health
and Human Development at CSUN and chairwoman of the State of
California Child Development Policy Advisory Committee, said she
*
agrees with Clinton that the nation's child care programs need
improvement.
*
"Quality child care should be universal," she said.
But it's a difficult task to balance affordability and
quality - teachers must not be underpaid, Philibosian said.
"It's very expensive to attract teachers who have the
necessary educational level," she said. "That's going to take some
financing and subsidies other than the parents themselves."
Alicia Gold, a Tarzana mother with two children in the Warner
Center Children's Corner day care program, said quality is a
primary consideration.
"I think it is important to have (quality and affordable
* child care) available to all working parents," Gold said. "You need
to have a sense of confidence that when you walk out the door, your
child is safe and cared for. In order to have high quality, the
caregivers need to have backgrounds in child education, especially
early childhood education."
Jerry Doctors of Woodland Hills, who has two children at the
Warner Center Children's Corner, said the most important aspect of
*
child care is safety.
A number of students at California State University,
Source: Los Angeles Daily News, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Northridge, who are majoring in child development are doing
internships at the Warner Center Institute for Family Development,
* which provides child care at the Warner Center Children's Corner.
Philibosian and officials at the Warner Center Institute said
*
improving child care means providing a greater educational
component.
"Children in early childhood learn through play and
exploration and discovery," Philibosian said. "That's what's
educational for them."
The Warner Center Institute operates in partnership with
CSUN, the Warner Center Association and the city of Los Angeles'
Department of Transportation.
I0607
* End of document.
Source: Los Angeles Daily News, October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
CLINTON TOUTS PLAN TO MAKE CHILD CARE MORE
DOCUMENT 9 OF 19
SBEE9729800198
MAIN NEWS
*
CLINTON TOUTS PLAN TO MAKE CHILD CARE MORE ACCESSIBLE
Leo Rennert Bee Washington Bureau Chief
521 Words
3678 Characters
*
10/24/97
The Sacramento Bee
METRO FINAL
A6
(Copyright 1997)
*
President Clinton is preparing a major child-care initiative
for his 1998 State of the Union address that would create a new
bundle of federal subsidies to help put day-care services within the
reach of millions of low- and middle-income parents.
*
"We have to do more," the president told the first-ever White
*
House Conference on Child Care Thursday. "Too often, child care is
unaffordable, inaccessible and sometimes even unsafe. The cost
strains millions of family budgets."
While urging state and local governments, civic groups and
businesses to pitch in, Clinton offered to look at several new policy
* options for expanded federal child-care support that may pump
billions of dollars into a system besieged by mounting financial and
personnel problems.
Bruce Reed, Clinton's chief domestic adviser, said plans under
active consideration include:
*
Expansion of the dependent-care tax credit, which provides tax
relief to families with two working parents. Reed said current
credit limits of $2,400 per child and $4,800 for two or more children
could be raised. He also left open the possibility that income
qualifications could be eased.
*
An increase in block grants to states to help low-income
families, particularly working mothers who move from welfare to jobs.
Congress approved $4 billion for the next six years under last year's
welfare-overhaul legislation.
*
*
Tax subsidies to businesses that build on-site child-care
centers for workers. The administration may support legislation by
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., that would give employers a 50 percent tax
credit for as much as $150,000 in expenditures for day-care
facilities.
As a down payment on his 1998 initiative, Clinton said he will ask
Source: Sacramento Bee (Calif.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Congress to finance a five-year, $300 million scholarship program to
*
improve the quality of child-care providers. The scholarships, worth
as much as $1,500, would finance training and better pay in an
industry suffering from huge staff turnover.
*
Recent studies have shown that child-care workers earn an average
of less than $7 per hour, or about $12,000 a year.
Clinton's scholarship fund is modeled after a North Carolina
*
early-childhood program that has reduced turnover rates in child-care
centers from 42 percent to 10 percent.
Pushing for early action to demonstrate a greater federal
commitment, Clinton also:
*
Asked Congress to finance a program to keep schools open for
unsupervised youngsters after classroom hours. He estimated that 5
million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are left to fend for
themselves after school.
*
Announced that Americorps volunteers under his national service
program will help staff after-school programs.
* Sent Congress legislation to remove state privacy barriers for
*
child-care centers seeking background checks on job applicants.
* Asked Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin to head a coalition of
government, business, labor and community leaders to encourage
*
businesses to provide high-quality child care.
*
Politically, the president's decision to boost federal child-care
investments was made easier by a robust economy that has pushed the
budget deficit to unexpectedly low levels.
*
First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who co-hosted the White House
*
conference, said too many parents still can't afford quality child
*
care, while a spate of new studies shows that care at most centers is
poor to mediocre.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Sacramento Bee (Calif.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Clintons, locals talk child care
* Valley
DOCUMENT 11 OF 19
FBEE9729800006
METRO
*
Clintons, locals talk child care
* Valley group watches
*
presidential discussion on child care.
Karla Bruner The Fresno Bee
533 Words
3685 Characters
*
10/24/97
The Fresno Bee
HOME
B1
(Copyright 1997)
Children at the Joyce M. Huggins Early Education Center on the
Fresno State campus don't know they are experiencing the "cutting
edge" of early child-development care. They just squeal and giggle
as they chase each other around the playground.
Several hundred yards away at the Satellite Student Union
Thursday, a group of adults talked about how to make every child's
experience as pleasant and rewarding as those children's, regardless
of parents' incomes and job schedules.
About 75 Valley child-development specialists gathered Thursday to
* participate in the White House Conference on Child Care, which was
taped and fed by satellite to the Satellite Student Union.
They watched President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham
*
Clinton talk about how they have made child care a priority. They
*
saw child-care specialists, children, parents and business leaders
reiterate that same commitment and express ways to improve care.
*
Fresno was one of 100 cities in the nation to host the White House
conference downlink site.
*
The White House conference examined the state of child care in the
United States and explored how Americans can respond better to the
needs of working families for affordable, high-quality care.
Christine Balbas, a conference panelist and senior staff analyst
for the Fresno County Department of Social Services, said the
Clintons' involvement in the issue increases its visibility.
"It's free advertisement. It gets people talking about it," she
said.
Balbas said the county is in the process of coming up with a plan
*
on how it will provide child-care services for welfare participants
starting work.
The state's new welfare system requires counties to submit their
Source: Fresno Bee (Calif.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
* child-care plans as part of their welfare-reform programs by Jan. 10.
Balbas said public discussions, like the one Thursday, are
helpful.
Selma Mayor Ralph Garcia, who attended the conference, is
concerned about how his rural community will deal with the issue of
* child care when people move from welfare to work.
Selma already suffers an 18 percent to 23 percent unemployment
rate, he said.
Conference participants said this is a serious issue affecting
rural Valley communities. Garcia suggested that a solution could be
found with the welfare recipients themselves.
"Maybe one of the solutions is to find this work force that has
*
been staying home with kids, train them and create child-care centers
*
where you can have these people
be the child-care providers --
with some assistance from all of the agencies that are getting
involved," he said.
Shareen Abramson, professor of early childhood development and the
director of the Joyce M. Huggins Early Education Center, said
* improved licensing and monitoring of child-care providers are needed
to ensure quality.
"The funding that's provided for licensing is not very strong, so
they're not able to really do the kind of monitoring," she said.
Abramson added that she would like to see increased compensation
*
for child-care professionals.
"Obviously people who have a lot to offer, unless they're
compensated, are going to choose other careers.
I did feel
that this conference was willing to address that area."
CAPTION:
Kurt Hegre -- The Fresno Bee
Taped message. President Clinton tells Valley experts how he and
*
first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton have made child care a priority.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Fresno Bee (Calif.), October 24, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Page A24
Page 1 of 2
October 23, 1997
Child Care Talks Return
First Lady to Spotlight
G.O.P. Right Is Wary of Conference Today
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 - Hillary
In announcing the day care confer-
Rodham Clinton convenes a White
ence on July 23, President Clinton
House conference on Thursday to
said affordable, high-quality care
highlight what she and the President
was "critical to the strength of our
see as an urgent need for safe, af-
families and to healthy child develop-
fordable child care-But conservative
ment." Moreover, he said, "it is good
Republicans say they fear that the
for the economy and central to a
conference will lay the groundwork
productive American work force."
for plans to increase Government
Mrs. Clinton's work on the child
spending or regulation.
care conference is her most visible
Hoping to overcome such skepti-
effort at policy making since the
cism, Administration officials have
failure of the health care project. The
been trying to enlist moderate Re-
conference follows months of White
publicans and business executives in
House planning, aides said. It centers
their campaign, arguing that im-
on an issue of long interest to Mrs.
proved child care would not only
Clinton and was scheduled to capital-
produce healthier, happier children,
ize on favorable publicity surround-
but would eventually increase the
ing her 50th birthday on Sunday.
nation's economic output as well.
Although Mrs. Clinton is the
Mrs. Clinton today described the
event's chief organizer, she took
conference and the Administration's
pains today to emphasize that any
approach to child care in purposeful-
policy proposals would come from
ly reassuring terms. The most suc-
her husband, not from her. "The
cessful day care programs result
President will make recommenda-
from "public-private partnerships,"
tions," she said.
not Government mandates, she said
Senator James M. Jeffords, a Ver-
at a briefing for reporters.
mont Republican who recently intro-
The White House conference will
duced a comprehensive bill to in-
probably generate several new poli-
crease the supply of day care, said,
cy initiatives, she indicated, but they
"Having affordable, convenient child
will not require enormous amounts
care is tied directly to a family's
of public money or a broadly expand-
ability to produce income."
ed state regulatory role.
Most child care, Mr. Jeffords said,
And Mrs. Clinton delivered a pre-
is mediocre, and some threatens the
emptive answer to critics who say
health and safety of children.
that the focus on child care sends an
Marian Wright Edelman, presi-
implicit message to women that it is
dent of the Children's Defense Fund,
better for them to work outside the
said she hoped that the conference
home than to stay at home caring for
would be "a launching pad for signif-
their own children.
icant new investments" in child care,
"Despite our rhetoric about family
by Federal and state governments
values, we don't do very much to help
and by employers across the coun-
the parents who want to stay home,"
try. "The quality of infant and tod-
Mrs. Clinton said. "We don't want
dler care is shockingly low," said
one stereotypical, one-size-fits-all ap-
Mrs. Edelman, a longtime mentor to
proach to child care."
Mrs. Clinton.
In their handling of this issue, the
Ten million children under the age
Clintons are clearly drawing on les-
of 5 have working mothers and need
sons learned from the health care
debacle of the President's first term.
Their proposals to overhaul the
health care system were rejected in
part because critics painted them as
an inflexible Government-decreed
solution to major social needs.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Page A24
Page 2 of 2
October 23, 1997
child care. The Census Bureau says
Gary L. Bauer, a former Reagan
that 30 percent of the children are in
Administration official who is presi-
day care centers or nursery schools,
dent of the Family Research Council,
while the others receive care from
said: "When I see conferences in
relatives or neighbors.
Washington, the bottom line almost
The debate over child care is filled
always seems to be something that
with paradoxes. Parents cite the cost
makes Government grow. There are
of care as one of their biggest con-
deep suspicions on the right that the
cerns. Families with incomes under
purpose of this conference is to soft-
$14,500 a year spend one-fourth of
en up the ground for proposals in-
their income on child care, the Cen-
volving an entitlement program or
new subsidies for institutional child
sus Bureau reports.
care."
But many child care experts are
For their part, Administration offi-
seeking higher pay for child. care
cials said they wanted to raise the
workers, higher quality care and
prominence of child care as an issue
stricter regulation, which - in the
on the national political agenda.
absence of new investments by gov-
ernment or business - could lead to
without proposing specific new legis-
lation at this time.
increased costs for working parents.
The White House conference will
Helen Blank, a policy analyst at
focus on three questions: how to in-
the Children's Defense Fund, said
crease access to child care, how to
that child care workers, on the aver-
make it more affordable and how to
age, earned less than bus drivers,
guarantee the quality of care, so chil-
garbage collectors and bartenders.
dren will be safe.
Marcy Whitebook. co-director of
In a report on the nation's child
the National Center for the Early
care needs, prepared for the confer-
Childhood Work Force, in Berkeley,
ence. the Department of Health and
Calif., said nearly one-third of child
Human Services makes these points:
care teachers earned the minimum
9Forty-five percent of children un-
wage, now $5.15 an hour. The low
der the age of 1 are in child care on a
wages. Ms. Whitebook said, lead to
regular basis.
high turnover among child care
States with stronger licensing re-
workers. who come and go so fast
quirements have larger numbers of
that they cannot develop stable rela-
high-quality child care centers. But
tionships with the children for whom
the quality of care varies immensely.
they are responsible.
"Nearly five million school-age
children spend time as latchkey kids
without adult supervision during a
The White House
typical week." Juvenile crime is
most likely to occur after school
learned a lesson
hours, when children are unsuper-
vised.
from the health
David M. Blau, a professor of eco-
nomics at the University of North
care debacle.
Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the
availability of "family day care," in
which one person typically super-
vises several children, had a major
effect on the entire market for child
Congress is considering many bills
care.
to increase Federal spending and tax
breaks for child care. Democratic
"Many women are willing to take
authors of such measures have
care of other people's children for
worked closely with moderate Re-
relatively low remuneration," said
Mr. Blau, who has studied the indus-
publicans like Mr. Jeffords, Senator
Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Rep-
try. "They are able to take care of
their own kids at the same time, and
resentative Nancy L. Johnson of Con-
necticut. A few conservatives have
that provides them with nonmone-
also endorsed the proposals.
tary benefits. This tends to hold down
Republican Governors in Illinois,
wages, so the cost of informal child
Ohio, Rhode Island and Wisconsin
care is very low. The effects spill
have joined Democratic governors in
over to larger day care centers be-
efforts to increase spending for child
cause the two types of child care
providers compete with each other."
care.
But the White House conference
In the 1996 welfare law, Congress
has drawn a cool reception from
created a new program of Federal
many conservatives, who note that
grants to the states, designating $13.9
Congress approved a major increase
billion over six years to help finance
in child care spending as part of the
child care. The Congressional Budg-
1996 welfare law.
et Office said this sum was an in-
crease of more than $4 billion, or
nearly 50 percent. over what would
have been spent under prior law.
THE STAR - LEDGER
Newark, NJ
Front Page
Page 1 of 2
October 23, 1997
Child care issue isn't
kid stuff for advocates
By Peggy McGlone
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Most working parents treat child
"It's unrealistic to expect parents to
care as a personal matter. Today the
be able to identify all of the qualities of
White House is making it a national
good care," said Aronson.
concern.
Government, nonprofits and busi-
When the White House Confer-
nesses need to come to the table, too,
ence on Child Care convenes this
according to Gail Richardson, interim
morning, its panelists will make the
executive director of Child Care Action
case that adequate child care should
Campaign, a national advocacy group.
The conversation needs to begin with
be a national priority and that the na-
how to make sure (nonfamily) sectors
tion's 30 million children under age 13
see that they too can get benefits."
with parents in the work force should
she said.
be educated and nurtured in safe en-
According to the CCAC, research
vironments.
shows children who have experienced
"It goes back to 'it takes a vil-
quality child care have better success
lage,'''' said Dr. Susan S. Aronson of
in school, have less need for remedial
Philadelphia, a member of the Ameri-
classes and are less likely to drop out.
can Academy of Pediatrics and a con-
In addition, studies have shown that
ference panelist.
most juvenile crime and adolescent
Moderated by the President and
sexual activity skyrockets during the
hours after school; good after-school
Hillary Clinton, the sessions will ad-
care would affect those statistics, too.
dress quality, affordability and access,
"We have standards for the foods
and outline research linking quality
kids eat and the clothes they wear, but
child care to crime prevention, educa-
not the child care they get," said Rich-
tion and good business.
ardson, who advocates national stan-
It will have the attention of about
dards.
100 New Jersey child-care profession-
Quality programs must be economi-
als, who will participate through a
cally feasible, too.
satellite link at Princeton University's
"The question is how to provide
child care that supports healthy devel-
National forum
opment and learning and make it af-
fordable to families who need it," said
Barbara Willer of the National Associa-
on care opens
tion for the Education of Young Chil-
dren. "The public sector can do more,
Bendheim-Thoman Center for Re-
and certainly the private sector, the
search on Child Wellbeing, one of 58
employers," she said.
satellite connections nationwide. In
Child care's rise to the national
New Jersey, where more than 50 per-
agenda is a result of the nexus of social
cent of children under the age of 6
policy and scientific research. The con-
come from families with two working
tinuing increase in the number of work-
parents, more than 220,000 children are
ing parents, the advent of changes in
cared for in child-care centers, pre-
the welfare system and their impact on
school programs and by family day-
the numbers of child-care center
care providers.
spaces needed, and the scientific data
Kathryn Carliner of Maplewood, a
showing the extensive brain develop-
working mother with two children, will
ment of children from birth to age 3
introduce President Clinton and is fea-
make this an issue of enormous impor-
tured in a special video to be shown at
tance.
the conference. The film was shot at
"All of a sudden a bubble seems to
the South Mountain YMCA and Child
have burst and now everyone realizes
Care Center in Maplewood.
you have to have a good place (for chil-
Among the main issues to be dis-
dren)," said Tony O'Flaherty, vice pres-
cussed will be how to shift the burden
ident of the Newark Preschool Council
of choosing someone to watch the kids
and vice president of the Child Care
from parents to communities.
Advisory Council, established by the
THE STAR - LEDGER
Newark, NJ
Front Page
Page 2 of 2
October 23, 1997
state Legislature in 1983 to advise the
Whitman, are under way to improve the
Though they welcome their moment
state on child-care issues, policies and
professional standards and wages of
in the national spotlight, many of the
programs.
child-care workers, to increase subsi-
state's professionals acknowledge that
According to the Bureau of Labor
dies to low-income families, and to en-
today's conference is largely a ceremo-
Statistics, 12 million children under age
sure that quality care is available to
nial gesture.
6 and another 17 million between the
families who need it, especially those
"Historically, not much comes of
ages of 6 and 13 have both parents, or
living in lower-income areas.
(these) conferences," said Ann MacVi-
their only parent, in the work force. By
In addition, Whitman last week an-
car, president of the New Jersey Coun-
the age of 6, 84 percent of children have
received some form of supplemental
nounced plans to increase the rates of
cil on the Education of Young Children.
care and education, reports the Na-
state subsidies to those families who
"It heightens awareness, but in terms
tional Center for Health Statistics.
qualify, to provide subsidized care for
of getting programs and money, we'll
have to wait and see."
In New Jersey, 56 percent of moth-
an additional 1,000 children, and to in-
ers in the labor force have children
crease the frequency of center inspec-
under 6, and 53 percent of children
tions from 18 months to annually.
under 6 are from
The child-care council is also work-
families in which
"We have
both
parents
ing on professional development, pa-
work, according
rental education and registration of
standards for
to the Depart-
family day-care providers. A five-year
the foods kids
ment of Human
plan for the creation of the New Jersey
Services, which
Professional Development Center for
eat
but
reports a 5 per-
Early Care and Education is in place
not the child
cent
annual
(requests for proposals were issued
growth rate in li-
earlier this week), and funds have been
care they
censed centers.
allocated to conduct a statewide cam-
get."
Currently, about
paign to educate parents on the defini-
194,000 children
tion of quality care. Also, a half-million
GAIL
are cared for in
dollars was earmarked in April to regis-
RICHARDSON,
3,100
licensed
tered family day-care providers.
Child Care
center-based fa-
Though family day-care registration is
Action Campaign
cilities, and 14,500
voluntary, there is a backlog of more
in 4,400 family
than 2,500 prospective providers wish-
day-care homes.
Another 3,000 a month are cared for by
ing to gain this status.
relatives, friends and neighbors in state
"We have made some gains in all
approved homes, and 9,400 children are
these areas," said O'Flaherty, who adds
that the next step is to assess their
enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs,
gains. "(Our) emphasis will be on de-
according to Human Services.
termining what is really available - we
Several state initiatives, including
don't know if the centers are in places
the Bright Beginnings program pro-
where they're needed - and how much
posed last spring by Gov. Christie
of it is quality," she said.
NEWSDAY
October 23, 1997
Dialogue on Child Care
Is Just What U.S. Needs
T
ODAY, THE White
House shines an un-
In fact, Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton
are courageous in exposing the hard reality behind
forgiving light on a
what our national abdication of responsibility for
dark secret. It's got nothing
children has wrought. Every working parent - and
to do with long-lost tapes or
every business that suffers lost productivity from
nefarious foreign financiers.
unreliable child care - should thank them for final-
This has to do with our kids.
ly starting a national debate about this.
By and large, today's White
After more than two decades of economic and
House conference on child
social changes that have propelled most mothers
care will show that they
with young children into the work force, it's high
aren't well-cared for while
time. The last president to give this much thought
we're at work.
Marie
to child care was Richard Nixon, who vetoed a bi-
They are in day-care ar-
Cocco
partisan bill in 1971 that would have begun a child-
rangements - in suburban
care entitlement program for working parents.
houses and church base-
Then, as now, the focus on child care was a by-
ments, with hired neighbors and with unpaid
grandmas - that are most often poor or mediocre.
product of welfare-revision efforts. Then, as now,
Infants and toddlers, the kids we love to feature on
social conservatives warned of a Soviet-style system
Christmas cards and in campaign ads, are subject-
that would usurp parental authority. Patrick Bu-
ed to the worst of it: 40 percent of centers that
chanan, then Nixon's top speechwriter, wrote the
cater to the youngest children don't meet basic
veto message. It warned against committing "the
sanitary and safety conditions, according to pri-
vast moral authority of the national government to
vate research.
the side of communal approaches to child rearing
Our kids are cared for by workers who earn pov-
over family-centered approaches."
erty-level wages and who move on quickly - half
A generation later, what's changed?
of them leave in any given year - for the pay raise
The United States remains unique among west-
to be gained from taking a job as, say, a grocery
ern nations in having no national policy for the care
clerk or a waitress. Parents are burdened by child-
of children in working families. The idea that
care costs that can eat up a quarter of the pre-tax
naughty working women should fend for them-
income of a working-class family. And across all
selves - with all the financial and emotional bur-
dens that has imposed on families - hasn't sent us
income groups, parents - that is, mothers - are
scurrying back to the kitchen. It's just left millions
so riddled with internal conflict about leaving the
who need good care unable to get it, afford it or trust
child behind that they can't seem to use the same
it. And it's left kids - not just in the cities, but in the
suburban middle class - at risk of developmental
clear-eyed judgment in choosing day care that they
problems that research shows can lead to poor
would in choosing a new dishwasher.
school performance, social troubles and crime.
"This feeling that you have to leave your child
The first lady treads valiantly, but lightly into
with someone else almost prevents parents from
this thicket, careful to propose no grand new
looking at this the way they would at any other
schemes. She wants the conference to focus not only
thing they would purchase," said Ellen Galinsky of
on ways to improve care, but on how to help mothers
the Families and Work Institute, a private re-
who want to stay home.
search foundation. Searching for child care, she
"We don't do a very good job in this country,
said at a White House briefing yesterday, "is want-
despite our rhetoric about family values, to create
ing to get the pain over."
work and family situations that permit more par-
The most cynical of Washington watchers are
ents to make the choice they may think is right for
free to call the White House conference another
them," Hillary Clinton said.
photo-op by the feel-your-pain president and his
The goal is to start a dialogue without igniting a
feminist wife. The dismissiveness is insulting. At
shouting match. Achieving that would make the
its core is the idea that talking about children is
White House conference a smashing success.
the equivalent of spooning out political pabulum.
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
BOSTON - THURSDAY. OCTOBER 23. 1997
Internet accress: www.csmenitor.com
75c
Day Care Becomes Night Care
In Era of Busy Work Schedules
scon GOIHL/ST PAUL PIONEER PRESS
White House summit
focuses attention on
growing need for
extended-hour care.
By Skip Thurman
Starf writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON
F
OR parents who don't work
the usual 9-to-5 shift, child-
care arrangements can be
complicated or makeshift. Cer-
tainly, the options are limited.
Now, as welfare reform sends
more moms into the work force
NIGHT CARE: Carolyn Roange sleeps
and as the US economy hums well
at the Agape Child Development
past 5 p.m., many child-care
Center in Minneapolis, until a
providers already are seeing a
parent picks her up after midnight.
surge in demand for "night care,"
or round-the-clock day care.
Robin Hardman of the Families
As a White House conference
and Work Institute in New York.
today examines child-care short-
Companies "are starting to think
comings in America, parents and
more about hourly employees."
experts say providing care that
At 7 p.m. in a gritty neighbor-
extends past daytime work hours
hood of north Minneapolis, as
should become a national priority.
many as 21 children fold out cots,
"There is growing attention to
don pajamas, and enjoy a bedtime
people who've been underserved
story with a staff member of the
by work-family efforts," says
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Front Page
Page 2 of 3
October 23, 1997
Agape Child Development Center. The newly
Despite mounting pressure to extend day-care
opened center offers working parents - mostly
hours, most small or medium-size child-care cen-
single mothers just leaving welfare for jobs - a re-
ters cannot afford to do so. "We currently do not
liable child-care option that can accommodate
offer 24-hour care. It would be too expensive to
their late-night or overnight work schedules.
staff," says Jayna Richmond, associate director of
Each child brings
Amy's Daycare in Sacramento, Calif. The center
something special to
would also need to add beds and more space to
his or her cot: a pil-
accommodate sleeping arrangements, she says.
low, a well-worn
The National Association of
blanket, a favorite
Child Care Resource and Refer-
toy. "Anything that
ral Agency held six meetings in
different locations across the
'We are still struggling
makes them feel
comfortable, we ask
country last spring. The meet-
with quality of life for the
the moms to bring
ings, which sought to learn
child if he has to go to
it," says Diane Thi-
where children of late-working
bodeaux, Agape's
parents are staying, confirmed
bed in a strange place.'
executive director.
the need for more care alterna-
- Ruth Anne Foote
But this 24-hour
tives. "Everyone knows a des-
center is unusual in
perate parent, desperate for
the world of day
care for their child," says At-
care. Ms. Hardman
lanta-based Ruth Anne Foote of the NACCRRA.
and other experts
Parents who need early or late care often pre-
estimate there are
fer to rely on family, neighbors, or someone who
just a dozen or SO
can come to their homes, NACCRRA found. Day-
round-the-clock
care centers that operate a second or third shift
care centers in the
were often subsidized by an employer, the com-
nation.
munity, or a church.
But demand for
"There are some good models, but we are still
such flexible-hour
struggling with providing quality of life for the
child care is ex-
child if he has to go to bed in a strange place and
pected to rise over
get up in the middle of the night and go back to
the next 10 years.
bed," says Ms. Foote.
"The standard work day is now a 24-hour work
At Agape in Minneapolis, three-fourths of
day, and people have to fill different parts of it,"
those using the center are just leaving welfare
says Arnold Brown, a trends analyst at Weiner,
and entering the workplace, says the center's Ms.
Edrich and Brown in New York. In an economy in-
creasingly dominated by the service sector, "some
people have to be available at all hours."
These people - including a growing number of
single moms formerly on welfare - work in ho-
tels, hospitals, restaurants, cleaning services, and
factories. They are among the 1 in 5 US workers
who hold down jobs with nontraditional hours,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Front Page
Page 3 of 3
October 23, 1997
Thibodeaux. Minnesota's welfare-to-work pro-
gram will put an extra 22,000 preschoolers in the
market for extended day care by 1999 - a similar
surge is expected to occur nationwide under fed-
erally mandated welfare reform.
The good news for parents is that child care
has become more of a mainstream concern of
SCOTT HOIHL/ST.PAUL PIONEER PRESS
"The more you do for your
people, the more you get
back," says Wayne Learned of
Commercial Financial Ser-
vices, a firm of 3,000 employ-
ees, in Tulsa, Okla. The bill-col-
lecting firm offers employees a
free, in-house service that is
used by parents of 356
preschoolers. The day-care
center is open anytime a parent
would be asked to work late or work overtime.
Typically, it operates from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., at a
cost to the company of $600 per month per child.
According to Mr. Learned, the investment in
extended care helps the bottom line. "It attracts
and retains employees. We can provide a setting
24-HOUR CARE: Danielle Robinson writes on the blackboard at the Agape Child
where parents don't have to worry," he says.
Development Center in north Minneapolis. The center is the first all-night facility in
This summer, Commercial Financial Services
the city and caters to single parents coming off welfare and taking night jobs.
also ran a summer camp for youngsters. It hired
175 high school and college-aged kids of em-
corporate America. A work-family movement is
ployees to run it. "[Our employees] are focused,
picking up steam in the business community.
fiercely loyal, and rarely absent," Learned says.
Moreover, some companies are seeing a link be-
tween the bottom line and employee confidence
H.J. Cummins in Minneapolis contributed to
that family needs are being met.
this report.
"On-site child care is offered by many of our
clients, but they are large, leading companies.
They are ahead of the game," says Deborah
Parkinson of The Conference Board, a business
research firm in New York.
Nevertheless, Ms. Parkinson points to a grow-
ing number of groups and industries pooling re-
sources to provide on-site, extended day care, in-
cluding hotels, hospitals, and some large
insurance firms.
Atlanta's Inn for Children, for example, began
accepting preschool-age last July, averting what
odd-houred minimum-wage earners described as
a crisis. The hotel industries banded together to
create the Inn, providing reliable, low-cost care
for their employees.
USA TODAY
Page 14A
Editorial
October 23, 1997
Child care: Parents need more choices;
USA needs more resources, new ideas
If we, as adults and as nations, can be
Disabled need child care, too
judged by the way we care for our chil-
dren, we cannot wait a moment longer
We agree with USA TODAY that "in-
to address child care.
novative experiments" are happening
As the nation's largest civilian provid-
across the country and that "informa-
er of that care, the YMCAs applaud the
tion, incentives and resources that give
Clinton administration for focusing at-
parents, communities and state and lo-
tention on the evolving child-care sys-
cal leaders a chance to create child-
tem with a conference held in the
care solutions" are urgently needed.
White House today. But as USA TODAY
The National Easter Seal Society
says, "Government must devise ways to
commends President Clinton and Hilla-
enhance quality without compromising
ry Rodham Clinton for convening the
a family's child-care choices" ("Par-
White House Conference on Child Care.
ents need quality care, want choices for
By examining the strengths and
children," Our View, Debate, Friday).
shortcomings of the existing child-care
Indeed, parents need more choices.
system, this conference can provide
Child care needs new resources and
leaders at all levels with the tools they
new ideas. We must enhance quality.
need to improve dramatically the avail-
We must make child care more accessi-
ability of safe, affordable, quality child-
ble and more affordable.
care services.
What 36 million American children
Child care that includes children
urgently require is not a place to be
with disabilities is one critical issue that
warehoused while parents work, but a
must be examined.
safe and nurturing place with high-qual-
While the lack of safe, affordable,
ity programs that challenge and excite
quality child care for all children con-
them and throw in added measures of
tinues to plague the nation, families
character development and love.
with children with disabilities face ad-
Economic and social changes during
ditional burdens in securing child care.
past decades and an influx of single par-
Children with disabilities are barred
ents into the workforce have added
from far too many child-care programs
chilling immediacy to this problem. At
because of myths, fears and stereo-
the same time, new research has linked
types.
the benefits of learning experience for
Moreover, child-care providers too
preschoolers, and after-school pro-
often lack the information and supports
grams for school-agers, to school
necessary to effectively meet the child-
achievement and lifetime success.
care needs of children with disabilities
Experience with millions of kids in
and their families.
YMCA programs has convinced us that:
Easter Seals directly services more
Federal, state and local govern-
than 100,000 children in early-educa-
ments must join with the private sector
tion and care programs across the
to provide better funding so working-
country. In many communities, Easter
poor families can find high-quality, af-
Seals is partnering with public and pri-
fordable child care.
vate organizations to expand the supply
Before- and after-school programs
of high-quality child care.
should be available and affordable.
Child-care initiatives that follow the
Concerned Americans - not only
White House conference must address
those with children but all of us who
the needs of working families with chil-
hope to live in a nation strong and com-
dren with disabilities.
petitive - must join in the dialogue that
Child-care providers need training
the White House is entering.
and technical assistance on how to
If we do not take action now, making
meet their responsibilities under the
child care more accessible and more
Americans with Disabilities Act and on
affordable, if we do not aspire to put ev-
how to collaborate with programs tar-
ery child in the high-quality programs
geted at children with disabilities and
that we know determine their future,
their parents.
then we will surely fail them - and
These efforts will increase the avail-
ourselves.
ability of quality care for all the nation's
David R. Mercer
children.
National executive director
James E. Williams Jr., pres., CEO
YMCA of the USA
National Easter Seal Society
Chicago, Ill.
Chicago, III.
USA TODAY
Page 15A
October 23, 1997
Hillary leads boomer
women into their 50s
By Gail Sheehy
a woman president by 2010."
Asked if she'd consider running,
Welcome, Hillary, to the flam-
she said, "We'll talk later."
ing 50s.
But later, she lost enormous
This Sunday the first lady offi-
popularity. Few would recall that
cially enters the stage when wom-
Hillary entered the White House
en soar. Rather than turning off
with a more favorable poll rating
their mental engines and retreat-
than her husband. A majority of
ing into invisibility, as did so
Americans saw her as an asset to
many of our mothers, women in
her husband's campaign - intel-
their flaming 50s today find them-
ligent, tough-minded, and a good
selves blazing with post-meno-
role model. But in office her
pausal zest and accomplishing
know-it-all style overshadowed
things they never thought possi-
her husband, and voters punished
ble. The woman in her 50s today
them both. When the administra-
broke out of '50s conformity, into
tion's critics found Bill Clinton
'60s revolution, '70s feminism and
able to brush off whatever mud
'80s ambition, only to roar into the
was thrown at him, they looked
'90s having detonated all the ex-
for feet of clay in Hillary. Attacks
pectations for herself.
on her moral and ethical probity
Surprise. She is enjoying higher
all but shattered her. But instead
well-being than at any stage of
of growing bitter or depressed,
life. Among the thousands of pro-
she strategically withdrew from
fessional women I have surveyed
any overt policymaking role.
in their 50s, almost all say that 50
Hillary is determined to reha-
feels like "an optimistic, can-do
bilitate herself and to divert her
stage of life." In fact, they have a
attention and energies from the
third of their adult lives yet to live
empty nest. As a woman of 50, she
- time for a second adulthood.
is no longer confined by society's
Hillary Rodham Clinton felt
narrow definition of woman as
much older five years ago. The
sex object and breeder. She is fre-
press criticism that stung her the
er to use both the masculine and
most in the '92 campaign was
feminine aspects of her nature.
reading that she was "middle-
The greatest gift to a woman on
aged" - and then she was only
her 50th birthday is the license to
45. This is what often happens;
say what she thinks. A crisis of
women go from the pits in their
meaning challenges us all in mid-
mid-40s to the peak at 50.
life: What can we do that matters?
From Hillary's generational
Hillary is doing the most impor-
perspective, there is not more
tant thing a woman can do in her
middle age. Fifty is what 40 used
flaming 50s - following her pas-
to be. And women of the Vietnam
sion. Having championed better
generation are on a demographic
child care for years, she now in-
roll. By 2000, 30% of American
tends to make it a national issue.
women will be age 50 or over.
She will put us on the spot, forcing
But en route to this stage, Hilla-
us to decide what responsibility
Γy has struggled through a very
the government and private sec-
rough midlife passage - in pub-
tor have for keeping the two-earn-
lic. Over the past four years, she
er family together and strong.
has lost her father, lost her moth-
She will be the poster woman
er-in-law and lost a dear friend to
for boomer women hitting their
suicide. She recently let go of her
flaming 50s. She is demonstrating
adored daughter, arguably the
how to redirect their creative,
most satisfying and successful
nurturing instincts into the broad-
work of her life. And like all of us,
er world. If she can't have make-
she has had to give up some
'em-jump power, she will exercise
dreams and illusions, including
every opportunity for influence.
her dream of becoming the first
I'd be willing to predict that 10
female president.
years from now, her efforts to re-
Back in the heady days of the
define the first lady's role will be
first presidential campaign, when
seen as courageous and historic.
I asked Bill Clinton who he saw as
his successor, he responded: Hil-
Gail Sheehy is author of New
lary Rodham Clinton. Hillary her-
Passages: Mapping Your Life
self told an audience, "We'll have
Across Time.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Page A22
October 23, 1997
By Hillary Rodham Clinton
Good child care calls
for societywide effort
Bill and I prepared for
A
And the quality care that is
Thursday's White House
available is often financially out of
We should take inspiration from
Conference on Child
reach for parents. According to
the fact that there are models of
Care, we tried to recall
1995 Census Bureau figures, fam-
quality child care around the coun-
what things were like when we
ilies earning less than $1,200 a
try. This month, I visited two of
were two working parents with a
month pay an average of 25 per-
them. At the Quantico Marine
young child. Back then, we did
cent of their income for child care.
Corps Base in Virginia, I learned
what most American parents do all
A divorced mother I met who
how the military has put in place a
the time: juggle and hope for the
works as a secretary said she was
superb child care system - with
best.
able to send her child to day care
high standards, mandatory train-
And we were lucky. Because we
only because of a scholarship and
ing, and good wages and benefits
were both employed, had flexible
because she had moved back in
for the staff. In Florida, I saw how
schedules and had the privilege of
with her parents. Otherwise, she
the business community is getting
living in a governor's mansion with
told me, "I would probably have to
involved. Funds raised by the Flor-
a staff for all but two years of Chel-
quit my job and go on welfare. Who
ida Child Care Executive Partner-
sea's young life, Bill and I did not
would watch my child during the
ship are matched by the state and
have to worry that our daughter
day?"
then disbursed in grants to com-
was being well cared for when we
munities with child care initia-
were out of the house.
The urgency of improving child
tives.
That is not the case for most
care in America is heightened by
When I asked Quantico's com-
Americans. In the last 4½ years, as
mander and the Florida business
I have traveled our country talking
new information about the intel-
leaders why they were focusing on
to parents, no concern has been
lectual and emotional develop-
day care, their answers were re-
more prominent than child care. I
ment of children. As we learned at
markably similar. When parents
know the questions by heart: How
the White House Conference on
come to work confident that their
can I find quality child care? How
Early Childhood Development in
children are well looked after, they
can I afford it?- Will child care
April, what happens to a child in
can make a much more positive
harm my child?
the earliest years can make a dif-
contribution. It doesn't matter
According to a survey released
ference in how well he or she can
whether they are Marines or bank
this week by Parents magazine,
learn for a lifetime. With 45 per-
tellers.
nearly 75 percent of American
cent of children under age 1 in day
People ask me what I want this
families with young children use
care regularly, the issue of quality
conference to achieve. The answer
some form of child care. More than
has tremendous bearing not just
is simple: I want it to call attention
half of these parents worry every
on individual lives, but on the fu-
to the fact that we must make qual-
week whether or not their child is
ture of our nation.
ity child care more accessible and
looked after properly.
Fortunately, recent studies tell
more affordable. And I hope it will
Parents have reason to be con-
us that good care - whether given
prepare the way for specific ac-
cerned. According to research by
at home or at a day care center -
tions to make that happen.
the Families and Work Institute, 13
is good care. Done right, day care
percent of regulated and 50 per-
can be beneficial for children.
cent of nonregulated family child
At the White House conference
care providers offer care that is
this week, experts from around the
inadequate. That can mean cen-
country will gather to discuss
ters that are unsanitary or lack
steps to raise the quality and ex-
toys and other materials to encour-
pand the accessibility of child
age development. It also can mean
care. It is important to remember
caregivers who rarely interact
that any solutions that come out of
with children - or who are simply
the conference must involve all
outnumbered by them. A recent
sectors of society. The national
University of Colorado at Denver
government has a role to play, but
study of child care in four states
so do state governments, the pri-
found only one in seven child care
vate and nonprofit sectors, school
centers to be of good quality.
systems, and individual citizens. It
is important, too, that we find ways
to make it easier for parents who
want to stay home with their chil-
dren to afford to do so.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Page A2
October 23, 1997
Skeptics leery of
Clinton day care agenda
Ey Julia Duin
time, they concede how rare such
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
caregivers are.
Mr. Zigler, who is releasing his
Although today's White House
"family day cares" - typically one
own study of day care in four states
Conference on Child Care is ex-
woman caring for her own chil-
- Colorado, Connecticut, Califor-
pected to put the topic in the best
dren plus four or five others.
nia and North Carolina - says
possible light, it is unlikely to
"I've been working with the
only 14 percent of these centers
change the minds of those parents
Clinton people because they have
were of high quality. In 40 percent
who refuse to add their offspring
to come up with some initiatives,"
of the cases, the care was so poor
to America's 13 million children in
he says. "One will be school-aged
that children's health and safety
day care.
child care, which will solve the de-
were at risk. He suggests that
They include King Ferry, N.Y.,
linquency problem."
caregivers, especially those caring
artist Anto Parseghian. who, as the
What he'd prefer, he says, is day
for children under 3, combine
father of nine whose wife stays at
care beginning at age 3. Of the 13
forces with their local elementary
home, paints tableaux of a lonely
million children requiring child
schools, where they would get
child being left at a curb. They also
care, 6 million of them are 2 years
training.
include the Fairfax-based Mothers
old or younger.
At present, "we have a hodge-
at Home, which says parents
"That way, every child would get
podge of profits, nonprofits and
would rather have tax breaks and
preschool education and their day
family day care homes; every
family-friendly work policies than
would be as long as the workdays
study shows we have a very poor
a national day care system.
for mothers and fathers," he says.
system," he says. "A woman with
"Although full-time child care is
"There would be before- and after-
two of her own kids providing day
a necessity for some families and a
school care, as well as summer
care for five others often has no
choice for others. it is not what the
care for children up to the age of
training and no support. What if
majority of America's parents
12. Thus, you've solved all the child
she gets sick one day?
want for their children," writes
care needs of families of kids ages
"I've proposed taking all the
MAH public policy analyst Heidi
1 through 12."
family day care centers around a
Brennan.
The jury still appears to be out
school and using the school as a
"Parents want respect and sup-
on day care's effect on children.
hub to train and support these
port for their decisions about how
The National Institute of Child
women so if one mom gets sick. the
to care for their children," Mrs.
Health and Human Development,
kids can go to another home."
Brennan says. "Parents don't want
which is doing a multiyear study
As for qualifications, a day care
their government, influenced by
involving 1,364 racially and so-
center under his system would re-
the advice of some well-funded
cially diverse children in 10 cities,
quire what he terms a "child devel-
day care and education interests
said in April that children in day
opment associate certificate."
or so-called 'experts' to create and/
care test out as less warm and re-
"Day care is a cosmic crapshoot.
or fund expensive 'one-size-fits-
sponsive than those whose moth-
Behind one door is a wonderful
all' solutions."
ers are at home.
woman who will love your chil-
She's referring to proposals put
This alienation is most pro-
dren. Behind another door, if you
forth by Edward Zigler, one of the
nounced with children less than 6
leave your child with that woman,
invited guests to the White House
months old, the study said. The
when you come back that night, it
gathering. As a psychology profes-
more hours they spend in day care,
will be dead."
sor at Yale University and director
the fewer "positive strokes" -
Allan Carlson, president of the
of that university's Bush Center for
hugs, kisses and praise - they get.
Howard Center for Family, Reli-
Child Development and Social Pol-
This has broad social implications
gion and Society, which is aligned
icy, he advocates a national day
because half of all working moth-
with the Rockford Institute in
care system costing $75 billion to
ers leave their infant children in
Rockford, Ill., rejects Mr. Zigler's
$100 billion annually to the Amer-
day care beginning at ages 4 to 6
views. Mr. Carlson believes the
ican taxpayer.
months.
government is ignoring the most
"[The government] subsidizes
More than half of all American
recent research on infants.
people who go to school," Mr. Zig-
infants less than 1 year old are
"What's come up regarding in-
ler says. "I don't see these as taxes
cared for by people other than
fant brain development and the
or costs; I see these as invest-
their mothers.
need for close human attachments
ments. I'm reluctant about govern-
Proponents of a national day
in the first three years all points to
ment intrusion, but we don't mind
care system say that parents sim-
one conclusion never brought up at
it when we want our water safe to
ply need to select better caregivers
these [White House-sponsored]
drink or our medicine safe to take.
for their children. At the same
events," says Mr. Carlson, who will
"Sixty to 75 percent of family
be listening to the White House
day care is not regulated and is
conference from a nearby audito-
underground. Parents are so des-
rium.
perate for child care. As a nation,
"We need to ensure every infant
we've moved so slowly on this."
receives the full-time protective
He predicts today's conference
care of its mother, or its two nat-
will look favorably on day care
ural parents," he says. "Instead, we
centers reconstituted as "schools
examine strategies on how to ex-
of the 21st century" or "family re-
pand the day care movement. Be-
source centers." Those would be a
cause there's an agenda. And that
vast improvement. he says, over
agenda is social parenting."
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Clinton promises to unveil comprehensive child
DOCUMENT 12 OF 28
GNS9729800012
*
Clinton promises to unveil comprehensive child care legislation
JON FRANDSEN
Gannett News Service
854 Words
5473 Characters
*
10/23/97
Gannett News Service
FINAL
(Copyright 1997)
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton on Thursday promised people
worried sick about their children" that he will propose
comprehensive legislation in the State of the Union address that
*
would make child care better, safer and more accessible to working
parents.
Especially in this day and age when most parents work, nothing
is more important than finding child care that is affordable,
accessible and safe. It is America's next great frontier in
*
strengthening our families and our future," Clinton said at a White
House conference on improving child care.
Sens. James Jeffords, R-Vt., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who already
*
are pushing a plan for improving child care in the United States,
promised redoubled, bipartisan efforts to pass a bill next year.
Dodd claimed commitments from at least one Democratic and one
Republican senator from each committee that would have a hand in
shaping child care legislation to work on a task force with the White
House to shape an ambitious package with broad support.
Dodd's goal, he said in a telephone interview after the
*
conference, is to use public concern about child care to make
*
policymakers begin thinking of child care in the same way we think
about public education and public health.
There is an
opportunity emerging for us to do something major."
Clinton also announced immediate steps he was taking to improve
*
child care, including asking Congress to set up a scholarship fund
for the education of child care workers and make it easier for states
to share information about the criminal backgrounds of people working
with children.
*
With 1 in 3 children under the age of 5 in child care -- and
parents facing a regular stream of horror stories about poorly
trained staff and weak or non-existent enforcement of safety
regulations -- the issue has become a key political concern of
Source: Gannett News Service, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
parents.
"Working parents are desperate. Studies show that as few as
*
12 to 14 percent of children (in child care) are getting good quality
*
care," Susan Seliger, a child care expert who attended the White
*
House conference, said.
`People in this country have to be able to succeed at work and at
home in raising their children," Clinton said. And if we put
people in the disposition of essentially having to choose one over
the other, our country is going to be profoundly weakened.
Obviously, if people are worried sick about their children, then they
fail at work."
*
Added to the pressure of finding safe and affordable child care is
the growing scientific evidence that brain development in children in
later years is greatly dependent upon the mental stimulation of
babies.
At the most important time in the development of a child's
brain, more than 12 million children are being cared for by people
who are paid less than the person who picks up your garbage each
week, and are required to have less training than the person who cuts
your hair," said Jeffords, chairman of the Senate Labor and Human
*
Resources Committee, which will be instrumental in any child care
bill.
Our goal must be to promote the healthy development of children
*
in child care -- to move child care from babysitting to early
childhood education," Jeffords said.
*
Dodd pointed out that there is a huge and growing demand for child
care, especially in rural areas and inner cities.
He said there are 39,000 people in Florida, for example, on child
care waiting lists -- and another 40,000 slots will need to be filled
when Florida's welfare work requirement takes effect next year.
Such market pressures make desperate parents easy prey for
quick-buck artists" and ``fly-by-night operators," he said.
Jeffords and Dodd have been working closely on legislation that
*
would improve tax breaks for parents who use child care and for
businesses willing to provide day care centers; help states and
*
businesses finance improved training of child care workers; and
*
expand information about child care approaches that are proven to
work.
*
However, Dodd told the White House conference Thursday that this
bill does not go far enough and that he now is making a new push for
*
even broader legislation that would make quality child care more
affordable to millions more parents.
Dodd claimed support of Jeffords, Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Orin Hatch, R-Utah, and Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., Olympia
Snowe, R-Maine, and Patty Murray, D-Wash.
But all participants at the conference, including Clinton, shied
Source: Gannett News Service, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
away from any specific proposal, saying the meeting and the next few
months should be dedicated to searching for the best solutions.
Right now (Clinton) wants to get people energized about this
problem so they want a solution before they start drawing up specific
solutions," said Seliger, who was editor of Working Mother magazine
and now is marketing a videotape that tells parents how to pick a
child car provider.
To defuse concerns about the cost of such programs, Seliger said
there would be higher costs without the programs.
People who want to see the next generation unable to compete, to
see crime going up instead of going down -- juvenile crime especially
-- then don't spend the money," she said.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Gannett News Service, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Child Care to Get Brief Spotlight at a Crucial
DOCUMENT 18 OF 19
LATM9729600479
National Desk
*
Child Care to Get Brief Spotlight at a Crucial Time
MELISSA HEALY
TIMES STAFF WRITER
1788 Words
11790 Characters
*
10/23/97
Los Angeles Times
Home Edition
A-1
Copyright 1997 / The Times Mirror Company
WASHINGTON -- In the hierarchy of American occupations, it falls
somewhere between hamburger flipper and truck driver.
With a median income of $260 per week and meager if any benefits, the
*
average child-care worker toils in an industry widely viewed as requiring
few skills and minimal training, little continuity and scant oversight.
But those who teach and care for small children will have their day at
*
the White House today as President Clinton convenes the first-of-its-kind
*
child-care meeting. Clinton's conference spotlights the industry at a
time of both dramatic growth and deep concern--for its workers, its
standards and its product.
It will not, as they say at the changing table, be a pretty sight.
*
Every year, more than one in three child-care workers--as many as half
when the economy is humming--quit their jobs and go elsewhere in search
of better working conditions or higher pay. That's a turnover rate almost
three times that of truck drivers--another low-skill occupation, but one
*
that commands far better wages than child care. In a typical light
manufacturing plant, managers would panic if they had to contend with a
rate of worker replacement that high.
In an industry whose finished product is young minds, however, it's an
even scarier proposition. If small children are to grow up to be happy
and secure adults, a mounting body of research underscores the importance
of consistent supervision by adults attentive to their needs. Yet large
*
numbers of child-care workers live in or at the edge of poverty, holding
down more than one job, juggling children of their own and scraping to
make ends meet.
"If I had to live off this with my kids, I couldn't make it," said
42-year-old Marquita Bonner, who owns a small nonprofit day-care center
Source: Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
in Compton called The Learning Tree. "And my workers, they're making
minimum wage. I know they deserve more. I know they're worth more. But I
can't afford more. I try to give them little incentives to keep them but
it's just a hardship, it really is."
Bonner believes that she is giving parents good value for their $65
per week ($75 for toddlers). But as recently as last week, she told
herself: "Maybe I'm in the wrong business."
For legions of working Americans, including many middle-class couples
with two incomes, reliance on this sprawling industry is a daily fact of
life.
More than 12 million children under 6--representing 60% of American
preschoolers and half of all infants--are in the care of someone other
than their parents for a large portion of their day. With about 4 million
welfare-dependent parents being pushed into the work force, the number of
*
children in child care could near 20 million in the next few years.
One of Nation's Biggest Growth Industries
*
As a result, child care ranks as one of the nation's biggest growth
industries. Between now and 2005, the number of jobs it provides is
expected to grow by 33%, more than twice the average rate of growth of
the overall work force. Many fear that the dramatic growth could further
erode quality control in an already-beleaguered industry.
*
As Clinton convenes his White House conference today, experts say that
the industry cries out for more attention, more money and more uniform
oversight. But in an era of strict federal spending limits and resurgent
states' rights, the president and his advisors really have only one of
those powers--high-level attention--to wield.
Hard-pressed to push for expansive new federal spending and
regulation, Clinton can do little more than exhort states to do the right
thing by children, laying down markers for quality care, pointing to
innovative new programs and creating incentives for improving and
* expanding child care.
*
In doing so, he has his work cut out. The child-care industry is as
uneven in quality as it is vast, ranging from sparkling new
company-subsidized day-care centers to squalid tenement apartments in
which a single woman takes in neighborhood children.
The last authoritative count (taken in 1990, and the industry has
grown steadily since) showed 80,000 American day-care centers serving
nearly 5 million children and as many as 1.2 million family day-care
providers operating from homes.
Beyond that, an estimated one in three parents leave their children in
the care of a friend or relative--an inexpensive and almost completely
unregulated form of care that is expected to grow as millions of poor
women leave home for work.
*
And much of the nation's child care--from high-priced ventures to
low-cost alternatives--is not very good.
In an oft-cited 1995 study, researchers judging the quality of
Source: Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
family-run day-care centers in four states found that 86% provided care
below the level considered good. Roughly three-quarters were ranked as
mediocre, and 12% provided "less than minimal" care.
For those parents who leave their children in the care of relatives or
friends, the picture is even grimmer: A 1994 study found that almost 70%
of situations involving friends or relatives provided care characterized
as "potentially harmful to children's growth." Only 1% were judged to be
"potentially enhancing."
"Our children are being raised in pumpkin seats," said 39-year-old
*
Patti Gleason, a 17-year "warhorse" of the child-care industry who
oversees six nonprofit sites in southwestern Ohio. "They're carried in in
their car seats and set down and they sit in that pumpkin seat until they
scream
Parents either think that's OK, or they just don't want to
admit to themselves what's happening, because they couldn't live with
themselves if they did."
Physical, Intellectual Risks to Poor Care
In many cases, children could pay dearly for inadequate care--with
injuries, increased illnesses or lower levels of intellectual and
emotional growth than might have been achieved in better settings.
But even mediocre care does not come cheaply. According to a 1995
Census report, families living at or near the poverty line pay an average
*
of 25% of their income for child care. Middle-class families earning up
*
to $36,000 spend on average 12% of their income on child care.
As might be expected, affluent Americans tend to command good-quality
*
child care. More unexpectedly, researchers have found that the very poor,
because of their access to federally funded programs such as Head Start,
*
tend to get pretty good child care as well.
Between these economic extremes, a family's hefty investment is no
assurance of high quality. As First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton told an
audience recently, "it is difficult to think of a consumer situation in
America where so many people are paying so much and too often getting so
little."
*
To child-care advocates and to many of the nation's most dedicated
*
child-care workers, the reason for the industry's shortcomings is simple:
Its consumers--parents, communities and the country as a whole--may
passionately love their children and want the best for them but they do
not always know what the best is. And when faced with competing
priorities, many are just not willing to pay for it.
That's in spite of findings which indicate that the cost of delivering
*
good child care is only about $10 more per week per child than the cost
*
of delivering poor child care. And in spite of consistent evidence
showing that two factors--teacher training and high ratios of care-givers
to children--are the best assurances of quality.
*
Forty-one states require no training for child-care workers. As a
result, many see the kind of training or degrees that experts believe are
so key to quality day care as a costly and unnecessary frill.
Source: Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
"People treat you like someone who has no skills. They see you like a
housekeeper," said Mirielle Belizaire, who spends 11 hours a day caring
for four infants in her Charlotte, N.C., home and, in her spare time, is
pursuing an associate's degree in early childhood development. "Some even
say your job is easy. They don't know."
To be sure, the federal government will spend $14 billion over the
*
next six years to help states provide child care for the nation's
poor--an unprecedented investment prompted by the bid to put
welfare-dependent parents to work. But the welfare reform bill that
provided those funds would allow states to spend as little as 4% of their
*
share to ensure and enhance the quality of child care. That's down from a
past practice of requiring 25% of such funds to go toward quality
assurance.
Fear That Reform Will Relax Standards
*
What child-care advocates fear is that states scrambling to meet
*
daunting new demands for child care from their welfare populations will
*
relax standards for day-care centers and family-based child care. They
point to Wisconsin, which has created a new class of "provisional"
caregivers who do not have to meet training requirements but who will
charge half as much as accredited caregivers. And they cite states such
as Connecticut and Michigan, where funds for the inspection of centers
and the enforcement of standards have been deeply cut.
"There's a basic national flaw in our thinking," said Marcy Whitebook,
co-director of the National Center for the Early Childhood Workforce. "On
one hand, we just keep piling up information that the early years are
really important, that what happens then determines the rest of
children's lives. But we basically do not value the job of taking care of
children. There's a disconnect between what we know children need and the
kind of work environment we know we need for children."
But in many states, the challenge of meeting rising child-care demands
has helped spawn a flurry of innovation, and those models are expected to
*
dominate the agenda at this week's White House meeting.
Rhode Island, for instance, has begun to offer health benefits to
*
child-care workers who meet licensing standards, offering an attractive
incentive to seek accreditation and helping day-care centers draw and
retain more workers.
Colorado allows citizens to check a box on their income tax forms that
automatically funnels part of their taxes to a program called the Quality
*
Care Improvement Fund. The fund provides grants to Colorado child-care
providers wishing to expand or improve their services.
California has one of the nation's best-established mentoring
programs. Started as a small pilot in 1991, the California Early
Childhood Mentor Program has expanded statewide with federal funds and
enlists experienced preschool teachers in the training of novice
caregivers. The program not only boosts mentors' earnings by offering
them a $1,000 stipend but has increased professionalism and driven down
Source: Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 4
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
job departures among both mentors and the newcomers they help train.
One of the most promising programs began in North Carolina in 1990, at
* a time when turnover rates among child-care workers ran about 40% per
year. The program, called Teacher Education and Compensation Helps,
* provides scholarships for more than 2,000 North Carolina child-care
workers every year to pursue or continue their training in child
development and education.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Los Angeles Times, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 5
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
FIRST FAMILY FOCUSES ON CHILD CARE
DOCUMENT 8 OF 12
CLEV9729700042
NATIONAL
* FIRST FAMILY FOCUSES ON CHILD CARE
TOM BRAZAITIS PLAIN DEALER BUREAU
852 Words
5566 Characters
*
10/23/97
The Plain Dealer Cleveland, OH
FINAL / ALL
13A
(Copyright (c) The Plain Dealer 1997)
Every working day in the United States, three out of five
preschoolers, some as young as six weeks, spend part of the day
under the care of someone other than their parents.
Three out of five women with children under age 6 and three out
of four women with children ages 6 to 17 work outside the home.
They leave their children with a friend or relative or take them to
* a child-care provider in a private home or public building.
In cities, full-time care for a 3-year-old typically costs
$4,000 to $10,000 a year - about the same as college tuition plus
room and board at a public university. Half the families with young
children earn less than $35,000 a year.
*
The nation's 3 million child-care providers (98 percent of whom
are women) are paid, on average, $12,058 per year. Half the
*
child-care workers leave their jobs every year, creating
instability throughout the system.
With these statistics from the Children's Defense Fund as a
background, President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
*
will preside today over the first White House Conference on Child
*
Care.
The all-day conference will be beamed by satellite TV to
Capitol Hill and to locations across the country, including an
auditorium at Ohio State University in Columbus, in the hope of
drawing attention and spurring action on the problem of substandard
* child care. (C-SPAN, the public affairs network, said it plans to
broadcast the conference, but as of yesterday did not know when.)
In the morning session, participants will address the
*
relationship between child care and the economy and ways in which
private business can team with government to provide care.
In the afternoon, Health and Human Services Donna Shalala will
* give her overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the child-care
Source: Plain Dealer (Cleveland), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
system; state officials, military personnel, a religious leader and
business and labor representatives will report on "promising
*
models" for child care.
*
The quality of non-parental child care in the United States has
come under increased scrutiny since a 1994 Carnegie Corp. report
emphasizing the importance of early childhood development.
Marian Wright Edelman, funder and president of the Children's
Defense Fund, said Tuesday that "the heightened awareness about the
importance of the first three years of life in a child's
development" has focused attention on the fact that "the quality of
*
infant and child care is shockingly low.
"In our conversations with parents we find some willing to
*
visit as many as 50 child-care homes before they find one that they
are comfortable enough to leave their infant," Edelman said. "This
is an unconscionable burden on parents."
The welfare reform law signed by President Clinton last year
*
provides more money for child care for welfare mothers who go to
work, but at the expense of the working poor, who find it harder to
* get child-care subsidies from the government or private sources,
she said.
Less money has been allocated for before-school and
after-school care, Edelman said, despite research showing that
juveniles who have positive alternatives to the street do better in
school and are less apt to participate in criminal activity.
Marcy Whitebook, co-director of the National Center for the
Early Childhood Work Force, commented on the high turnover rate
*
among child-care providers.
"Why? Because even with 20 years experience and a bachelor's
degree, a Wisconsin provider finds that her teenage daughter earns
more as a grocery checker than she does working with children,"
Whitebook said.
"A gifted young after-school teacher in suburban Los Angeles
knows he can earn twice as much washing UPS trucks at night as he
can doing the work he loves."
Billie Osborne-Fears, director of Starting Point, the
*
child-care resource and referral agency for Cuyahoga, Ashtabula,
*
Lake and Geauga counties, said the average salary of a child-care
worker in northern Ohio is $12,000 - with no vacation time, sick
time, health insurance or pension.
*
"Most child-care workers in our community qualify for food
stamps," Osborne-Fears said. "People working at the Cleveland Zoo
caring for the animals make more money than those caring for our
children."
Osborne-Fears was to participate today in a panel discussion on
Capitol Hill between the morning and afternoon sessions at the
* White House.
Source: Plain Dealer (Cleveland), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
In a telephone interview, Osborne-Fears praised the emphasis
Gov. George V. Voinovich has put on Head Start for
3-to-5-year-olds, but said she worries that low-income workers will
*
be forced onto welfare by the high cost of child care even as
* welfare recipients take jobs with child-care subsidies.
Jackie Sensky, Voinovich's deputy chief of staff for children's
issues, said there is no arguing with statistics that show the
* number of children in subsidized child care has grown from 18,000
when the governor took office to 81,000 today.
Subsidies are offered to welfare recipients making the
transition to work and for one full year to the working poor whose
income is less than 150 percent of poverty.
*
"Child care is the most difficult issue to work on," Sensky
said. "There is so much need and only so many dollars. You have to
ask yourself, are you trading one entitlement for another - welfare
* for child care?"
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Plain Dealer (Cleveland), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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PRIVATE SECTOR PLAYS GROWING ROLE IN CHILD CARE
DOCUMENT 236 OF 343
REC9729700064
NEWS
* PRIVATE SECTOR PLAYS GROWING ROLE IN CHILD CARE
By PEGGY O'CROWLEY, Staff Writer
642 Words
4513 Characters
* 10/23/97
The Record, Northern New Jersey
All Editions.= Star. 3 Star Late. 3 Star. 2 Star. 1; Star
a04
(Copyright 1997)
A 14-month-old boy at the Mahwah day-care center crawled up a
set of padded stairs to look out the window. Other toddlers, barely
walking, lurched from one activity to another on the carpeted floor.
The newly configured "activity centers" are designed to
stimulate walking and crawling and to encourage curiosity about what
children will find next a teacher with a picture book to look at, a
little "house" to play in.
"There used to be cribs lining the walls, and we didn't have as
much room," said Rae Ann Jandris, owner of the Children's Learning
Center of Wyckoff at Fardale in Mahwah. Now space has been created
by replacing cribs with mats.
The changes are the result of a new program, paid for by a group
of New Jersey corporations, that allows day-care center directors to
attend weeklong seminars to learn more about their business. A
consultant then visits each center and makes recommendations such
-
as changing the setup of classrooms.
The program is just one example of the public-private efforts
*
that are expected to be a focus of today's White House Conference on
* Child Care.
No specific policies or new programs are expected to come out of
the Washington conference. But Richard B. Stolley, president of the
* New York-based Child Care Action Campaign, and other advocates hope
the gathering will encourage the private and public sectors to do
more to help care for the millions of infants, toddlers, and
preschoolers of working parents.
*
Better child care is crucial for two reasons, said Marian Wright
Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund. First, the huge
pool of mothers coming off the welfare rolls will need places to
leave their children. Second, recent research has shown that the
brain is enormously affected by the kind of stimulation it receives
Source: Record (Bergen, N.J.), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
in its first three years.
In North Jersey, it costs an average of $6,664 a year to send a
preschooler to a day-care center. The fees for infants are even
higher.
Nearly all those costs are now shouldered by parents and by the
government, which provides subsidies. But experts say both funding
sources are about tapped out and that the private sector must get
more involved if the affordability, quality, and quantity of day care
are to improve.
One way businesses can get involved is to set up day-care
centers on company property, experts say. A second way is to create
partnerships with local day-care centers in which businesses provide
resources for the center in return for a discount for employees.
A third way is simply to provide employees with day-care
benefits as part of their compensation.
A recent national poll of working women found that one in 10 had
*
employers that offered child-care benefits, said Karen Nussbaum of
the AFL-CIO. "Despite a lot of talk about family-friendly policies,
*
few women see child-care policy at the workplace," she said.
*
Stolley said the Child Care Action Campaign has been focusing on
how to sell the idea to businesses.
"Business needs to be convinced there's a bottom line to
*
investing in child care," he said. "Now we are getting hard, true
empirical evidence that workers are retained longer, it improves
productivity and lowers absenteeism."
The New Jersey program is part of a national effort called the
American Business Collaborative for Dependent Care. In the Garden
State, 10 corporations, including AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Bell
Atlantic, and IBM, have provided $500,000 for training day-care
center directors.
*
Debi Wilson, the corporate child-care specialist with Child and
Family Resources of Morris County, has organized the seminars,
drawing on instructors from nationally known schools and programs.
Thirty North and Central Jersey day-care center directors and
operators including some from Bergen and Passaic counties are
attending three weeklong seminars in Princeton. Topics include
improving infant care, hiring staffers, and accommodating parents
whose children don't need full-time care.
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Record (Bergen, N.J.), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Clintons seek to spark new debate about federal
DOCUMENT 17 OF 19
FBEE9729700125
TELEGRAPH
*
Clintons seek to spark new debate about federal role in child care
*
*
White House says it won't advocate a governmental role at meeting
today.
Ann McFeatters Scripps Howard News Service
481 Words
3325 Characters
*
10/23/97
The Fresno Bee
HOME
A10
(Copyright 1997)
President Clinton and Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton will hold a
*
White House Conference on Child Care today, hoping to stimulate a new
debate on what the federal role should be but unwilling to propose
specific solutions.
Although they won't advocate a governmental role, the Clintons
have talked at length about working-parents' problems and say they
*
want policy-makers to address child care availability, affordability,
safety and quality in America.
However, conservatives say that the Clintons' real agenda is
another "entitlement" program.
*
Richard Nixon was the last president to tackle the issue of child
*
care when he vetoed a bill that would have set national standards.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry said Wednesday that a
conference like this "can change the dynamic for policy-makers" and
"organize and launch a concrete policy-making exercise."
He said Clinton is "very keen on stimulating a national discussion
that we have not had before."
*
Hillary Clinton has said that child care is critical for business
as well as parents. "The investments we make in our children today
will be returned to us in the form of stronger families, better
communities and a more productive workforce."
*
The problems in child care are enormous. Of 3 million child-care
givers in the nation, about half quit each year, partly because they
earn on average only $12,000 a year, according to the National Center
for the Early Childhood Work Force, a nonprofit group that advocates
* higher wages for child-care workers.
But many single parents struggle to pay the high cost of care, an
average of $74 a week. Quality care costs a parent at least $8,500 a
Source: Fresno Bee (Calif.), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
year, experts say. As for poor families, only a small percentage get
government subsidies.
The current court case of a teen-age nanny, accused of killing a
baby in her care, has focused new attention on the issue of safety
* and has led some opponents of child care to say that mothers should
not work when children are small.
Hillary Clinton, a longtime supporter of the child advocacy group
Children's Defense Fund, has said that she has ideas for easing the
*
child-care crisis for parents, such as creating some sort of
*
insurance programs for child-care workers who fear being sued.
After being severely criticized for her role in the
administration's failed health-care reform plan, she is said to be
eager to avoid seeming to be seeking new government action in another
controversial arena.
Gary Bauer, head of the Family Research Council, a conservative
think tank and lobbying group, says dryly that he doubts the Clintons
* will hold a White House conference without wanting some government
action.
*
Linda Chavez, who was head of public liaison in the Reagan White
*
House, says, "Make no mistake, if {Hillary} Clinton has her way,
*
Thursday's White House conference on child care will usher in a new
era in which Uncle Sam takes on primary responsibility for minding
the nation's children."
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Fresno Bee (Calif.), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
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Clintons hosts for conference on child care
DOCUMENT 13 OF 28
APOL9729700075
* Clintons hosts for conference on child care `silent crisis'
LAURA MECKLER
Associated Press
725 Words
4915 Characters
* 10/23/97
The Associated Press Political Service
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)
WASHINGTON (AP) President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham
*
Clinton called attention to a "silent crisis" in child care Thursday
*
as hosts for a White House conference seeking ways to boost quality
without raising costs.
The president proposed a modest package of help, including a
scholarship fund to attract workers to the field. He said he would
present a more comprehensive proposal next year.
*
"Nothing is more important than finding child care that is
affordable, accessible and safe," Clinton said. "It is America's
next great frontier in strengthening our families and our future."
North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt was among those speaking at the
conference.
As much as anything, the conference was meant to "start a
conversation," said Mrs. Clinton, calling the problems facing many
parents a "silent crisis."
Experts told the Clintons they already know the key to high
quality care: talented workers. But it's tough to find and keep them
when average pay is just $6.89 an hour. One-third of workers leave
their jobs each year.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton noted, some states have higher standards
* for beauticians than for child care workers.
The federal role has been limited, mostly providing money to help
subsidize costs for low-income families. Clinton suggested a
slightly broader focus but no major investment:
Setting up a scholarship fund that would provide $300 million
*
over five years to help up to 50,000 child care providers get
additional training. The workers, who would get $1,500 each, would
have to remain in the field at least a year. They'd be guaranteed a
raise when they finished.
It's modeled after a North Carolina program where teachers
received raises averaging 10 percent. The people in the program had
a turnover rate of less than 10 percent, compared with 42 percent for
Source: Associated Press Political Service, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval³
the state.
Eliminating state barriers to checking criminal backgrounds of
* child care workers. That plan must be approved by Congress and all
50 states.
Forming a group of business leaders, headed by Treasury Secretary
*
Robert Rubin, to look for ways to provide on-site child care or help
employees afford it.
*
Clinton promised child care would be a top priority next year,
although he acknowledged there would be "fierce competition for
limited money." He suggested money might be spent to expand Head
* Start, improve worker salaries or boost the tax credit for child care
expenses.
Hunt discussed North Carolina's Smart Start program, which allows
local community groups to shape programs for pre-school children.
"You give children the kinds of opportunity, love and care, all
those things we've heard about here today, in those first five years,
and our schools will just zoom. No question about it," Hunt said at
the conference.
Congressional reaction to the proposals was mixed.
Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., chairman of the subcommittee that handles
*
child care, wrote Clinton that he should wait to see the effect of
last year's welfare law before doing more.
*
Child care standards are the responsibility of state and local
governments, Shaw wrote, adding, "No government agency can replace
vigilant parents in making sure that day care promotes their
children's development and safety."
But a bipartisan group of legislators attending the conference
promised action next year on a major initiative. "It's going to be a
first priority," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
Most speakers at Thursday's conference focused on the quality of
care available. Several studies indicate that across the country, it
is often poor and usually mediocre.
*
A good child care worker offers something simple: "warm and
responsive care," said Ellen Galinsky, president of the New York-
based Families and Work Institute.
Parents should check out the center they use, Galinsky said: Do
the children all look busy with their own activities? Does each
worker have to watch too many children? How much are the workers
paid? And do the workers seem to really like children?
"There are a lot of people who take care of children who don't
really want to," Galinsky said.
*
But even excellent child care doesn't help parents who can't
afford it.
One million low-income children receive federal subsidies but
there isn't enough money for an additional 9 million eligible
children, said Donna Shalala, secretary of health and human services.
The challenge, Clinton said, is to develop a national system that
addresses the problem rather than a set of "nice touching stories we
can all tell each other."
Source: Associated Press Political Service, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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'CRISIS SITUATION': DAY CARE OFFICIALS DISCUSS
DOCUMENT 84 OF 121
SLMO9729700495
NEWS
CRISIS SITUATION': DAY CARE OFFICIALS DISCUSS PAY, EDUCATION,
WELFARE
Carolyn Bower Of The Post-Dispatch Staff
682 Words
4494 Characters
* 10/23/97
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
FIVE STAR LIFT
07C
(Copyright 1997)
A 2-year-old in a power struggle. A mother on crack. A father
with an alcohol problem.
These are the issues some day-care workers face as they care
for children from birth to kindergarten. And yet many of these
workers make less than garbage collectors, day-care center
directors say.
"We say these are the formative years of life, and society says
it is OK to stick these children with someone making five dollars
an hour," said Paula Lorio, director of the child development
center at St. Charles Count y Community College. "We need to say
* early child care is important and to put the dollars there
We are in a crisis situation."
Lorio was among three dozen people from metropolitan school
districts, day-care agencies and colleges who attended a hearing
Wednesday at United Services in St. Peters. The agency offers day
care and other services for children with special needs and others.
The hearing was one of two forums held Wednesday before
representatives of the Governor's Commission on Early Childhood
Care and Education. A second forum was set to take place Wednesday
night at Harris-Stowe State College in St. Louis.
The commission will meet at 10 a.m. today in the Gateway Room
of the United Way Building, 1111 Olive Street in St. Louis.
Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan appointed the commission of
educators, state workers and business and political leaders May 28
to study the state's efforts to improve the care and education of
young children. The commission is expected to deliver a report to
Carnahan in December with the possibility of recommendations for
state legislation.
The work of the commission comes at a time of national
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
discussion on the issue. President Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham
* Clinton will sponsor a White House conference on child care today.
A number of conferences in recent years have pointed to research
that shows brain development in the first several years of life
largely affects a child's subsequent educational and social
progress.
The appointment of the commission signals that early childhood
education and care have become a priority for the governor and for
Missouri, said Joe Moseley, chairman of the commission and general
counsel for Shelter Insurance Co. in Columbia, Mo.
*
"We want to make quality child care available to every child
from birth to 5 years old in the state," Moseley said Wednesday.
The need for day care continues to grow as a result of welfare
reform and a growing number of women going back to work. Many of
those women are single parents who can ill afford increases in the
cost of day care. Several day-care directors spoke of the need for
* more centers to provide night or weekend child care.
Ann Bingham, executive director of the Stella Maris Child
Center in St. Louis, wants to see large block grants from the state
given to pay for day-care salaries and educational programs.
Mary Jo Griffith, director of early childhood education for the
Francis Howell School District, dreams of forming networks of
groups to handle early childhood education and special education,
groups such as school districts, social agencies, private day-care
providers and parents.
Andi Schleicher, executive director of the Child Day Care
Association, said the licensing structure for day care in Missouri
is a problem. She said people are angry that the state will pay to
keep children for day care in private homes and not run child abuse
and neglect checks on these providers.
Carole Dawn Arrendale, executive director of the Lemay Early
Childhood and Family Development Center and a parent of children at
the center, asked: "Why does the state sink so much into juvenile
detention, penitentiaries and jails? Why not put more toward early
* child care and prevention?"
Loretta Lloyd, director of Sunshine Academy in St. Louis,
expressed concern about a lack of raises for day-care workers in
the last eight years. She asked, "How can the state let this go on,
and we keep doing our jobs? There is no money to be made. But we
keep working because we care about children, and we care about
their parents."
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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ON WASHINGTON White House spotlights child care
DOCUMENT 208 OF 343
ATJC9730200677
NATIONAL NEWS
* ON WASHINGTON White House spotlights child care
Compiled by Ernie Freda; from staff, news services and
published reports
987 Words
6674 Characters
* 10/23/97
The Atlanta Constitution
A; 12
(Copyright 1997 The Atlanta Journal / The Atlanta Constitution)
*
Cost and quality are the two biggest issues in child care, and
*
they'll be in the spotlight today at the first White House conference
*
on child care, a gathering of educators and experts from around the
country.
Officials expect the conference to set the stage for President
Clinton's State of the Union speech next year, when he is expected to
*
highlight child care. The administration also plans to include some
initiatives in next year's budget proposal.
*
Generally, the federal government has only a small role in child
*
care. States are responsible for setting standards, enforcing them
and adding any other money for subsidies.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, a working mother, said Wednesday that any
*
program for improving child care should include help for stay-at-home
moms. She also made clear that the conference would not yield major
new federal initiatives, but instead identify model care programs and
encourage their replication.
The Georgia congressional delegation, like the Clintons, has
*
little firsthand experience with professional child care. Only two
of the state's 13 members, Republicans Bob Barr and John Linder, said
* Wednesday that they used child care services when their families were
young ---and only occasionally at that.
Surgery for Chambliss
Rep. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) underwent successful Achilles' tendon
reconstructive surgery Wednesday afternoon at Bethesda National Naval
Hospital in Maryland. Chambliss suffered an "insertional Achilles'
tendon rupture" during routine exercises Tuesday evening in the House
gym. Dr. Francis McGuigan, the chief orthopedic surgeon, called the
procedure a success and said the outlook for a complete recovery was
excellent. The 90-minute procedure, according to McGuigan, was more
complicated than a routine repair and will require at least a
Source: Atlanta Constitution, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
three-month recovery period.
A+ vote coming up
Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) and two Democrats Sen. Robert
Torricelli of New Jersey and Rep. Floyd Flake of New York --joined
forces Wednesday to make a case for education savings accounts. The
proposal, which would help parents pay for primary and secondary
school expenses, is expected to be voted on today in the House. The
House version of the Coverdell-Torricelli plan would permit parents
to place up to $2,500 a year per child in an "A+ account. The money
would be allowed to earn interest tax-free, and funds left over could
be used to cover college expenses. The three lawmakers said the
inititive would help middle-income parents choose the best schools
for their children without diverting money from public schools.
Rights for all
Facing opposition from conservatives, President Clinton's nominee
to head the government's top civil rights office pledged at his
confirmation hearing Wednesday to "enforce the law on behalf of all
of our people." After Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the
Judiciary Committee, used his opening statement to criticize the
Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Bill Lann Lee, the son of
a Chinese immigrant, said, "My career has been devoted to finding
pragmatic solutions under the law to real-life problems of
discrimination and exclusion. I believe nonpartisan, evenhanded
enforcement of our civil rights laws will advance those principles."
Luce(y) in the sky
The diaries of the late Clare Boothe Luce a journalist,
playwright, congresswoman (Connecticut) and ambassador (Italy)
show that she experimented with LSD. The Library of Congress has
made public some of Luce's journals documenting her experiments with
the hallucinogenic drug during the early 1960s. In them, Luce
methodically notes her observations and physiological reactions to
the drug. She wrote in one account: "I am unpleasantly aware of
colored papier-mache masks over the bar, who are colored like black
and blue devils. When I am `under,' I have the premonition I am not
going to like those masks at all." Luce apparently began using LSD
under the guidance of a medical researcher, Dr. Sidney Cohen, who had
asked her to take part in a research experiment. Luce was the wife
of Henry R. Luce, founder and head of Time magazine.
Posting to old country
Rep. Thomas Foglietta (D-Pa.) will resign from his House seat and
head to Rome by next month to be the next U.S. ambassador. The
Senate unanimously confirmed the nine-term lawmaker from
Philadelphia, and he'll be sworn in next month. Foglietta, 68,
speaks Italian and has made about 50 trips to Italy. His
grandparents came to the United States with his mother more than a
century ago.
Source: Atlanta Constitution, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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ELSEWHERE
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, spiritual leader of the 270
million-member Orthodox Christian Church, had a busy day in
Washington, receiving Congress' Gold Medal, discussing religion and
the environment with President Clinton, and attending a White House
reception with first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton before dinner with
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
Reflecting a bipartisan
consensus that another government shutdown would be awful politics,
the House voted overwhelmingly to keep agencies running through Nov.
7 when Congress hopes to adjourn for the year while lawmakers
and Clinton sort through lingering budget fights
Hillary
Rodham Clinton will travel to England, Ireland and Northern Ireland
next Thursday through Saturday, the White House announced, focusing
her attention on the roles of women and youth in democracy and the
Irish peace process
Typically wary of spending taxpayers'
money, Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) intends to make an exception, saying
he will introduce legislation intended to double federal spending on
medical, space and other civilian research to $68 billion over the
next decade
Ex-President Gerald Ford and wife Betty,
grandparents of five girls, got their first grandson last week when
son Jack and wife Juliann had 6-pound, 15-ounce Christian Gerald in
San Diego.
DULY NOTED
"We could have matched them dollar for dollar and I could be here
tonight saying, `Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.' "
Ross Perot on CNN, saying the Reform Party "could have been
competitive" in 1996 had it used soft money for issue ads.
TODAY'S AGENDA
Happening: Rep. Jay Kim (R-Calif.) is sentenced in Los Angeles for
accepting illegal campaign contributions.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Atlanta Constitution, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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ILLARY CLINTON'S CONFERENCE ON CHILD CARE HAS
DOCUMENT 212 OF 343
LAD9729800120
NEWS
*
HILLARY CLINTON'S CONFERENCE ON CHILD CARE HAS GOP WARY
The New York Times
281 Words
2136 Characters
*
10/23/97
Los Angeles Daily News
VALLEY
N12
(Copyright 1997)
*
Hillary Rodham Clinton will convene a White House conference
today to highlight what she and the president see as an urgent need
*
for safe, affordable child care. But conservative Republicans say
they fear the conference will lay the groundwork for plans to
increase government spending or regulation.
Hoping to overcome such skepticism, administration officials
have been trying to enlist moderate Republicans and business
* executives in their campaign, arguing that improved child care not
only would produce healthier, happier children, but eventually
would increase the nation's economic output as well.
The first lady on Wednesday described the conference and the
*
administration's approach to child care in purposefully reassuring
terms. The most successful day care programs result from
"public-private partnerships," not government mandates, she said at
a briefing for reporters.
*
The White House conference probably will generate several new
policy initiatives, she indicated, but they will not require
enormous amounts of public money or a broadly expanded state
regulatory role.
And Clinton delivered a preemptive answer to critics who say
*
the focus on child care sends an implicit message to women that it
is better for them to work outside the home than to stay at home
caring for their own children.
"Despite our rhetoric about family values, we don't do very
much to help the parents who want to stay home," Clinton said. "We
*
don't want one stereotypical,' one-size-fits-all approach to child
* care."
In their handling of this issue, the Clintons clearly are
drawing on lessons learned from the health care debacle of the
president's first term. Their proposals to overhaul the health care
system were rejected in part because critics painted them as an
inflexible government-decreed solution to major social needs.
Source: Los Angeles Daily News, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Overwhelming Dilemma Of National Child Care
DOCUMENT 13 OF 19
SFC9730000835
EDITORIAL
EDITORIALS
* Overwhelming Dilemma Of National Child Care
398 Words
2695 Characters
*
10/23/97
The San Francisco Chronicle
FINAL
A24
(Copyright 1997)
*
CHILD CARE is a Catch-22: With half of America's working families
*
earning $35,000 a year or less, what they can afford to pay for child
*
care does not amount to enough to ensure a decent wage for the
child-care provider. Workers are paid an average of $6.89 an hour.
*
And without decent wages and benefits, child-care workers stay only
briefly in those jobs, which means instability at a place where
stability is crucial.
The Clinton administration will address this dilemma at the
first-ever White House conference on child care today. It's not
*
clear what will come out of the conference of child-care experts and
policy makers, and the Clintons are not specific about what they
want.
The goal, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said, is to "call
national attention to an issue that political leaders and
policymakers should focus on, but which has often been ignored."
*
The difficulty of obtaining good child care is daunting. Any
success will depend on cooperation and support at every level -- from
federal, state and local governments to private business and parents.
But the need for quick action is evident to help the three out of
five preschoolers who need care and the 5 million children who are
home alone each weekday. Good care gives children a good foundation
for school and it also has been shown to prevent delinquency.
Despite such evidence of the benefits of good care, six out of
*
seven child care centers offers mediocre to poor care. Half of
infant and toddler rooms in centers are judged to be potentially
harmful to children. Most states require no training for providers
*
before they offer child care in homes. Full-day care is often far
beyond the reach of many working families.
A number of bills in Congress would help families and businesses
*
pay for child care. Especially appealing are ones that would bring
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
the dependent care tax credits into the '90s by increasing from
$2,400 to $4,000 for one child and from $4,800 to $8,000 for two or
more children the amount of expenses that could be claimed.
Some of the measures would provide tax incentives for businesses.
*
The White House conference will have done a service if it
convinces lawmakers of the urgency of the problem and shows them that
* an investment in child care is an investment in public safety and the
emotional and intellectual health of children.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
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Local advocate at White House child-care talks
DOCUMENT 223 OF 343
CINP9729700442
NEWS
* Local advocate at White House child-care talks
Stephen Huba Post staff reporter
310 Words
2279 Characters
*
10/23/97
The Cincinnati Post
FINAL
15A
(Copyright 1997)
A Cincinnati consultant active in child development issues
*
is among participants in today's first-ever White House conference
* on child care.
Chad P. Wick, president of Resources and Instruction for
Staff Excellence Inc., is one of the conference guests, his office
confirmed.
Wick would not comment on his role in the meeting.
Today's conference, called by President Bill Clinton, will
*
focus on the cost and quality of child care, among other things.
Earlier this year, Wick's organization inaugurated a training
*
program to help parents and child-care providers stimulate learning
in children from infancy to age 5.
The pilot program, titled "Winning Teams for Young
Children," was offered in 20 locations throughout Ohio, including
two in Greater Cincinnati, in January, March and May.
It is Wick's conviction that parents and educators often
focus on learning between kindergarten and 12th grade.
But a critical part of education also occurs between birth
and age 5, when children gain the fundamental social and learning
skills on which their later learning is based.
"New scientific research is telling us that without quality
care and nurturing in early childhood, we are handicapping our
children in the future," Wick told The Post in April.
"Winning Teams for Young Children" brought parents and
teachers together in video conferences and workshops to discuss
ways to cooperate in early childhood learning.
There are 840,000 children under age 5 in Ohio, and about
500,000 of them are in day care.
Text of fax box follows:
*
White House spotlight on child care
Source: Cincinnati Post, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
President Clinton is not expected to announce any major
initiatives at today's conference, just a handful of modest ideas,
including:
A public education campaign and literature to help parents
*
chose high-quality child care.
*
New incentives, such as loans or grants, to help child-care
workers get more educations.
*
A campaign to get businesses more involved in providing child
*
care for their workers.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Cincinnati Post, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Child-care aid bypasses county's working poor
DOCUMENT 227 OF 343
INDY9729700022
NEWS
* Child-care aid bypasses county's working poor
Thousands of local residents who have jobs must remain on waiting
list for assistance.
KATHLEEN SCHUCKEL
753 Words
5076 Characters
*
10/23/97
The Indianapolis Star
CITY FINAL
A01
(Copyright 1997)
*
Government is giving the issue of child care lots of attention.
President Clinton will be the host of the first-ever White
*
House conference on the issue today.
Gov. Frank O'Bannon has promised millions for the working poor
who need help with their kids while they're punching the clock.
But government hasn't solved things yet in Marion County.
Thousands of low-income families here remain on a waiting list,
*
hoping to get government aid to pay for child care.
People like Julie Barrett, a single mother of two.
A youth group-home coordinator, she spends a third of her $18,000
*
annual salary on child care. She pays an elderly neighbor to
baby-sit but wishes she could afford to send her daughters to a more
stimulating learning environment.
"It's hard," she said. "It makes my stress level go up."
In July, O'Bannon announced that $62 million in savings from
* welfare reform would be used to subsidize child care for welfare
and working-poor families.
He predicted then that waiting lists for help would be virtually
eliminated by the infusion of cash.
But Barrett and others are still on the list and still waiting.
More than 4,700 children of the working poor in this community
need government help for day care but aren't getting it. That's
despite a huge increase in the number of children being served this
year - 7,500 compared with 2,000 a year ago.
The problem?
In large part, welfare reform.
Most of the new money available in Indianapolis has been used
to support those forced off welfare and required to work. Welfare
Source: Indianapolis Star, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
* reform laws guarantee them at least a year of child-care subsidies
if they stay in a low-income bracket.
That creates friction among the new poor and the old poor, said
Lee Meriwether, executive director and president of Daybreak
Management Corp., the agency that administers the state's
* child-care subsidies in Indianapolis.
Why should those who worked hard all these years wait on a list
while they watch those coming off welfare get immediate help?
"Everybody should be able to have a tax break, or there should
be more programs to accommodate the low-income," Barrett said.
Diane Gardenhire, office manager at Daybreak, sees a difference in
the groups' attitudes as well. The working poor appreciate
* child-care help; those just off welfare expect it, she said.
Those coming off welfare resent having to come into the
Daybreak offices to sign up for the subsidies, Meriwether said. He
calls them his "hard-core" clients. Many swear at the Daybreak
staff.
"They're used to entitlements. They don't really appreciate the
subsidy."
In the summer, O'Bannon said working families in Indiana would
get assistance until their earnings reached 150 percent of the
poverty level - or $19,995 for a family of three.
And that's happening in most Indiana counties.
*
Janet Deahl, state director of the child-care subsidy program,
said that at year's end it will be clear if money remains from
other areas to help fill the gap here and wherever else there are
shortfalls.
Meriwether never promoted the Daybreak programs. People find out
about the subsidies by word of mouth, he said. "If we did
advertise, the waiting list might include 20,000," he said.
Indianapolis needs to add $16 million to its $23 million annual
budget to eliminate its waiting list, Meriwether said. He's not
optimistic.
At some point, the state will have to figure out how to meet
the ongoing needs of the working poor and their children who need
care.
Low-income people are rarely in jobs that give annual raises
sufficient to pay for good-quality care, which runs several
thousand dollars a year per child, Meriwether said.
*
Directors of child-care centers and homes say they can't afford
to charge less. Many of their own employees are paid so poorly that
* they qualify for child-care subsidies themselves.
But the working poor won't go away. Their numbers will grow.
"How do we support these families in the long run?" Deahl said.
"We don't want to create a revolving door."
Source: Indianapolis Star, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
TV Coverage
*
A satellite broadcast of the White House Confernece on Child Care
will be shown at Ivy Tech State College, 1 W. 26th St., from 9 a.m.
to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. today.
Conference facts
*
What: White House Conference on Child Care.
When: Today.
Participants: The president has invited educators and experts from
across the country.
Goal: To stimulate national debate on what role the federal
* government should play in improving child care. More than 12 million
* children younger than 6 are in child care.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Indianapolis Star, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
CLINTON PLAN COULD MAKE OR BREAK DAY-CARE
DOCUMENT 238 OF 343
NOTP9729700133
NATIONAL
CLINTON PLAN COULD MAKE OR BREAK DAY-CARE SERVICES PARENTS LIKE
INITIATIVES; OPERATORS ARE SKEPTICAL
JOAN TREADWAY and STEPHANIE GRACE Staff writers
1047 Words
7730 Characters
*
10/23/97
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
THIRD
A1
(Copyright 1997)
Murray Thomas and his wife raised eight children, but their job
is not done.
Early Wednesday morning, as usual, he walked their 2-year-old
granddaughter Jamiean to the Ann DeBose Busy Hands and Minds Day
Care and Learning Center on St. Anthony Street, not far from their
Gentilly home.
Thomas, 49, a painting contractor who loves children and
volunteers his time to a Boy Scout troop, said he was selective in
choosing who would care for the toddler he and his wife are now
responsible for. "I lost two weeks of work, trying to get her into
a good center," he said. He checked several places, turning down
some because he didn't feel comfortable with the staffs, before a
friend recommended the DeBose center. Thomas described DeBose as
"real good."
After this experience, he said he wholeheartedly supports
President Clinton's three proposals for improving the nation's
* child care: a public education campaign to help parents find high
*
quality child care; incentives such as loans or grants to help
*
child-care workers get more education; and a campaign to get
*
businesses more involved in providing child care for their
employees.
The initiatives, previewed in news reports Wednesday, will be
*
presented in more detail today at the first-ever White House
*
conference on child care.
Around the metropolitan area, the proposal on educating
* child-care workers had the most resonance with parents and day-care
operators. Many parents said the quality and training of the people
who care for their children is their biggest concern.
Amy Vickers of Metairie looked at three other centers when she
Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
moved to her neighborhood before settling on Metairie Kids' City
for 2 1/2 -year-old Kayla. Besides the fact that it's new, and
looked clean and safe - at one of the other centers, she said,
paint was chipping off the ceiling - Vickers said the most
important variable was the staff.
"The most important thing is the teachers, and what kind of
skills are they (the kids) going to be learning," Vickers said. "I
want them to be teachers, not baby sitters."
Kim Acosta, the center's director, agrees that training is
important and said she tries to hire people with experience and
strong references. In general, she said, it's tough for many
* child-care centers to attract qualified people - and, more
important, keep them - because wages and benefits tend to be low.
Tanisha Rivera of Metairie said Wednesday she's happy with the
care 2-year-old Brianna gets at Kids' City, but said she had a bad
experience at a previous day-care center when workers could not get
another child to stop biting.
"Part of the problem is they're not trained properly," she
said. "I don't think they pay enough attention to the kids."
The only Clinton proposal that appeared to draw controversy
locally is the campaign to get businesses more involved in
* providing child care for their employees.
Some day-care providers fear it will mean more on-site centers
at parents' workplaces, which could hurt the day-care business. And
nationally, at least one organization, Mothers at Home of Vienna,
Va., put out a press release warning that "expanding funding for
full-time day care without similar breaks for at-home parents
endangers the choice of parental care and is not what the majority
of American parents want."
Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a session with reporters in
* Washington on the eve of the child-care conference, acknowledged
the need to keep in mind parents who choose to stay home. "We don't
do a very good job in this country, despite our rhetoric about
family values, to create work and family situations that permit
more families to make the choice that they think is right for
them," Hillary Clinton said.
She made clear that the conference, which President Clinton
plans to attend in part, would not yield major new federal
initiatives but instead identify model care programs and encourage
their replication.
Judy Watts, director of Agenda for Children, an advocacy
organization based in New Orleans, said that while she supports
* more business involvement in child care, not all parents want or
need a care center at their workplace. Other options exist, such as
* businesses paying part of their employees' costs for child-care
centers in their neighborhoods, she said.
Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
For her part, Rose Williams, 26, who dropped off her son
Nicholas, 2, at the DeBose center in Gentilly, said she would be
delighted if Bally's Casino on Lake Pontchartrain, where she works
as a cashier, would someday start providing on-site day care.
Meanwhile, she said she's satisfied with bringing Nicholas to
the DeBose center, even though it's quite a drive from her home in
the Carrollton area.
Ann DeBose, owner of the center, is among those concerned that
day care at businesses may cut down her client list of 43 children.
Still, she said she does not take issue with more education on high
*
quality child care and that she is pleased with the proposal for
*
the government to pay some of the cost of educating child-care
workers.
Satisfaction is so high at a day-care center for employees at
West Jefferson Medical Center in Marrero that there are waiting
lists for each age group, said Lisa Beary, its director.
At the Preschool Learning Center Inc. in eastern New Orleans,
director Lydia McDougald said she expects that better education of
parents will lead them to choose state-licensed centers like hers,
which have to meet requirements such as limits on the number of
children per worker, instead of "underground nurseries."
Watts, of Agenda for Children, said she supports more education
*
for parents and more training for child-care workers, and said of
*
the White House conference overall: "It's great."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BOOMING BABY BUSINESS
*
A look at the growing child-care industry
FACTS
Figures and estimates:
Children in day care
10 million
Licensed day-care centers
93 million
Day-care workers
3 million
Average day-care worker wage
$6.89/hour
Centers with employee health insurance
18%
*
Employer losses from child-care related 3 billion
absences
*
Annual child-care teacher turnover*
36%
*Estimated U.S. average private sector turnover 10%
MONTHLY COSTS
*
Average family child-care costs by income group
INCOME UNDER 1,200 $1,200-$2,999 3,000-4,99
CHILD-
$205
$261
$317
Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
CARE COSTS
SHARE OF 25%
12%
8%
INCOME
$4,500 AND OVER
$398
KRT GRAPHIC
I0607 * End of document.
Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 4
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
A CONFERENCE ON CHILD CARE
DOCUMENT 241 OF 343
LVL9731000634
FORUM
* A CONFERENCE ON CHILD CARE
READER
404 Words
2713 Characters
*
10/23/97
The Courier-Journal Louisville, KY
14A
(Copyright 1997)
Today, President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton
*
will be convening the nation's first White House Conference on Child
Care. This conference will focus on the strengths and weaknesses of
*
child care in America and explore how the nation can better support
working families' need for quality, affordable care for their
children. It will also highlight school-age care for our children
and teens, responding to the concern that nearly five million
children are left home alone each week.
The administration should be commended for focusing national
*
attention on the child care needs of our children and youth. We hope
the conference will be the beginning of a renewed effort in
Washington and across the country to find solutions that make quality
*
child care affordable for all.
There is good reason to move ahead. Child care is an issue that
affects many American families. Every day, three out of five
*
preschoolers are in child care. According to recent studies, many of
these children are not in the safe and nurturing settings they
*
deserve. Nationally, six out of seven child care centers provide
care that is poor to mediocre, and care in as many as one-third of
providers' homes could be harmful to children. Yet even average care
remains unaffordable for many working families. Parents can easily
*
have to pay $4,000 to $10,000 per year for a child in child care - as
much as tuition, room and board at many colleges.
In Kentucky, many low-income working families cannot access
*
programs that will help them afford child care. These parents are
always in Catch-22" situations - do they go to work and leave
their children alone or in tenuous situations, or do they risk losing
their jobs by staying home and assuring that their children are
safe?
Quality standards, such as low child/staff ratios and small group
*
sizes, need to be strengthened. But quality child care costs money -
Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
and the wages Kentucky's young families earn are not enough to pay
*
for quality care. It's a vicious circle - child care programs can't
provide quality care if families can't afford to pay for it.
*
I hope the White House Conference on Child Care will help all of
us in Kentucky focus on how parents, employers, communities and all
levels of government can work together to help find innovative
*
solutions to families' child care needs.
LINDA LOCKE
Public Policy Director
*
Community Coordinated Child Care
Louisville 40203
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Child care issue isn't kid stuff for advocates
DOCUMENT 257 OF 343
NSL9729600004
NEWS
* Child care issue isn't kid stuff for advocates
Peggy McGlone
Star-Ledger Staff
148 Words
1188 Characters
*
10/23/97
The Star-Ledger Newark, NJ
FINAL
001
(Copyright Newark Morning Ledger Co., 1997)
*
Most working parents treat child care as a personal matter. Today
the White House is making it a national concern.
*
When the White House Conference on Child Care convenes this
*
morning, its panelists will make the case that adequate child care
should be a national priority and that the nation's 30 million
children under age 13 with parents in the work force should be
educated and nurtured in safe environments.
"It goes back to 'it takes a village," said Dr. Susan S. Aronson
of Philadelphia, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a
conference panelist.
Moderated by the President and Hillary Clinton, the sessions will
address quality, affordability and access, and outline research
*
linking quality child care to crime prevention, education and good
business.
*
It will have the attention of about 100 New Jersey child-care
professionals, who will participate through a satellite link at
Princeton University's
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.), October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Politics Using kids
DOCUMENT 260 OF 343
XFTU9729600727
NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL
Politics Using kids
474 Words
3059 Characters
*
10/23/97
The Florida Times-Union
CITY
A-13
EDITORIAL
(Copyright 1997)
Although a lot of the money taxpayers pony up to take care of
kids just goes around in circles, with the net after
bureaucratic costs returning to the original taxpayer, the
Clinton administration wants more.
Other people's children are being used by the unelected first
lady to effect the social policy she wanted, but couldn't get,
with health care and welfare.
Two manufactured crises being used in this political game are
uninsured children and day care.
*
About 40 percent of child care in the United States already is
paid for by taxpayers, and more than nine out of 10 parents are
satisfied with the quality, the Cato Institute says.
Hillary Clinton, however, does not believe parents know what is
good for their children. "If somebody's nice to them, it doesn't
matter that they don't know the difference between caring for a
1-year-old or a 4-year-old," she has said, with regal
condescension.
*
Child care generally is neither scarce nor expensive, although
governments constantly are adding to the cost by regulation.
Fees have not risen in real terms in almost 20 years, on
average.
*
Many people continue to rely on family members for child care,
but still pay taxes for other people's children.
Of course, if they didn't have to pay such high taxes, one of
the parents might be able to spend more time at home with the
children.
Employers, unions and communities have been doing more to
* provide child care as more women have joined the work force.
These marketplace adjustments still are not enough for the
nanny state, which is determined to care for every American from
Source: Florida Times Union, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
*
cradle to grave. Today, at the first White House conference on
* child care, President Clinton plans to announce ideas that
include:
A public education campaign and literature to help parents
*
choose high quality child care.
*
New incentives, such as loans or grants, to help child-care
workers get more education.
*
A campaign to get businesses more involved in providing child
*
care for their workers.
"More involved" implies that businesses are not involved
enough. We would like to see the arithmetic behind that neat
calculation.
*
A national registry of child-care workers with criminal
records, an idea that has been floated by Hillary Clinton,
apparently will not be proposed.
In his State of the Union speech next year, President Clinton
* is expected to highlight child care.
"The proof is in the pudding," said Marian Wright Edelman of
* the Children's Defense Fund, which has child care at the top of
its liberal legislative agenda and is unlikely to be satisfied
with anything Clinton does short of a full federal takeover of
* child care.
If Congress can get out of its funk and fend off the bad ideas
that keep rising from the White House like swamp gas, there is
still hope for a balanced budget. But it won't be easy.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Florida Times Union, October 23, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Weather
Sections
Today: sunny what conter.
The Washington Post
1
High Law Wind 15 Minon
8
ME
Thursday: Partiv suany, brengy. cord.
C
High Wind Address
0
Yesterday: Temp race 16.1.
Polien-count. 21 Details. 82
freede:
Today Contents:
(20rm Year
No321
WEDNESDAY. OCTOBER 1997
BY GERALD MARTINEAU-THE WASHINGTON POST
Gloria Hicks, director of Teddy Bear Day Care in Fairfax, plays with Kyree Marshall, left, and Shakayla Reid. She
says that when children see workers change. "all of a sudden, they have to develop a bond with a new person."
Who's Minding the Children?
Quality of Day Care Is Often a Casualty of the Booming Economy
By Barbara Vobejda
is of poor quality, child development experts warn
Washington Post Staff Writer
that the emotional and intellectual development of a
Two day-care centers in Columbus. Ohio, have
generation of children is being jeopardized.
closed recently because their operators couldn't find
Thursday, President Clinton and first lady Hillary
enough workers. In California. where the public
Rodham Clinton will host a White House conference
schools are hiring teachers to reduce class sizes,
on child care, the single most visible effort yet to
day-care administrators say they are unable to find
focus attention on the subject.
replacements for the staff they are losing to the
The conference agenda, acknowledging the prob-
schools. In Battle Creek, Mich., centers say they can't
lems of quality, availability and financing, is aimed at
compete with factory jobs making cereal for Kel-
exploring solutions. primarily public-private sector
logg's. which pays two or three times child-care
partnerships to funnel new funds into the system. But
salaries.
even as advocates are encouraged by the high-profile
This is what specialists in the field call the crisis of
platform, they are also skeptical that the federal
day care: hiring and retaining the kind of high-quality
government, states or the private sector are on the
people it takes to provide good care. And with
verge of making the kind of financial infusion it would
numerous national studies finding that most day care
THE WASHINGTON POST
Front page
Page 2 of 3
October 22, 1997
take to turn around an industry whose basic economics
While it strains a family budget, that $3,700 a year provides
work against quality.
less than half what experts estimate quality care would
The conference comes at a particularly challenging time,
cost-as much as $8,500 per child per year.
industry experts say, because the nation's healthy economy
At the Shirlington Children's Center, an Arlington day-care
and low unemployment rate have made staffing shortages and
center, director Anna Wodzynska is familiar with the problem.
high turnover in child care even worse.
Two years ago, four of her seven workers left, and within a
The result, said Ed Hassenger, executive director of the
short time, all of the replacements quit.
Altrusa Day Nursery in Battle Creek, is an applicant pool with
"If you can keep a teacher for a year, that's great," she said.
very poor qualifications, some who struggle to read and write.
But if she wanted to raise salaries from the $8 she now pays
"You
have
a
population
unable to work with children," he
teachers to the $12 she thinks would lower turnover, it would
said, and so centers work on their skills. "Then you start over
increase the price of care from $130 a week to $200. But she
again. So you have a vicious circle."
said that is impossible. "Here, in Shirlington, no one could
Even when workers were in greater supply, the industry
afford that."
had trouble paying the kind of premium wages it would
Even the cost of day care is more than many parents can
require to keep highly trained staff.
afford, especially low-income, single mothers.
Of the 3 million day-care workers in this country, half are
Carrie Trombetta, a 20-year-old mother with two young
likely- to quit their jobs this year, according to Marcy
children, earns $5.15 working at Barnhill's Country Buffet in
Whitebook. co-director of the National Center for the Early
Pensacola, Fla. She gets up each morning and starts calling
Childhood Work Force and a leading expert on the industry's
around to friends and family, asking who might care for her
economics.
boys while she goes to work.
They will leave to earn more money as grocery store clerks
"I look all day for a babysitter until I go to work." she said. "I
or washing United Postal Service trucks or, if they have a
offer to pay them in food stamps because I can't afford to give
college education, teaching in the public schools. It is no
them money."
wonder, since a third are paid only the minimum wage.
When she applied for a government child-care subsidy, she
Child-care providers say they would pay more if they could,
was told there were 600 people on the waiting list in front of
but that would mean charging parents more, which is difficult
her.
because day care already accounts for a huge portion of family
Over the past decade, the federal government has in-
expenses.
creased what it spends to help low-income parents pay for
"There simply isn't enough purchasing power in the hands
child care from $500 million to nearly $3 billion. But only one
of parents to insure children get good quality care," said Gail
in 10 children who are eligible for those funds is receiving
Richardson, who heads the Child Care Action Campaign, a
them, leaving many states with thousands of families on their
national advocacy group.
waiting lists.
But fixing the problem is difficult, because when it comes to
Experts point to numerous studies underscoring their
day care, the standard rules of the marketplace don't apply.
arguments that financing affects quality: A 1995 study by
First, said Suzanne Helburn, a University of Colorado
researchers at four universities rated just one in seven
economist who has studied child-care quality, "there's not
day-care centers as good quality and linked the problem to
enough money in the system."
wages, training and experience.
Helburn and others said child care should be viewed not as
A year earlier, the Families and Work Institute, a New
a typical market, but like public education or health care,
York-based research organization, found comparably poor
where the cost of providing the service far outweighs the
levels of quality in home day care, when children are taken to
capacity of consumers to pay. Yet unlike child care, public
another person's home rather than a center.
schools and health care are heavily subsidized or underwrit-
And in April, a similar White House conference focused on
ten entirely by government or employers.
brain development from birth to age 3, emphasizing that in
The subsidy to child care is much more limited, with 70
percent of the total price tag paid from the pockets of parents.
On average, families with preschool-age children pay $74 a
week for child care, making it the third largest expense, after
housing and food, for many working parents.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Front page
Page 3 of 3
October 22, 1997
DAY CARE IN AMERICA
Experts argue that the quality of child care is
harmed by high turnover among providers.
order to learn and develop properly, young children need
One in two workers is expected to quit this
consistent and positive relationships with adults.
year, in part because wages are limited by
Gloria Hicks, who runs the Teddy Bear Day Care in Fairfax,
how much parents can afford to pay.
has seen firsthand the importance of that consistency.
"It's very hard for the younger ones, the infants and
Care providers for preschoolers with employed
toddlers, to warm up to strangers," she said. "They're more
mothers, 1993
fussy, crying" when new teachers take over. Hicks said she
steps in and helps the children. Still, she said, "They have to
Child-care centers
30%
develop a bond with a person. then all of a sudden, they have to
develop a bond with a new person."
Relatives
25
Even as advocates call for public and private investments to
Parents
subsidize the system, they caution that simply adding dollars
22
is not the answer.
Home day care
17
Whitebook, the work force expert, argued that, even with
the increased federal investment in recent years, little has
Nannies
5
been done to improve day-care wages or reduce turnover.
"The challenge is not just more money, but more money
Other
1
with an eye toward improving the care."
Indeed, even in the segment of the child-care system where
there is plenty of money-high-income parents willing to pay
Budget for a typical child-care center,
hundreds of dollars weekly-there are still problems.
per child per month
"The more affluent families are not very good consumers,"
COSTS
REVENUE
said Helburn. "They don't understand what good quality is."
In part. parents lack the expertise to be good consumers
Labor:
Parent fees:
$285
$302
but they also lack the emotional distance it sometimes takes to
make a rational choice.
"Parents, when they're looking for child care, find it a very
Food:
$19
Public
painful process," said Ellen Galinsky, co-president of the Work
fees:
and Families Institute. The process of choosing day care, she
Rent:
$63
said, "symbolizes separation. They don't look with dispassion"
$55
as they do in many other instances of comparison shopping.
Other:
Other:
$44
$55
FOR MORE INFORMATION
To read a special report on Washington-area day care, click
on the above symbol on the front page of The Post's Web site
The poorest Americans spend the greatest share
at www.washingtonpost.com
of their income on child care.
Annual
Weekly
Share of
income
expense
income
Under $14,400
$47.29
25%
$14,400-35,999
60.16
12
$36,000-53,999
73.10
8
$54,000 and over
91.93
6
Children under 6 who have both parents or only
parent in work force: 12 million
Licensed child-care centers: 93,221
Average salary for providers in child-care Centers:
$6.89 an hour
Amount U.S. employers lose due to child-care-
related absences: $3 billion
Percentage of employees eligible for employer-
assisted child-care benefits: 4 percent
SOURCES: Packard Foundation, Child Care Action Campaign
THE WASHINGTON POST
USA TODAY
Page 12A
Page 1 of 2
October 22, 1997
Clintons to tackle
child-care issues
Aides won't give specifics
about Thursday conference
By Mimi Hall
ton answered. "I could not
USA TODAY
more vividly describe it"
But Clinton couldn't say how
WASHINGTON - As if on
the White House Conference on
cue to illustrate the problem
Child Care, which she and Pres-
Hillary Rodham Clinton was de-
ident Clinton will host Thurs-
scribing, secretary and single
day, might help the 38-year-old
mom Paula Broglio stood up
Adelphi, Md., secretary and her
and presented herself to the
little boy, Vincent.
first lady as a living example of
"Your child will be in school
a working woman
before we probably
who can't make it on
get much of the
her own.
changes that I would
On a $25,000 sala-
like to see happen,"
ry and with no child
she said.
support from her ex-
White House
husband, Broglio
aides are being de-
lives with her 4-year-
liberately vague
old son in the guest
about what the Clin-
bedroom of her par-
tons have in mind to
ents' house so she
address the prob-
can afford $200-a-
Reuters
lems of affordabi-
month subsidized
Clinton: Passionate
lity, availability and
child care at a Cath-
on children's issues
safety in the nation's
olic school while
child-care industry.
she's at work.
During the 1993-94 health-
"If I did not have that, and I
care debates, they learned that
didn't have my parents, I would
large-scale proposals can bring
probably have to quit my job
protest from those who see big
and go on welfare, because who
government taking over a re-
would watch my child during
sponsibility that should be left to
the day and how could I afford
families and private businesses.
to live in an apartment?" Brog-
"If you're having a White
lio asked earlier this month at
House conference, I suspect
the University of Maryland,
you think there's a government
where the first lady was speak-
solution," says Gary Bauer of
ing about her latest effort to in-
the conservative Family Re-
fluence public policy.
search Council.
"That is the problem," Clin-
In an interview with USA
USA TODAY
Page 12A
Page 2 of 2
October 22, 1997
about who should care for chil-
Growing need for child care
dren when parents are working
or otherwise unable to."
Women in the workforce
Children's issues have been a
who have children under 18:
66.7%
70.8%
passion for Clinton since the
56.6%
early 1970s, when she worked
42.4%
as a lawyer at the Children's
30.4%
Defense Fund, a liberal advoca-
21.6%
cy group. Now she is wading
back in to help tackle what the
president calls "the next great
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
1996
frontier" in his effort to help
working families.
Source of child care
Weekly cost
In a recent speech at a New-
Child-care arrangements of
of child care
ark church, he ticked off a list
working mothers who have
(in constant 1993 dollars)
of large and small initiatives he
children under 5 or children
1986
already has promoted: a new
5 to 14:
TV rating system to alert par-
Under 5 5-14
$64
ents about violent or sexual con-
Another home
32%
4%
1990
tent, a tobacco settlement that
$72
aims to stop smoking among
Organized
children, a $500-per-child tax
child-care facility
31%
79%
1993
credit for working families and
Parental care
22%
9%
$79
a balanced federal budget that
increases funding for health
Child's home'
15%
5%
1 - Care provided by baby sifter
care for low-income children.
or someone other than parent.
Sources: Bureau of Labor Statistics: U.S.
"But we still have to make
Child cares for self 0%
3%
Cansus Bureau: The 1996 Green Book.
sure that our parents have ac-
Statistics are the most recent available.
cess to quality, affordable child
care," he said. "That's the great,
By Genevieve Lynn. USA TODAY
big hurdle left."
TODAY on Tuesday, Hillary
and her aides said she is not
Richard Stolley, president of
Clinton wouldn't say what the
necessarily backing ideas she
the Child Care Action Cam-
administration will propose.
has mentioned recently: creat-
paign, hopes Thursday's confer-
"What I'm interested in is
ing a national registry of child-
ence can help convince busi-
putting the spotlight on this is-
care workers who have been
nesses that helping employees
sue and using the White House
convicted of crimes, for exam-
find child care helps productivi-
to
ignite a national conversa-
ple, or offering protection for
ty. "Business needs to be con-
tion," she said.
caretakers who fear being sued
vinced there is a bottom-line
The goal, she said, is to "call
over minor accidents.
benefit," he says.
national attention to an issue
In her book It Takes a Vil-
But the nation's child-care
that political leaders and policy-
lage, Clinton said child care "is
system is in such bad shape, he
makers should focus on but
an issue that brings out all of
says, that "we're deluding our-
which has often been ignored."
our conflicted feelings about
selves if we think this is going to
She wouldn't talk specifics,
what parenthood should be and
make an enormous difference."
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Page B1
Page 1 of 2
October 22, 1997
WORK & FAMILY
By SUE SHELLENBARGER
Back-to-Work Effort
Has Strained Supply
Of Good Child Care
ONI FALL IS the kind of
To a significant extent, welfare
T
bootstrap case policy makers
reform leans on the weakest links of
like to tout. She escaped the
the child-care system: off hours and
unemployment lines two
infant care. An "exceptionally high"
years ago by landing a tempo-
proportion of welfare-to-work par-
rary $8.53-an-hour job as a machine
ents will work nonstandard sched-
operator. After a long search. she has
ules, mainly because they lack other
nailed down a permanent, higher-
choices, says University of Maryland
paying job as an evening-shift
professor Harriet Presser. Also, a
worker for the post office. But in her
federal work exemption for mothers
climb to self-reliance, Ms. Fall just
of children under three has ended,
hit a brick wall: no child care.
allowing states to require such
She can't find anyone to care for
women to work.
her daughter, age eight, until her
shift ends at 10:30 p.m. She had been
ARY BETH Crandall, a
counting on a new child-care center
with extended hours, but it's full and
M
single mother formerly on
welfare, is trying to move
has a long waiting list. So Ms. Fall is
up from part-time tele-
knocking on the doors of providers
marketing to a full-time
who work in their homes, hoping to
customer-service job for a home-
find an evening opening. "I've been
health agency, with benefits and a
trying to get my feet on the ground
retirement plan. But she needs child
for a long time," she says, and finds
care until 6:30 p.m., a half-hour or
it "scary" that child care might
more after most providers close. She
derail her.
has been turned down by 10 so far.
As more people get off welfare,
For Michele Leafs, an insurance-
the child-care crunch for all the work-
company employee, the search for
ing poor is getting worse. Millions of
affordable infant care has been a
welfare-to-work parents are looking
horror show. At one center she ob-
-for the flexible, off-hours child care
served, a worker yanked a baby by
that entry-level jobs often require.
the arm to "discipline" him; at an-
People on the front lines of child
other, babies were kept in a dark
care say the shortage is going to get
room, changed on computer paper
much worse over the next three years
and pushed down in their cribs if they
as welfare reform pumps an esti-
didn't sleep at the assigned time.
mated one million more children into
And at a child-care home where she
a child-care system already strain-
briefly placed her baby, the care-
ing to accommodate 10 million.
giver left the child propped in a car
Billie Osborne-Fears of Starting
seat in front of the TV all day.
Point, a child-care agency in Cleve-
The solution many policy makers
land, says 40,000 new child-care slots
and employers expect parents to
may be needed in her area. Already
use-leaving their children with rela-
the mounting shortage "has created
tives-is fraught with problems. Rel-
a nightmare for us," she savs.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Page B1
Page 2 of 2
October 22, 1997
The supply of child care tends to
atives typically are already working,
grow most in affluent areas (termed
live too far away or aren't reliable. A
"the yuppie supply effect" by a Har-
study of 50 women on nontraditional
vard University study). Working-
schedules by consultants Mills & Par-
class areas have a tighter supply:
dee of Concord, Mass., found a lack
government subsidies ease but don't
of relatives and friends to help was
eliminate the effect.
the No. 1 child-care problem. Also. a
Child-care centers and homes
Families & Work Institute study
have little incentive to provide costly
found relatives. who often take in
off-hours or infant care, especially in
kids only as a favor, generally don't
poor areas. Rather, the Mills & Par-
provide very good care.
dee study shows they face plenty of
Tina Burt works full time, includ-
obstacles to doing so: zoning, licens-
ing weekends. at a nursing home so
ing and staffing problems. and, in
the case of in-home family providers,
disruption of their own home lives.
DISCOUNT
The problem calls for cooperation
DAY
CARE
among public and private groups. Six
of 10 states studied by the Progres-
sive Policy Institute are offering or
considering higher subsidies for par-
ents using off-hours or infant care.
Marriott International has opened a
round-the-clock subsidized center in
Atlanta. Employers, in bargaining
with Local 2 of the Hotel Employees
and Restaurant Employees Union,
agreed to contribute 15 cents per
employee-hour worked to a family-
Carol Lay
care fund. A White House child-care
conference tomorrow is expected to
she can attend college in hopes of
spur added interest.
landing a better job. She can't al-
For, employers, the stakes are
ways rely on her mother for weekend
high. In the short term, child-care
care because she works, too. Ms.
shortages will worsen absenteeism
Burt's sister "doesn't like to be both-
and quit rates among employees on
ered" and her grandmother's
off-hours shifts. In the long term, as
"nerves can't take" having three
children damaged by inadequate
kids around, Ms. Burt says.
child care begin entering the work
force, the costs will be considerably
HOUGH INCREASED federal
higher.
T
child-care funding helps
To take part in my Work & Family
(some states are increasing
radio show, call 800-WSJ-TALK or fax
funding as well), needed off-
503-636-6951.
hours and infant care isn't
developing in most areas. The reason
lies in the upside-down economics of
child care. Few parents can afford
the cost of high-quality, flexible child
care. Those who need it most, shift
workers and poor parents of infants,
are least able to afford it.
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Mrs. Clinton sees few federal child-care
DOCUMENT 14 OF 61
ASP9729600047
* Mrs. Clinton sees few federal child-care initiatives
SANDRA SOBIERAJ
576 Words
3873 Characters
* 10/22/97
The Associated Press
BUSINESS
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton, herself a working
* mother, said Wednesday that any program for improving child care
should include help for stay-at-home moms.
But as the first lady sat down with reporters on the eve of her
*
White House conference on child care, she offered no policy
prescriptions and appeared to abandon ideas mentioned in appearances
outside Washington just last month - including her proposal for a
national registry of caregivers with criminal histories.
She also made clear that the conference, which President Clinton
plans to attend in part, would not yield major new federal
initiatives but instead identify model care programs and encourage
their replication.
"The federal government can take certain actions, but most of the
* efforts in child care happen at the state level and in the private
sector," Mrs. Clinton said.
Making the conference her project, the first lady has traveled to
*
child-care centers and made several recent speeches to stir interest
in the issue, which she said is too often ignored by policy-makers.
She deferred to her husband Wednesday when asked what proposals the
conference might yield. "Can't do that. The president will make
recommendations," she said.
*
As for her personal experience with child care, Mrs. Clinton
acknowledged her family was exceptional. For all but two years of
daughter Chelsea's childhood, the Clintons lived in the fully staffed
Arkansas governor's mansion or in the White House where "there were
always people around in an emergency to help out," she said.
Still, the former practicing attorney recalled kibitzing with
fellow working moms. "Probably our biggest topic was all the
problems we were having trying to balance all these responsibilities.
I don't think the conversation has changed much," she said.
Of parents who choose to stay home, Mrs. Clinton said, "We don't
Source: Associated Press, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
do a very good job in this country, despite our rhetoric about family
values, to create work and family situations that permit more
families to make the choice that they think is right for them."
Even the Family and Medical Leave Act, which Republicans fought
for nine years before President Clinton signed it, does not go far
enough, she said. The legislation guarantees workers unpaid leave in
order to tend to family caregiving duties. But, Mrs. Clinton said,
"It's hard to argue it's a realistic choice when it's unpaid."
Pressed by reporters for policy specifics, the first lady refused
to resurrect ideas she raised during recent trips to Florida and
*
Virginia - liability protection for child-care centers and a
*
registry of criminal child-care workers.
Aides said the administration would not propose creating a
registry.
The first lady, singed by criticism for her lead role in the
administration's early efforts to overhaul health care, also would
*
not elaborate on what hand she would have in writing child-care
initiatives to be wrapped into the administration's budget request
next year.
*
"I'm just going to keep working on
(child-care issues) the
same way I've been doing for the last 20 years," she said, with a
shake of her head. "Same old story."
Outside the White House, several dozen parents, children and
*
teachers protested the state of child care in the District of
Columbia.
The children, most of whom were 5 years old or younger, wrote
letters or drew pictures for the Clintons. Organizer Bobbi Blok of
the Washington Child Development Council said, "I agree with the
first lady about this being a village. D.C. is a village and we need
federal intervention."
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Associated Press, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
CHILD CARE GOES TO D.C. QUALITY, QUANTITY TO BE
DOCUMENT 109 OF 121
PPGZ9729500692
NATIONAL
CHILD CARE GOES TO D.C. QUALITY, QUANTITY TO BE DISCUSSED AT WHITE
HOUSE CONFERENCE
SALLY KALSON, POST-GAZETTE STAFF WRITER
920 Words
6075 Characters
*
10/22/97
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
SOONER
A-17
(Copyright 1997)
*
The high social costs of poor-quality child care are clear to
the nation's early childhood experts. Among them are stunted
intellectual and social development that can lead to trouble with
school, relationships and the law.
But the experts have had a tough time convincing the rest of
the country that good child care is worth the cost. Top quality
centers in Pittsburgh can reach $500 or more - a price beyond the
reach of many families.
Tomorrow, the advocates will get a big boost from a White House
*
Conference on Child Care, as President and Mrs. Clinton focus
national attention on ways to make high-quality care more
accessible and affordable for working families.
Three items expected to be on the agenda:
*
A public education campaign and literature to help parents
choose high quality child care.
*
New incentives, such as loans or grants, to help child-care
workers get more education.
*
A campaign to get businesses more involved in providing child
care for their workers.
After-school programs will also take center stage, as conferees
explore ways of keeping school-age children out of trouble in the
crucial hours before their parents get home from work.
"When you're talking about fighting crime, investing in kids is
one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal," said George P.
Graves, police chief of Downer's Grove, III., and a founding member
of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, an anti-crime organization led by
police, prosecutors and crime victims.
"Head Start for infants, after-school programs, child abuse
prevention, mentoring at-risk youth - these are a public safety
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
issues," said Graves, who joined a roster of children's advocates
*
yesterday in a nationwide phone hook-up in advance of the White
*
House conference.
Nothing concrete is expected to emerge from tomorrow's events.
But the advocates, mindful of the nation's aversion to large-scale
entitlement programs, are looking at it as a "launching pad" for
public and private action at the state and local levels.
"The private sector has played a modest role," said Richard B.
*
Stolley, president of the Child Care Action Campaign.
"But it must do much, much more. Child care in this country has
been neglected so long, we now have some of the worst services for
children in Western society. We need to use this dialogue as a
launching pad for strategies in all sectors. And business alone
can't do it. The government is going to have to step up to the
plate."
Considering that two-thirds of the nation's children regularly
* attend some form of child care, and that major studies show that 74
percent of that care is mediocre while 12 percent is poor, the
* experts have been sounding the alarm about a child care crisis.
One major problem has been the abominable salaries of the
* nation's child care work force - almost entirely women earning
under $7 an hour, usually with no benefits. The low pay and long
hours lead to high turnover, which is bad for children.
"What we call turnover, children experience as loss," said
Marcy Whitebrook, co-director of the National Center for the Early
Childhood Work Force. Her group is looking for ways to augment
teacher salaries, which will never be much higher as long as they
rely on parents' ability to pay tuition.
*
In conjunction with the White House conference, 22 corporations
and 16 foundations - including the Heinz Endowments of Pittsburgh -
have announced their intention to work together on improving
quality in early childhood programs, although they've yet to set a
specific agenda.
Thus far, the business and philanthropic groups have worked on
parallel tracks.
The American Business Collaborative for Quality Dependent Care,
formed five years ago, has invested $9.4 million in programs to
* improve child care, especially by training staff and directors. The
group, which includes Aetna, Xerox, AT&T and Johnson & Johnson,
expects to spend another $10 million in the next five years.
The foundations, which comprise the Early Childhood Funders
Collaborative, are spending $2.4 million on similar initiatives. In
addition to the Heinz Endowments, they include the Ford, Kellogg,
Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations.
"We created a pooled fund to notch up the issue of quality,"
said Marge Petruska of the Heinz Endowments. The money is going to
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Wheelock College in Boston, which in turn is setting up pilot
programs at a dozen or more sites across the country.
The sites will look at improving quality two ways - by
establishing credentials for center directors, and by getting more
minorities into leadership positions.
*
"Child care directors currently don't have to be credentialed,"
Petruska said. "Yet we know that when they have the proper
education and training, it's a major factor in their centers'
quality. We're going to be asking what a credentialing model should
look like."
In addition, she said, "if you look at the African-American
* staffers at child care centers, most are at the entry level. By the
time you get to the top levels, it's a pretty white field across
the country. We're going to look at whether more diversity in
leadership will improve quality."
None of the sites will be in Pittsburgh, Petruska said, mainly
because the Early Childhood Initiative of Allegheny County is
already conducting a $60 million quality enhancement experiment in
the county's highest-risk neighborhoods. That initiative is being
financed by local corporations and foundations.
As for the national joint venture, she said, "This is the first
time the (business and foundation) leadership groups have
* identified child care quality as their number one philanthropic
priority. That, in itself, is very significant."
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
LINTON ADDRESSES CHILD CARE NEXT YEAR'S BUDGET
DOCUMENT 116 OF 121
FLTY9729600150
NEWS
* CLINTON ADDRESSES CHILD CARE NEXT YEAR'S BUDGET EXPECTED TO REFLECT
INITIATIVES
Dan Klepal
363 Words
2858 Characters
* 10/22/97
Florida Today
FINAL/ALL
01A
(Copyright 1997)
In her search for quality day care, Sonya Iapaolo has made the
rounds.
The single mother of two spent two years meandering through 12
places before she settled on Bear Hugs in Melbourne.
"I had a lot of difficulty finding a high standard of care that
made me feel comfortable," Iapaolo said.
Experts will sort through such problems and potential solutions
*
Thursday at the first-ever White House conference on child care,
the single most visible effort yet to focus attention on the
subject.
Officials expect the conference to set the stage for President
Clinton's State of the Union speech next year, when he is expected
*
to highlight child care. Clinton plans to focus on a handful of
proposed improvements:
* A public-education campaign and literature to help parents
* choose child care.
*
*
A campaign to get businesses more involved in providing child
*
care for their workers.
*
*
Incentives, such as loans or grants, to help child-care
workers get more education.
Cheryl Tillman, whose daughter, Katie, emerged from day care
Tuesday with a smudge of blue paint on her nose, said cost and
quality vary widely.
"There can be as much as a $30-a-week difference per child,"
said Tillman, who visited about four facilitie. "That can be a
decision maker or breaker."
Betsy Farmer, executive director and founder of the Space Coast
Early Intervention Center, said most people don't realize the poor
* state of child care.
Source: Florida Today (Melbourne, Fla.), October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
"It's definitely a movement in the right direction," Farmer
* said of the White House conference.
Day care workers in Florida are required to have only 30 hours
of training. Cindy Martin, office manager at Bear Hugs, said more
education will mean less turnover.
"If you spend the time and energy going to school to learn a
profession, the less quickly you'll want to leave," she said. "And
the better off the children will be."
Florida Today wire services contributed to this report.
Cost VS. quality, 3A.
What's next
President Clinton's conference Thursday is expected to focus on:
*
- An education campaign to help parents choose child care.
*
- Getting businesses more involved in providing child care for
their workers.
*
- Incentives to help child-care workers get more education.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Florida Today (Melbourne, Fla.), October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
THE BOTTOM LINE
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE
DOCUMENT 12 OF 14
TRIB9729500650
COMMENTARY
THE BOTTOM LINE
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?
Linda Chavez. Creators Syndicate.
737 Words
5122 Characters
* 10/22/97
Chicago Tribune
NORTH SPORTS FINAL; N
21
(Copyright 1997)
She's back. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who tried unsuccessfully
to revamp the American health-care system, is back in the
* public-policy saddle. This time, she has her sights set on child
*
care. Her aim is no less revolutionary than it was four years
ago--and perhaps more so since now, it involves restructuring the
way families raise their children.
But her tactics and style have changed. Instead of beginning
* with a grandiose legislative proposal for a new federal child-care
system, the first lady says she's simply asking questions and
gathering information on the quality, accessibility and
* affordability of child care in the United States. But make no
mistake, if Clinton has her way, Thursday's White House conference
* on child care will usher in a new era in which Uncle Sam takes on
primary responsibility for minding the nation's children.
No one who is familiar with Clinton's role on children's
issues should be surprised at this. For years, Hillary Rodham
Clinton has worked for greater government involvement in the lives
of children. From her early law review articles arguing that courts
should recognize the full legal rights of minor children (including
the right to sue their parents) to her work on the board of the
Children's Defense Fund, a liberal advocacy group that promotes
increased government spending for children, Clinton has championed
a greater government role in dictating how families function.
The first lady is part of a growing segment of the feminist
movement--the family feminists--who seek government programs, laws
and regulations as a means to protect and provide for women and
their children outside of traditional marriage.
European feminists have longed pushed this agenda. The
International Feminist Congress in 1896, for example, declared that
"motherhood is the principal social function and deserves to be
Source: Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
subsidized by the state." Their goal was to provide a subsidy paid
directly to women, making them less dependent on their husbands to
provide for them and their children. They also lobbied for
* state-sponsored universal child care and health care. Indeed, much
of what we think of as the modern welfare state in Europe grew out
of those early feminist proposals. But U.S. feminists resisted this
agenda, concentrating instead on securing women's right to vote, to
equal pay and to equal opportunity in the work force.
But lately, American feminists have begun to rethink their
goals and, in recent years, have looked to the European model for
guidance. Feminists like author Barbara Bergmann ("Saving Our
Children From Poverty: What the United States Can Learn From
France") have urged the United States follow France's role in
* setting up government child-care centers for infants and preschool
children and providing parents with direct government payments to
improve living standards for poor and working families.
Of course, these feminists rarely mention that France,
Sweden, Denmark and other welfare states have had to pay for these
programs with a crushing tax burden on all their citizens and that
their productivity lags behind America's in large part because of
these higher social welfare costs, regulations and taxes. But most
importantly, the point missed by feminists, including Mrs. Clinton,
is that most American women are not eager to trundle their children
off to institutional day-care centers in the first place.
American families overwhelmingly rely on family members to
care for young children. Parents and other family members account
* for the child-care arrangements of more than 60 percent of
preschool-aged children. Center-based care accounts for only 31
* percent of all child-care arrangements, and that includes all
existing private and government programs, such as Head Start,
pre-kindergarten and other early childhood programs, according to
the National Center for Education Statistics.
From everything we know about child development, it's a good
thing more children, especially infants, are not being cared for in
institutional settings. Babies and very young children need the
kind of personal attention and caregiving that is impossible to
find in day-care centers, no matter how well-trained or
well-meaning the staff. As Dr. Stanley Greenspan, a professor of
pediatrics and psychiatry at George Washington University, pointed
out recently in an article in The Washington Post, "in the rush to
* improve and increase child care, we are ignoring a more fundamental
* reality: Much of the child care available for infants and toddlers
in this country simply isn't good for them." It's a warning Hillary
Rodham Clinton and her White House conferees ought to consider
carefully before they rush to put more kids in day care.
Source: Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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STATE CHILD-CARE RULES ON SUBSIDIES TO STAND
DOCUMENT 9 OF 14
TRIB9729500705
METRO CHICAGO
* STATE CHILD-CARE RULES ON SUBSIDIES TO STAND
Melita Marie Garza, Tribune Staff Writer.
365 Words
2582 Characters
* 10/22/97
Chicago Tribune
NORTH SPORTS FINAL; N
6
(Copyright 1997)
State legislators on Tuesday allowed to stand new state rules
*
that require low-income families to pay more for subsidized child
*
care, but they directed the state to work with child-care agencies
whose enrollment has dropped because of the higher costs.
The increases, which went into effect Oct. 1, were designed
to allow more families to participate in the programs. But critics
say that while the fees may open the program to some who have been
on waiting lists, others are being forced to remove their children.
"What scares me is that we may be driving people out of the
safe, site-based quality care and into unsafe situations," Rep.
Larry Woolard (D-Marion) said during a hearing of the Joint
Committee on Administrative Rules in Chicago. "If the family has a
9-year-old and a 2-year-old, is the 9-year-old now charged with
caring for the 2-year-old?"
But Randy Valenti, associate director for the state's office
of Childcare and Family Services, testified that the new program is
working.
"For the first time there is no waiting list statewide (for
*
subsidized child care)," he said, adding that last year an average
*
of 98,000 children were in state-subsidized child care per month.
This year, he expects up to 158,000 children to be in such programs
monthly.
*
"I don't believe there is a wholesale number of child-care
slots going unfilled," said Valenti, who agreed to help agencies
now experiencing dropout rates to fill vacancies.
Under the new program, established by the Department of Human
Services, any family earning less than 50 percent of the state
* median income qualifies for a child-care subsidy. That is more open
than the old plan.
But under the old sliding-fee scale, a parent with two
Source: Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
preschool children in day care making $13,500 paid only 25 cents a
week. The same parent now pays $22 a week, with the state picking
* up the remainder of the $172 weekly child-care bill.
Erie Neighborhood House, a non-profit agency in Chicago's
West Town Neighborhood, has had 15 children drop out of their
school-age program--a 12 percent reduction in the program, said
* Dennis Puhr, the agency's assistant child care director. "We know
that some are back to being latchkey children," Puhr said.
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
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THE BOTTOM LINE QUALITY CHILD CARE MAKES FOR
DOCUMENT 11 OF 14
TRIB9729500651
COMMENTARY
* THE BOTTOM LINE QUALITY CHILD CARE MAKES FOR GOOD BUSINESS
Rosemary Jordano ; Marie Oates. Rosemary Jordano is
president of ChildrenFirst Inc., which develops and operates
* corporate backup child-care services nationwide. Marie Oates is the
executive director of Bayridge, a Boston-based residence that serves
university and professional women.
836 Words
5898 Characters
* 10/22/97
Chicago Tribune
NORTH SPORTS FINAL; N
21
(Copyright 1997)
Wall Street and corporate America beware: The recent
resignation of Pepsi-Cola North America's president and chief
executive Brenda Barnes is an omen. In the end, it wasn't
cut-throat business deals that brought her down. The struggles of
making her family life compatible with her business life made her
leave. She's not alone and more will follow--men and women--unless
business leaders and policymakers listen to her message.
"Every time you would miss a child's birthday, a school
concert or a parent-teacher discussion, you'd feel the tug," said
Barnes. "Tug" is the key word. For many working parents every day
is a tug-of-war to make monetary, professional and family ends meet.
Unlike Barnes' case, the harsh economic realities for most
people make the option of calling it quits an impossible dream. The
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 41 million
women of childbearing age work outside the home and that number
will reach 44 million by 2000. Moreover, 60 percent of mothers with
children under the age of 6 are in the workforce. Single parenting
and dual-income families are on the rise. Amidst it all, deep in
the hearts of most working parents is the desire that somehow their
children be put first.
Industry leaders, politicians and academics who gather for
* the first White House Child Care Conference Thursday need to press
their ears against the hearts of today's working parents. Children
should come first in all their policy equations, followed by
parents, then caregivers, employers of the working parents and
last, the government. As citizens of the most advanced country in
Source: Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
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the world we have a responsibility. Our children should be safe,
nurtured, respected and educated. In particular, current
developmental psychology shows that the first three years in a
* child's life are the most defining. Yet child-care standards and
parental expectations are low in most states.
With tens of millions of U.S. workers dependent on it daily,
* the child-care industry is rapidly shaping into a viable,
competitive market force--an estimated $30 billion industry--yet it
still remains largely fragmented and poorly monitored for quality.
If the United Parcel Service strike could cripple our economy as it
* did, a similar strike by child-care workers could bring our economy
close to a halt or leave millions of young children abandoned.
*
Moreover, child-care workers often possess little formal training
and make barely more than the minimum wage. This, combined with
* scarcity of available services, make child care difficult and too
uncertain. The uncertainties translate into big losses all around.
For example, the absentee rate related to Americans missing
*
work because of unreliable child care costs U.S. businesses an
estimated $3 billion annually. In a study of many companies, the
Merrill-Palmer Institute found employee absenteeism caused by a
*
breakdown in child-care services costs the surveyed companies
between $66,000 and $3 million per year.
*
Pushing all the numbers aside, at the core of child care is
the well-being of the children themselves and the peace of mind
* parents should have with regard to their children in child care.
Working parents value this peace of mind tremendously. A 1995 study
conducted by Dupont found that employees with children were willing
to trade off other employee benefits in exchange for work and
family support. In another survey of more than 5,000 employees at a
variety of Fortune 500 companies, ChildrenFirst Inc. found that 96
percent of the respondents reported that corporate-sponsored
* child-care services enhanced their job satisfaction.
Satisfaction in one's work bestows its own rewards. Providing
* quality child care is a competitive business advantage. Studies
have shown that companies can lower their turnover costs--which can
range between 93 percent and 200 percent of a departing employee's
* salary--by providing some form of child-care services for
employees. A number of companies already recognize this.
Corporate America should heed the words of David Vitale,
president of First National Bank of Chicago, who, after his bank
*
instated a backup child-care center, said: "We no longer have to
ask our employees to choose between the well-being of their
children and the well-being of the bank."
More than getting the government directly involved, the White
*
House needs to encourage more corporations to provide child care
for employees. This means corporate tax incentives of some forms.
Source: Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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But not just for any care. These incentives should reward quality
* child care. It is estimated that 60 percent of children under the
* age of 6 are in some form of child care, and of that only 14
percent of those children are in situations which meet the minimum
standards that promote healthy child development.
This is not an area where minimum standards should apply.
Instead, we need the courage and conviction to set the highest
quality vision of how children should be respected and cared for.
William Butler Yeats had this vision when he said "There is a
country at the end of the world where no child is born but to
outlive the moon." America can be that country again, but to do so,
we need to put our children first.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Chicago Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Mrs. Clinton sees few federal child-care
DOCUMENT 301 OF 343
APOL9729600059
*
Mrs. Clinton sees few federal child-care initiatives
SANDRA SOBIERAJ
Associated Press
576 Words
3918 Characters
*
10/22/97
The Associated Press Political Service
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)
WASHINGTON (AP) Hillary Rodham Clinton, herself a working
*
mother, said Wednesday that any program for improving child care
should include help for stay-at-home moms.
But as the first lady sat down with reporters on the eve of her
*
White House conference on child care, she offered no policy
prescriptions and appeared to abandon ideas mentioned in appearances
outside Washington just last month including her proposal for a
national registry of caregivers with criminal histories.
She also made clear that the conference, which President Clinton
plans to attend in part, would not yield major new federal
initiatives but instead identify model care programs and encourage
their replication.
"The federal government can take certain actions, but most of the
* efforts in child care happen at the state level and in the private
sector," Mrs. Clinton said.
Making the conference her project, the first lady has traveled to
*
child-care centers and made several recent speeches to stir interest
in the issue, which she said is too often ignored by policy-makers.
She deferred to her husband Wednesday when asked what proposals the
conference might yield. "Can't do that
The president will make
recommendations," she said.
*
As for her personal experience with child care, Mrs. Clinton
acknowledged her family was exceptional. For all but two years of
daughter Chelsea's childhood, the Clintons lived in the fully staffed
Arkansas governor's mansion or in the White House where "there were
always people around in an emergency to help out," she said.
Still, the former practicing attorney recalled kibitzing with
fellow working moms. "Probably our biggest topic was all the
problems we were having trying to balance all these responsibilities.
I don't think the conversation has changed much," she said.
Of parents who choose to stay home, Mrs. Clinton said, "We don't
do a very good job in this country, despite our rhetoric about family
Source: Associated Press Political Service, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
values, to create work and family situations that permit more
families to make the choice that they think is right for them."
Even the Family and Medical Leave Act, which Republicans fought
for nine years before President Clinton signed it, does not go far
enough, she said. The legislation guarantees workers unpaid leave in
order to tend to family caregiving duties. But, Mrs. Clinton said,
"It's hard to argue it's a realistic choice when it's unpaid."
Pressed by reporters for policy specifics, the first lady refused
to resurrect ideas she raised during recent trips to Florida and
* Virginia liability protection for child-care centers and a registry
* of criminal child-care workers.
Aides said the administration would not propose creating a
registry.
The first lady, singed by criticism for her lead role in the
administration's early efforts to overhaul health care, also would
*
not elaborate on what hand she would have in writing child-care
initiatives to be wrapped into the administration's budget request
next year.
*
"I'm just going to keep working on (child-care issues) the
same way I've been doing for the last 20 years," she said, with a
shake of her head. "Same old story."
Outside the White House, several dozen parents, children and
* teachers protested the state of child care in the District of
Columbia.
The children, most of whom were 5 years old or younger, wrote
letters or drew pictures for the Clintons. Organizer Bobbi Blok of
the Washington Child Development Council said, "I agree with the
first lady about this being a village. D.C. is a village and we need
federal intervention."
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Associated Press Political Service, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Expert on child care to advise Clintons I Spring
DOCUMENT 324 OF 343
SDU9729600235
LOCAL
* Expert on child care to advise Clintons I Spring Valley woman invited
to conference
James Steinberg
STAFF WRITER I An Associated Press report was used in
preparing this story.
667 Words
4867 Characters
* 10/22/97
The San Diego Union-Tribune
UNION-TRIBUNE; 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
B-1
BIOG; INTERVIEW;
(Copyright 1997)
SPRING VALLEY -- You can't underestimate the importance of the early
years, says Deborah Eaton. "Good beginnings," she insists, "do last
a lifetime."
Eaton is one of about 100 experts who have been invited by President
* Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton to a White House conference
* tomorrow to discuss child care.
"I'm very honored to be representing San Diego," Eaton said
yesterday. "I really feel this is important."
*
Eaton is owner-director of Strawberry Patch Family Child Care and
provides care for about a dozen youngsters, from 6 weeks old to 6
years old, in her home.
*
"I love my work, but it isn't for everyone," said Eaton, a child-care
provider for the last 14 years. "It does take a lot of patience."
Eaton, a past president of the San Diego County Association for the
Education of Young Children and the San Diego County Family Care
Association, began her home-care program when her sons, now 20, 22
and 26, were younger.
"I was a military spouse, and we moved around a lot," she said. "I
wanted continuity."
Her husband, James, is a retired Navy officer.
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Tomorrow's conference will focus on early development, which Eaton
says is the key to maturing into a well-adjusted adult.
"It seems that everyone is interested in this issue," she said.
"We've shown the far-reaching effects of a good early childhood in
preventing juvenile delinquency, and in keeping people off of social
welfare programs
during their adult lives."
*
While child-care experts tomorrow will confront a myriad of problems,
the president plans few concrete proposals. The focus, the White
House said, will be on a handful of modest ideas, including:
{} A public education campaign and literature to help parents choose
*
high-quality child care.
*
{} New incentives, such as loans or grants, to help child-care
workers get more education.
*
{} A campaign to get businesses more involved in providing child care
for their workers, something Eaton supports.
"We need more public-private partnerships to help families in this
*
area," she said, and not just with child care, noting that elder care
is just as important.
Even a one-day conference can accomplish something, Eaton said,
citing her experience in April, when she was invited by the White
House to attend a similar get-together.
"At the end of the day the president issued an executive order that
the military share (information about) its exemplary programs for
young children with the civilian sector," she said.
Eaton, who grew up in Tennessee, has worked with children and their
families across the South, in Maine and in San Diego.
*
Seen from a wider perspective, she said, child-care professionals
have been treated as if they were neighborhood baby-sitters, not
"trained and educated care-givers."
She said: "And we wonder why professionals leave the field due to
inadequate wages
little or no benefits (and) no recognition?"
*
Part of that will be addressed tomorrow, before the White House
*
conference, Eaton said. She will speak at a Senate Office Building
*
ceremony designating April 24 as Child Care Professional Day.
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Eaton was invited by two of the designation resolution's sponsors,
Sens. James M. Jeffords, R-Vt., and Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. A
similar resolution is pending in the House, she said.
* Nationally, the problems in child care are many, including wide
variations in quality and inconsistent regulations that sometimes go
unenforced.
According to one survey, workers are paid an average of just $6.89 an
hour, and they come and go quickly. About one-third of workers leave
each year.
*
Meanwhile, child care is expensive. A typical family will spend
*
nearly $4,000 a year on child care. The poorest end up spending 25
percent of their income.
The problem cuts across class. Middle-class parents may be able to
* afford child care but worry whether centers and homes are safe.
For mothers trying to come off welfare and into low-wage jobs, the
question is how to pay. Some subsidies are available, depending on
the state, but even those who qualify have the same quality concerns.
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 3
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Child-care centers face worker shortage // Tight
DOCUMENT 327 OF 343
AAS9729600041
KIM TYSON
* Child-care centers face worker shortage // Tight labor pool in -
Austin area pinches businesses and parents
Kim Tyson
691 Words
4584 Characters
*
10/22/97
Austin American-Statesman
D2
(Copyright 1997)
*
Merrick Leler, owner of Child's Day child-care center, didn't
think he would ever face problems finding qualified employees. His
center paid above-market wages, provided company-paid health
insurance, and offered training and other benefits.
Recently, however, Leler has struggled to fill staff vacancies at
his center at 2525 Wallingwood Drive, near Zilker Park.
"It's been frustrating. We have filled four of the six openings,
but it took two months," said Leler, whose business serves 170
children from two months to 5 years in age. The 10-year-old company
grosses $1.2 million a year.
Leler isn't alone in his concern. The shortage of quality
*
child-care workers gets national attention on Thursday with the White
*
House Conference on Child Care.
The conference will look at what it means when centers can't find
* qualified staff and parents can't find the child care they need in
order to go to work.
Leler says Austin's strong job market has created a tight labor
pool and extreme pressure on small businesses that offer jobs paying
$6 to $13 an hour. Meanwhile, fewer people are studying early
childhood educationbecause of the low wages.
Competition for top employees means Leler's customers pay among
the highest rates in Austin.
A family sending a child to Child's Day pays $6,500 to $8,700 a
year for care, depending on the age of the child. A family with two
children would be looking at a yearly tab of $13,000 to $17,400.
"About two-thirds of our families live in the Eanes school
district," Leler said. "We're expensive, but we also operate at the
top end of the range of quality in the city."
Leler said many families can't afford to pay rates that might
attract more people to careers in early childhood education.
Source: Austin American-Statesman (Texas), October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
"We don't value early childhood educators because most people view
them as babysitters," Leler said. "Most people don't realize how
critical the pre-school years are and how critical it is to have a
quality environment, even before kindergarten."
Linda Welsh, director of community services for the Austin-Travis
County Health and Human Services Department, said finding qualified
* child-care staff has become a universal problem.
"I think everyone's in the same boat. Even the high-quality
programs are just looking at just having warm bodies," she said.
*
Welsh said the impact child care makes on the work forceis likely
to be the one that finally brings pressure to bear on the issue.
*
"When middle-class families aren't able to find child care, when
employers find they can't get workers, they're going to get on the
bandwagon and say we've got to do something about this," she said.
"I just hope we're pro-active so we can prevent a crisis."
The Capital Area Workforce Development Board, which will be
distributing federal work force training dollars for the Austin area,
* has already set up a child-care task force. The board conducted two
*
surveys last year of employers and employees and learned that child
*
care, transportation and training are the top issues facing
Austin-area companies.
The Austin-Travis County human services department this week
*
mailed out more than 100 salary surveys to Austin-area child-care
centers to learn more.
Welsh said small businesses may be able to offer more flexibility
to employees by giving them opportunities to balance work and family
* demands -- both getting good child care and affording it.
"Certainly flexible scheduling is one thing they can do to support
working parents -- allowing people to come in a little bit later so
there's not a struggle at the beginning or end of the day when they
need to pick kids up.
"They can offer financial support to help pay for some of the cost
* of child care," she said. "There are some companies that will pay
*
for slots at specific child-care centers so they can get a
discount."
The Austin Employers' Collaborative is distributing a free
resource manual that offers strategies companies can try to help
their employees. To receive the manual call the Austin-Travis County
Early Childhood Office, 326-4216. There is also information on the
Employers' Collaborative Web site
(http://www.ci.austin.tx.us./childcare/).
Kim Tyson writes Wednesdays on small business issues. Send
information to her at P.O. Box 670, Austin, TX 78767.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Austin American-Statesman (Texas), October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
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Child care mythmaking
DOCUMENT 328 OF 343
BSUN9729600087
EDITORIAL
* Child care mythmaking
Mona Charen
513 Words
3498 Characters
*
10/22/97
The Baltimore Sun
FINAL
19A
OP-ED, COMMENTARY
(Copyright 1997 @ The Baltimore Sun Company)
*
FOLLOWING UP on last summer's White House conference on early
childhood development, the Clinton administration this week is
* hosting what it is pleased to call the "first ever" White House
* conference on child care.
It's not the first ever. The Nixon administration hosted just
such a conference in 1970 (facts always seem to trip up this crowd).
What the administration has in mind is fairly predictable,
based on last summer's early childhood development conference.
Then, experts offered testimony about the key brain development
that occurs between birth and the age of 3 years.
Everyone stressed how crucial it is that babies and toddlers
get lots of stimulation during this period to maximize their
intelligence and social growth. Yet, all of the participants stayed
away from the obvious policy implications of the research --
namely, that babies and toddlers are best off in the care of their
parents.
*
The assumption is that institutional child care, even for very
young children, is a good thing (when done properly).
That is not the way most parents see it.
According to the 1994 Census report "Who's Minding the Kids?"
only 13 percent of preschool children are in center-based care.
Sixty-one percent are cared for by their mothers (4 percent of
whom also have home-based businesses), fathers or both mothers and
Source: Baltimore Sun, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
fathers in tag-team arrangements. Twelve percent are looked after
by grandparents or other relatives, 9 percent by neighbors, and 3
percent by nannies.
In other words, people are voting with their feet, and their
preference is not for institutional care.
As well it should not be. Dr. Stanley Greenspan, a respected
psychiatrist, has listed a number of reasons that institutional
* child care is bad for kids. Among his reason are a lack of
continuity with one caregiver and a lack of prolonged interactions
between child and adult.
*
Fully 80 percent of existing child-care centers, Dr. Greenspan
asserts, are "inadequate."
Presidential aide Rahm Emanuel may speak of "access,
affordability and safety," but affordability is simply not possible
-- not if the aim is "quality care." Quality costs money. And even
the finest day-care centers are not as good as the average mother.
Many families cannot afford to have one parent stay at home.
But fewer than the propagandists would have us believe.
The average income of two-parent couples where the mother
stays at home is $35,876, which is about $15,000 less than families
with children in which the husband and wife are both employed.
American families are creative. Though we hear endless calls
* for more and better child care, 66.7 percent of mothers with
children under age 6 are full-time mothers or are employed
*
part-time. They are not crying out for more institutional child
*
care.
They do need tax breaks, flex-time, work-at-home options,
telecommuting and job-sharing.
*
The notion of a child care "crisis" is a myth. We now have
expert testimony like that of Dr. Greenspan and the other experts
cited by the Clintons themselves to bolster the common-sense
intuition that parents are the best guardians of young children.
Mona Charen writes a syndicated column.
Pub Date: 10/22/97
Source: Baltimore Sun, October 22, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Child-care quandary: Improving quality without
DOCUMENT 18 OF 61
ASP9729500034
*
Child-care quandary: Improving quality without increasing cost
LAURA MECKLER
734 Words
4751 Characters
*
10/21/97
The Associated Press
BUSINESS
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The place smelled like dirty diapers.
"Yuck," thought Betsy Sullivan. She didn't want to leave her
*
daughter at a child-care center like that.
But the next place was worse. No one even realized she was there.
"I could have walked in and walked off with the place, or a kid
for that matter," said Mrs. Sullivan, who lives outside San
Francisco. "It was really scary."
And so it went, until the Sullivans found a center that was
structured, but not a boot camp; a place without foul odors; a place
they could leave 18-month-old Elva, the little girl who takes months
to warm to strangers.
*
Cost and quality. They are the two biggest issues in child care.
And they cut against each other: Improving quality usually means
spending more.
Experts will sort through such problems and potential solutions
*
Thursday at the first-ever White House conference on child care. But
President Clinton plans to announce few concrete proposals, instead
focusing on a handful of modest ideas that include:
- A public education campaign and literature to help parents
*
choose high quality child care.
- New incentives, such as loans or grants, to help child-care
workers get more education.
- A campaign to get businesses more involved in providing child
*
care for their workers.
A national registry of child-care workers with criminal records,
an idea mentioned in the past by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton,
will not be proposed, according to administration officials who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Officials expect the conference to set the stage for Clinton's
State of the Union speech next year, when he is expected to highlight
*
child care. His administration also plans to include some initiative
Source: Associated Press, October 21, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
in next year's budget proposal.
Advocates say they'll be watching.
"The proof is in the pudding," said Marian Wright Edelman of the
*
Children's Defense Fund, which has child care at the top of its 1998
*
legislative agenda. "A White House conference, in and of itself,
won't lead to much."
*
Generally, the federal government has only a small role in child
*
care. One program provides about $3 billion, mostly to help
low-income parents pay bills. States are responsible for setting
standards, enforcing them and adding any other money for subsidies.
*
But across the states, the problems in child care are many,
including wide variations in quality and inconsistent regulations
that sometimes go unenforced.
Workers are paid an average of just $6.89 an hour, and they come
and go quickly. Nationally, about one-third of workers leave each
year. And a forthcoming study by the Families and Work Institute
found that in Florida, a state with above-average retention, just 2
percent of teachers remained after four years.
The bottom line, according to a recent University of Colorado
study, is that 12 percent of centers provide less than minimal
quality care, and only 14 percent are rated good.
Meanwhile, it's expensive. A typical family will spend nearly
*
$4,000 a year on child care. The poorest end up spending 25 percent
of their income.
The problem cuts across class. Middle-class parents may be able
* to afford child care, but worry whether centers and homes are safe.
For mothers trying to come off welfare and into low-wage jobs, the
question is how to pay. Some subsidies are available, depending on
the state, but even those who qualify have the same quality concerns.
"It's probably the worst feeling in the world," said Kim Noyd of
Menomonie, Wis., who stopped trusting centers after her 6-year-old
daughter told her that a worker had touched her in a sexual way.
Meanwhile, the working poor are often caught in the middle, unable
to afford much but too well-off to qualify for subsidies.
Deborah Loving works two jobs, taking home $1,180 a month, which
* was enough when a subsidy covered most of her monthly $650 child-care
bill.
But that subsidy, for families at risk of going onto welfare,
dried up last month.
"That kind of leaves parents like me stuck," said Loving, of
Alameda, Calif., a part-time bank teller and office assistant in a
law firm.
She's considered putting 3-year-old Yibo in a cheaper center -
she knows one that charges just $450 a month - but fears the new
place would be less stimulating.
"It would be more of a baby-sitting situation - maybe some ABCs
and 1-2-3s," she said. "It's worth the extra $200, if I can come up
with it."
Source: Associated Press, October 21, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
Dow Jones News/Retrieval
Federal bill seeks to improve child care
DOCUMENT 335 OF 343
PROV9729500184
* Federal bill seeks to improve child care *Senator Chafee is a
cosponsor of legislation that would provide tax credits for families,
training for providers and incentives for businesses and communities.
LAURA MEADE KIRK Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer
588 Words
4251 Characters
* 10/21/97
The Providence Journal-Bulletin
ALL
B-01
(Copyright 1997)
Peggy Stocker says she's all for anything that will help improve
* the quality of child care and make it more affordable for everyone.
That's why Stocker whose sons Nicholas, 4, and Robert, 3, attend
the West Bay Children's Center - was on hand yesterday for a news
*
conference to show support for federal legislation to improve child
* care nationwide.
"As a parent, it's kind of almost a traumatic event when you have
to go back to work when you have two very young children at home,"
said Stocker, of Warwick, an administrative assistant at the Groden
Center Inc. in Providence.
It's hard to find a high-quality program that is also convenient
and affordable, she said. That's why she said of this bill: "I'm
really hoping it will help us."
Sen. John H. Chafee, cosponsor of the federal legislation, said
the goal is to provide "affordable, accessible, quality and safe
* child care for young children" through a series of tax credits for
* parents and incentives for child-care providers, businesses and
states to improve care.
*
He noted that child care is such an important issue that First
* Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will be hosting the White House
*
Conference on Child Care on Thursday.
Chafee said statistics show that more than 60 percent of women
with preschool children work full- or part-time. And nearly half of
all infants under age 1 are cared for by someone other than a parent
at least part-time.
All told, the statistics show, more than 12 million children under
age 5 now spend at least part of their day being cared for by someone
other than a parent. And millions more school-age children under age
* 12 also are in child care when not in school.
Source: Providence Journal-Bulletin (R.I.), October 21, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Rhode Island already has done a lot to improve the quality of
* child care, Chafee said. And he believes the federal government can
help improve the quality of care nationwide, which is why he joined
Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vertmont as a sponsor of the CIDCARE Act:
*
"Creating Improved Delivery of Child Care: Affordable, Reliable and
Educational.'
The CIDCARE Act has a number of features designed to help parents,
* child-care providers and communities, Chafee said.
Among other things, it would:
*
*Increase the current child-care tax credit for families making
less than $55,000, and increase the amount of pre-tax dollars
employees can contribute to Dependent Care Assistance Plans.
* Allow higher tax credits and greater pre-tax contributions for
*
families who use accredited or credentialed child-care services,
since they usually cost more.
*
*Give child-care providers a larger tax deduction for educational
expenses related to achieving or maintaining accreditation.
*Provide $50 million to create and operate technology-based
training that uses distance learning, the Internet and satellite
*
resources to help child-care providers nationwide to receive
training, education and support.
* Allow businesses a charitable deduction for donating educational
*
equipment to nonprofit child-care providers and public schools.
*
*Help employers who provide child care by implementing a tax
*
credit for startup costs for child-care centers, professional
development expenses, and costs related to achieving accreditation.
*Establish a $260-million competitive grant program that would
* help states improve the quality of child care by doing such things as
*
increasing the salaries of credentialed child-care providers;
developing standards for the accreditation and credentialing of
providers; offering scholarships to help providers pay for education
and training, or for use on consumer-education efforts.
As he said in a written statement outlining the legislation:
"There's no underestimating the importance that quality, affordable
* child care can play in helping young children grow into competent,
caring adults."
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Providence Journal-Bulletin (R.I.), October 21, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
THE WASHINGTON POST
Op-Ed
Page C1
Page 1 of 3
October 19, 1997
The Reasons
Why We Need
To Rely Less
On Day Care
By Stanley I. Greenspan
n Thursday, the White House will
O
direct its attention-and probably
much of the nation's-to a subject
that desperately needs attention: the
state of day care for the young children of
millions of working parents in this country.
The White House Conference on Child
Care will focus on the quality, the affordability
and the supply of child care, among other
topics. It plans to figure out how best to help
parents identify high-quality child care and
discuss how best to bring good child care to
under-served populations, such as welfare
mothers headed to work.
These are important questions, of course.
But in the rush to improve and increase child
care, we are ignoring a more fundamental
reality: Much of the child care available- for
infants and toddlers in this country simply
isn't good for them.
This isn't the parents' fault and, in many
respects, it's not the child-care providers'
fault, either. A growing body of recent, re-
search indicates that most of our children.are
cared for in child-care centers and in other
out-of-home day-care arrangements that have
significant limitations. Recent studies by the
University of Colorado, the Families and Work
Institute of New York, and the National Insti-
tute of Child Health and Development, for
example, have concluded that more than 80
percent of day care in child-care centers is
inadequate and that, for infants, out-of-home
care, especially day-care centers, tend td be
inferior to parental care.
This negative conclusion about day care is
not motivated by the misguided nostalgia of
the Christian Right for the days when fewer
women worked outside the home nor by a
conservative hostility to government social
programs aimed at helping children. Nor am1
unmindful of the economic realities that force
many parents to rely on day care. But rather
than increase our reliance on day care, we
should begin fundamentally rethinking the
way we organize work and child care.
The best way to begin is to review and
THE WASHINGTON POST
Op-Ed
Page C1
Page 2 of 3
October 19, 1997
understand the best research into the effects
These aren't interactions that can occur on
that different types of care have on the
the fly. Child-care experts suggest that during
development of very young children.
the first two years of life, these types of
President Clinton identified this basic is-
experiences need to be available one-half or
sue at last April's White House Conference
more of a baby's waking hours. Many parents
on the Brain and Early Development. The
provide these interactions during feeding,
conference, which helped kick off a national
bathing and diaper changes. Yes, children get
discussion on how best to help children's
fed and get their diapers changed in day care,
early development, attracted hundreds of
but even at excellent centers with outstanding,
participants, including pediatrician T. Berry
well-trained staff, there are significant limita-
Brazelton, Carla Shatz, professor of neurobi-
tions. Because day-care workers are often
ology at the University of California at Berke-
caring for several infants, their interactions
ley and David A. Hamburg, then president of
with each baby tend to be brief, which means
the Carnegie Corp.. There was a healthy
the infants aren't getting the long interactive
consensus that early interactions between
"dialogues" through words and gestures that
infants and caregivers are essential not only
many parents provide at home.
for a healthy mind, but also for the physical
Even in good day-care centers, we've seen
growth and wiring of the brain.
many an eager, expectant 8-month-old baby
When Clinton asked those of use at the
give up and stare at the wall as his caregiver
conference what kinds of experiences are
stops by his crib briefly but then hurries away
most important for babies' development and
to attend to a crying rival.
how much is needed, he opened up a subject
Even more important, day-care workers
that is far more politically sensitive than he
don't get a chance to build long relationships
probably anticipated. That's because I-and
with the children in their care because, at most
many other researchers-have identified the
centers, babies change caregivers each year as
quantity and quality of experiences that
they move on to the toddler room. And in
babies and young children need to develop
centers where there is less training, lower
optimally. There are six stages that families
wages and high turnover, caregivers may
with children who are emotionally and intel-
change even more frequently.
lectually healthy provide to their children. A
In short, three of the six essential building
review of these six stages makes clear why
blocks are compromised due to the very
most out-of-home child care cannot provide a
structure of center-based day care: ongoing,
number of essential building blocks for a
child's healthy mind and brain. Briefly, chil-
intimate relationships; interactions made up of
dren need:
lengthy, back-and-forth emotional dialogues;
An ongoing, loving and intimate relationship
and long problem-solving discussions with
(lasting years, not months) with one or a few
gestures.
caregivers in order to develop caring, empathy,
The other three components of good care-
trust and relating.
providing stimulation appropriate to the baby's
Sights, sounds, touches and other sensations
nervous system; shared use of creative ideas;
tailored to the baby's unique nervous system in
and logical use of ideas through eliciting
order to foster learning, language, awareness,
opinions and debates-vary significantly, de-
attention and self-control.
pending on the staff and the chemistry be-
Interactions made up of long sequences of
tween caregivers and the children.
back-and-forth smiles, smirks, sounds, reach-
There is some resistance to this idea. For
ing and the like. This "emotional dialogue"
example, the initial results of an ongoing
between adults and babies fosters the begin-
day-care study conducted by the National
nings of a sense of self, logical communications
Institute of Child Health and Development
and the beginnings of purposefulness.
have been interpreted by many media outlets,
Discussions without words-long negotia-
including The Washington Post, CNN and
tions with gestures to solve problems (such as
popular parents' magazines as "good news for
when a toddler takes a caregiver to the fridge to
parents." In fact, the news isn't quite as upbeat
get the juice) to foster early types of thinking
as all that. The study is finding that babies in
and social skills.
relatively full-time day care have compromised
Shared use of creative ideas through pretend
attachments unless their parents were especial-
play between a caregiver and a child and
ly sensitive to their needs and adept at reading
creative negotiations of basic needs ("Juice!")
their emotional signals in the evenings-that
in order to foster language and creativity.
is, providing the types of experiences missing
Logical use of ideas through a caregiver
in the_day-care centers.
eliciting a child's opinion ("I like this because
) and debates in order to promote logical
thinking, planning and readiness for reading
and math.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Op-Ed
Page C1
Page 3 of 3
October 19, 1997
The child-care challenges we face cannot be
Unpaid parental leave should be extended
dismissed. Current patterns of out-of-home
from three months to six months and, whenev-
child care have significant limitations that
er possible, parents should be permitted to
endanger the growing minds of future genera-
return to full- or part-time work schedules
tions. An entirely new set of guiding assump-
gradually.
tions is necessary. We need to re-evaluate the
To facilitate the 4/3 solution over the next
professed value we place on children. Children
generation, our education system needs to get
and the care of them must be elevated to a
involved. Subjects like child development and
higher priority, both within families and soci-
family life need to become a core part of school
ety. This will be unrealistic for parents who, no
curriculums in order to prepare students for
matter how much they want to stay home, have
their futures. We now have a detailed body of
no choice but to work. So we need to gradually
knowledge about how children develop the
bring about social arrangements which maxi-
best. Kids should learn about it in school to
mize at home care of young infants by their
better prepare them for parenthood.
parents.
I
F
or two-parent families and single-parent
believe many two-parent working fai nilies
families where full-time work is essential
would do well to consider the "4/3 Solu-
to provide food, shelter and medical care,
tion," or some variation of it Under this plan
we must improve the quality of child care,
each parent works two-thirds time to pursue
including having caregivers stay with the same
career goals and together they provide 4/3 of a
group of babies for three years or longer.
single income. Thus, one-third of each parent's
Impersonal child care is but the most obvi-
time is left for direct baby and child care.
ous symptom of a society that is moving toward
Obviously, some families will elect other part-
more impersonal modes of communication,
time arrangements. This will mean a signifi-
education, and health and mental health care.
cant pay cut, which clearly not all families can
Intimate ongoing interactions between chil-
afford. But if those who do will make child care
dren and their parents, we're learning, are
the significant part of their lives that it deserves
essential for the proper growth of the brain and
to be.
mind. These types of interactions also makes
In the short run, parents and future parents
for reflective citizens as well as a sense of
need to more carefully plan their careers and
cohesion that makes societies work.
lifestyles SO they can fit in the time and the
attention that children need. In the long run
this solution will involve considerable govern-
Stanley Greenspan is author of "The Growth of
ment and industry support, to put it mildly.
the Mind: The Endangered Origins of
Options that will need to be considered will
Intelligence," and clinical professor of
include government incentives, including tax
psychiatry and pediatrics at George
incentives for employers to provide part-time
Washington University Medical School.
work options for men and women and more
flextime to employees, SO parents can arrange
more flexible work schedules.
THE WASHINGTON POST
Page B9
October 18, 1997
Many Doubt D.C. Day Care
Can Match Welfare Reform
Changes to System Studied by Council Panel
to receive a $92 million federal block
By Hamil R Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
grant made available under the wel-
fare reform act.
District officials. children's advo-
Bobbi Black, executive director of
cates and day-care providers voiced
the Washington Child Development
serious doubt yesterday that the city
Council, the city's largest referral
can find subsidized day care for the
network for day-care outlets, said
children of 4,000 mothers who are
that the legislation under consider-
required by the federal welfare re-
ation did not address the problems
form act to seek jobs.
"The bettom line is that the Dis-
plaguing the city's day-care centers.
trict has not made a commitment to
She presented a pian that urged
its children," Wayne D. Casey. depu-
changes in licensing procedures and
ty director of the D.C. Department of
fee scales, and proposed ways to
Human Services, testified at a D.C.
educate and involve parents in the
Council hearing.
day-care system.
Casey and other city officials told
The D.C. Department of Consum-
council members that they have a
er and Regulatory Affairs is required
daunting task in trying to find
to inspect each facility once a year,
enough private facilities to comply
but the agency's five inspectors-
with the federal mandate that day
half the number of three years ago-
care be available to welfare mothers
routinely do not complete the man-
moving to the work force.
dated inspections, according to the
"Even without welfare reform we
results of an investigation which ap-
need more infant care facilities," said
peared this year in The Washington
Barbara Kamara, who supervises the
Post.
DHS's day-care program. "This only
Ellen Yung-Fatah, who oversees
exacerbates the process."
DCRA's day-care inspectors, said
There are 15,000 children under
yesterday that the agency would
day-care supervision in centers and
close more facilities if it had more
homes in the District. More than half
resources.
of the 350 facilities continue to oper-
"I am pulling people from other
ate although their city licenses have
departments," she said. "We are rob-
expired. In most cases, city officials
say, license renewal has been de-
bing Peter to pay Paul. I need person-
layed because of serious health and
nel as well as non-personnel resourc-
safety problems, ranging from
es. We don't have paper; I have to buy
crowding to rat infestation.
pens."
The city officials say part of the
Theresa Campbell, a 35-year-old
problem is that it pays providers
mother of seven, testified that with-
about $18 a day per child and $21 per
out day care she would not have been
infant. compared to an average rate
able to give up welfare to become a
of $30 a day or higher in other cities.
teacher's aide.
In addition, a District day-care li-
"I am here today because I fear for
cense now costs as much as $175,
the children of the District of Colum-
with part of each fee earmarked to
bia," Campbell said. "I fear that the
help pay for construction of the MCI
reduction that child-care centers
Arena.
have received over the past two years
"If we are serious about trying to
will mean that some centers will
get welfare parents to work and are
refuse to serve subsidized families
serious about keeping the working
and those parents will not have the
poor at their jobs, we must provide
opportunity that I did to prove that
many more subsidized slots," testi-
they can be successful, too."
fied Elizabeth Siegel, interim execu-
tive director of D.C. Action for Chil-
dren, a children's advocacy group.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Sandy Allen (D-Ward 8) , who
To read a Post series on D.C.
heads the council's Committee on
government mismanagement, click
Human Services, sought public com-
on the above symbol on the front page
ment on two pieces of legislation that
of The Post's Web site at
the council must approve if the city is
www.washingtonpost.com
USA TODAY
Page 12A
Page 1 of 2
October 17, 1997
Today's debate: CARING FOR CHILDREN
Parents need quality care,
want choices for children
The White House
OUR VIEW
Who's watching the kids
conference should
Studies show that day-care providers vary,
look to the marketplace, not
depending on the child's age.
Washington, for options.
Caregiver
Under 1 year 1 to 2 3 to 4
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton per-
Parent
37%
32%
25%
forms a valuable service by hosting next
Family-based
20
20
17
week's White House child-care conference.
Day-care center
14
21
37
Relative's home
11
13
10
She promises to ignite a national dialogue
In-home provider
13
11
7
about day-care trials that bedevil working
Other
5
3
4
parents and their 32 million children.
Source: The Urban Institute 1991 National Child Care Survey
What role should government play?
That's the conference's overriding ques-
and what care costs
tion. And Clinton has telegraphed the
Average child-care costs are highest in the
White House's preferences through recent
Northeast. But they eat up the largest share of
high-profile visits to federally subsidized
family income in the West.
day-care centers.
Location
Weekly cost % of income
But heavy-handed proposals for national
Northeast
$85.07
7.9%
standards and massive federal programs,
Midwest
71.47
7.3
which have bogged down past debates,
South
69.17
7.1
should not be the emphasis. This discus-
West
79.32
8.4
sion instead should focus on exploration of
All families
74.15
7.6
market-based methods to improve quality
Source: Census Bureau, 1995
without threatening the existence of church
programs, neighborhood homes and for-
And toughened regulations have their
profit centers that most families use.
own problems. States have discovered that
What's needed are dependable day-care
strict regulations frequently force some
options that are high quality yet affordable.
day-care centers out of business while en-
Until families find an answer, child-care
couraging other providers to operate un-
problems will continue to rank among the
derground. A study by the Urban Institute
most stressful distractions for employees.
found more families use unregulated care
Already, parents miss between five and 29
in states with the strictest regulations.
days of work a year, costing $12 billion in
The challenge. Government must devise
lost productivity, according to Women and
ways to enhance quality without compro-
Health magazine.
mising a family's child-care choices.
The dilemma. The day-care search is
A series of innovative experiments by
tricky because every family has its own
states and corporations suggests it can be
needs. And day-care requirements change
done through targeted financial incentives
as children age.
that prod day-care providers to upgrade
Still, the industry is beset with common
their own ranks.
problems. High staff turnover, estimated at
IBM has pledged $50 million by 2000
40% a year, and the lack of well-trained
to improve child-care offerings. To qualify
workers interfere with the delivery of high-
for funding, though, providers must be ac-
quality, consistent care in centers, church
credited. Since 1990, IBM has funded
nurseries and school-based programs.
child-care training in 36 communities.
Previous unsuccessful attempts to im-
Nine states award cash grants to day-
prove the quality of child care have focused
care centers and home-based providers
on federal regulations that would usurp the
that voluntarily improve their credentials.
ability of states to mandate staffing require-
ments and child-provider ratios.
USA TODAY
Page 12A
Page 2 of 2
October 17, 1997
New Jersey is creating a professional
development center to raise professional-
ism of child-care workers, awarding grants
Home alone
to providers who take training courses.
Applying the same sensible strategies na-
The number of "latchkey kids" who care
tionally. Sen. Jim Jeffords, R-Vt., has pro-
for themselves while their parents are
posed manipulating the federal tax code to
working increases with age.
encourage parents to seek better-quality
Percentage of
child care. Among his proposals: gradually
children home alone:
Age
reducing the value of the dependent care
5
0%
tax credit for families who don't use trained
1%
child-care workers; providing grants to
6
states willing to boost government subsi-
7
2%
dies for trained child-care workers; and
8
2%
awarding education grants to providers.
9
4%
Using similar financial carrots, North
Carolina increased the number of high-
10
6%
quality, licensed day-care centers 60% be-
11
11%
tween 1993 and 1996 and encouraged
12
14%
26,000 providers to enhance their training
13
16%
The White House hopes next week's
14
20%
talks will lead to national child-care re-
forms. If so, realistic proposals to improve
Source: Census Bureau. 1991
quality, and preserve family choice, should
By Julie Stacey. USA TODAY
dominate this critical discussion.
Families need feds' help
Parents look
of quality and boosting investment to
OPPOSING VIEW
make child care more affordable.
to Washing-
National child-care standards already ex-
ton for two necessities: stan-
ist. They have been developed by the Na-
dards and money.
tional Association for the Education of
Young Children (NAEYC) from research
By Gail Richardson
showing, for example. that trained and
well-compensated caregivers, small group
Child care is a real-life issue for working
sizes, and appropriate child-to-adult ratios
families. During job hours every day, they
enhance children's social skills, reduce be-
entrust their children to child-care centers.
havior problems, increase cooperativeness,
family child-care homes, baby sitters and
and improve language skills.
after-school programs. Parents stretch to
Congress should take action to make
find and pay for these arrangements. Yet
NAEYC standards available to all parents,
national studies report that most child care
caregivers and decision makers so they
fails to help children develop to their full
know what it takes to provide safe, nurtur-
potential. And some is outright dangerous.
ing and educational child care. Financial
Most parents cannot get out of this pre-
incentives should be offered to states to
dicament on their own. Very few can afford
adopt these standards.
the $6,300 to $8,500 per child per year it
A larger federal investment also is imper-
takes to give children access to attentive
ative: Parent fees alone cannot finance
and motivated caregivers in safe and stim-
quality care. Funding should be available
ulating environments - that is, to good-
for all children eligible for low-income sub-
quality care.
sidies under present programs. The Depen-
States, of course, license child care. But
dent Care Tax Credit, which gives families
one recent study found that no state has ad-
a tax break for child-care expenses, should
equate regulations for infants and toddlers.
be increased for low- and middle-income
As brain research shows, such poor envi-
families and made refundable.
ronments can decisively impede develop-
The federal government cannot directly
ment and learning in little children.
solve all child-care quandaries of working
On Oct. 23, White House conference
families. But it can and should provide in-
speakers likely will call for stepped-up ef-
formation, incentives and resources that
forts by all sectors to improve child care.
give parents, communities, and state and
Obviously, states and localities, businesses,
local leaders a real chance to create child-
schools, philanthropies and communities
care solutions the nation urgently needs.
of faith all must pitch in.
But the success of new state and local ef-
Gail Richardson is interim executive director
forts will depend on an expanded federal
of Child Care Action Campaign, a national
role in two key areas: embracing standards
nonprofit organization.
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Boston - Friday, October 17, 1997
Internet accress: www.csmonitor.com
75c
Putting
More Care
In Day Care
Already, between 12 and 20 percent of
White House meeting
children in US day-care centers and homes
next week will focus on
are in unsafe environments that jeopardize
their development, studies show. Still,
the quality and shortage
Americans today depend on child care
of day care in America.
more than ever. Three out of 5 women with
children younger than 6 are now in the
By Ann Scott Tyson
labor force, triple the rate in 1965. An es-
Soecial to The Christian Science Monitor
timated 10 million to 13 million children
WASHINGTON
are served by child-care centers and
B
EYOND the barbed-wire
homes.
fence, dumpster, and asphalt
And demand is growing, especially as
lot, a sign painted on the wall
welfare reform pushes more parents into
of a Washington day-care center
jobs. For example, in the Chicago area of-
reads "Love and Care for our Chil-
ficials are predicting a "massive need" for
dren." Other signs promise a "safe
new centers that can supply a minimum of
environment" for infants as young
12,500 new child-care slots each year. In
as six weeks old.
Washington, 4,000 low-income children
Yet the center was recently fined
are expected to be channeled into the
for leaving chemicals within chil-
city's overburdened day-care system in
dren's reach, and roomfuls of ba-
coming months. And at least 100,000 chil-
bies and toddlers still play behind
dren in 38 states are on waiting lists for
reinforced metal doors for lack of a
subsidized child care.
playground.
The government-certified center
Policing day-care centers
in Washington's Shaw neighbor-
The rush may imperil quality, experts
hood is only one indication of a
say, as state regulators, hard-pressed by
quiet crisis in day care nationwide,
funding cut-backs, fail to keep up with li-
as too much demand for too few
censing and inspections. "It's a growing
slots leaves thousands at risk of
concern of almost all the states that they
substandard care, experts say.
just don't have enough staff to enforce the
The influx of children is fueled by
regulations," says Karen Kroh, president of
mothers coming off welfare, as well
the National Association for Regulatory
as the growth of two-earner fami-
Administration (NARA) in St. Paul, Minn.
lies. States are boosting efforts to
Some critics say quality is suffering be-
safeguard the quality of care but are.
cause many for-profit centers pay lower
often hampered by shortfalls in
wages and have higher turnover. Some 40
staff. A White House conference on
percent of day-care providers are now for-
the topic is scheduled for Oct. 23.
profit, compared with a third a decade ago,
says William Gormley, a child-care expert
at Georgetown University here.
Another measure of the quality-of-care
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
Front Page
Page 2 of 2
October 17, 1997
JAMES WOODCOCK/BILLINGS GAZETTE/AP
monitors child care for the Washington-
based Children's Defense Fund.
Yet SO far, most Americans have not ral-
lied to the cause. Federal funding for child
care, which was increased under the 1996
welfare act, will nevertheless fall $1.4 bil-
lion short over six years of providing what
is needed for parents who work, according
to the Congressional Budget Office.
A proposed national registry for child-
care employees has drawn criticism from
union officials, who argue government
should pay to train, not track, workers.
Innovative ideas
Much of the work in improving day care
falls to the states. Several innovations are
helping states stretch limited funds to
boost quality:
Improving the efficiency of monitor-
ing by targeting troubled providers. Eleven
states are fine-tuning their monitoring so
centers that comply with rules can be
screened more quickly and less frequently,
according to a recent survey by Wheelock
SHAQUILLE O'TODDLER: Shaun Bell uses a bucket and low basket to improve his chances of
College in Boston.
pulling off an NBA-style shot at a day-care center in Billings, Mont. A White House conference
Monetary incentives for better care in
will be held next week on how to increase the number and quality of day care nationwide.
government-subsidized centers. In New
Mexico a new program uses the slogan "Go
crisis is that many states are suspending
studies link the mental development of
for the Gold." It offers providers Olympic-
and revoking licenses more often, with
children to the quality of care they get.
style ratings and up to $3 more per day per
some reporting dramatic increases since
Such findings are rekindling the debate
child for boosting staff credentials and
1990, according to an April survey by
over whether parents should attempt to
lowering child-adult ratios. Oklahoma has
NARA. "We are seeing a lot more criminal
take more of their children's care into their
a similar program.
background problems and child-abuse his-
own hands.
Helping parents make better choices.
tory," says Pauline Koch, who oversees
Children's advocates hope next week's
Colorado has taken the lead by offering
child-care licensing for Delaware, where
White House conference will cast a spot-
parents computerized data from licensing
enforcement actions have shot up 45 per-
light on the shortage of high-quality, af-
reports via child-care referral agencies.
cent since 1995.
fordable care.
Parents get information on centers that
The defects in day care may have major
Some advocates say parents need to de-
have received substantiated complaints or
implications not only for parents, but also
mand good care - and that government
have violated regulations. "Once the word
for US social policy. Welfare reform could
should set better standards and monitor
is out that parents have been empowered,
falter if child care prevents parents from
providers more closely. "It's a basic con-
the centers will have much stronger incen-
holding down jobs. Furthermore, recent
sumer protection," says Gina Adams, who
tives to improve," says Dr. Gormley.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Section 3 Page 11
Page 2 of 2
October 12, 1997
Goodbye to the Job.
Hello to the Shock.
By JULIA LAWLOR
A
S a regional director for Ross Perot's
W
HEN Ms. Barnes announced her
1992 Presidential campaign, Tamara
departure last month, she left open
Hardy never stopped to think what
the possibility of returning to the
life would be like without constant travel, 14-
corporate world. (She denied that her de-
hour workdays, cellular phones, pagers and
parture was connected to the resignation of
an endless supply of frequent-flier miles.
her husband from a high Pepsico post after
When she finally quit to become a stay-at-
he failed to get a promotion.) Ms. Barnes, of
home mother, reality hit hard.
course, could live well financially for some
"I was riding on a fast-moving train. it
time without returning to work, and she has
came to a screeching halt and I jumped off,"
said that she does intend to spend time with
said Mrs. Hardy, 32, who is now happily
her children at home.
raising her three children in Seattle. "I
Some women, however, don't stay home
gained weight, and my self-esteem dropped.
for long - or at all.
Since I was hardly ever home while I was
Sheila Wellington, president of Catalyst, a
working, I knew no one. And it was hard to
research and advisory firm in Manhattan,
find people I had anything in common with."
said the firm had interviewed hundreds of
It is the rare fast-tracker who hasn't
women who had left corporate managerial
entertained the thought of quitting a job,
positions in the last few years.
even though most men and women in dual-
"Invariably they tell their employers they
career marriages say they can't afford to
are leaving to go home," she said. "But very
make such a move. So when Brenda Barnes,
few actually do so. Women do not want to
43, president of Pepsi-Cola North America,
burn their bridges. They start their own
said last month that she was leaving the
businesses. Or they look for jobs where they
corporate world to spend more time with
can have a better balance, or where the
her husband and three children, the question
opportunities for advancement are better.
was raised anew: Is dropping out a viable
And they find them."
option when balancing work and family
Women in all kinds of jobs can find it
seems impossible?
disorienting to leave the work force. Three
Sometimes a woman finds the transition
years ago, Joanne Brundage of Elmhurst,
from work to home relatively easy, espe-
III., went back to work in a job-sharing
cially if it is her choice to go home and if her
spouse supports the move. But many others
arrangement after spending eight years at
struggle with feelings of loneliness, isola-
home with her two children. She had quit her
tion, boredom and lower self-esteem.
job as a letter carrier for the Postal Service
And even if their families can withstand
in 1986, after failing to find adequate child
the drop in income, women also put them-
care for her son.
selves at risk by forgoing pensions at a time
"I was really blindsided by how devastat-
they are living longer than ever before.
ed I was emotionally," said Ms. Brundage,
Today, a woman in her 50's can expect to
45, who founded an organization called Fe-
live to 90.
male, for Formerly Employed Mothers at
"This is not some magic solution to to-
the Leading Edge, as a result of her experi-
day's stresses," said Stephanie Coontz, pro-
ence in adjusting to life outside work. "I felt
fessor of history and family studies at Ever-
worthless. I suddenly didn't know who I was.
green State College in Olympia, Wash., and
I never realized how much my identity was
author of "The Way We Really Are: Coming
wrapped up in my work. When I was work-
to Terms With America's Changing Fam-
ing, I'd look forward to seeing my daughter
ilies" (Basic Books, $23).
when I got home. But then I was home all
"I'm not knocking anybody who cobbles
the time, and it was like that song, 'How will
together a personal arrangement," she said.
I miss you if you don't go away?'
"But research shows that women are least
Several studies in the last decade have
likely to be distressed if they have a job, a
found that a job offers women psychological
supportive partner and autonomy and flexi-
support as well as a paycheck. A 1989 study
bility at work."
of 745 married professional and blue-collar
The trend is for more women to enter the
women in the Detroit area found that wom-
labor force and to stay there after the birth
en who stopped working to care for children
of their children. According to the Bureau of
reported 30 percent more distress over a
Labor Statistics, women with children
three-year period than women who returned
younger than 6 are one of the fastest-grow-
to work after the birth of a child.
ing segments of the work force: 62 percent
of mothers with children younger than 6
were in the labor force last year, compared
with 47 percent in 1980.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Section 3 Page 11
Page 1 of 2
October 12, 1997
Women who reduced their hours and
The state of a marriage also affects a
worked part time or as freelancers reported
woman's psychological well-being. Bonnie
10 percent more symptoms of distress, said
Strickland, professor of psychology at the
one author of the study, Elaine Wethington,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst,
an associate professor of human develop-
said a 1986 study of depression in women
ment and sociology at Cornell University.
found that stay-at-home wives with troubled
Those who had never been in the work force
marriages were the most depressed, fol-
reported no change in their distress level
lowed by employed wives with troubled
during the three years.
"It's a difficult transition to make," Ms.
marriages and tension-filled jobs. Stay-at-
Wethington said. "Work is truly a defining
home wives with happy marriages had rela-
identity in the United States."
tively low levels of depression, but least
Yet that does not mean every stay-at-
depressed were employed wives with happy
home mother is unhappy.
marriages and flexible jobs.
"I'd rather be here than anywhere right
now," said Catherine Carbone Rogers. 36, a
N an interesting sidelight, a 1995 study by
former television reporter who is raising
the Families and Work Institute with the
two young children in Seattle. "I had always
Whirlpool Foundation showed that 85
planned to be at home with my kids. Before,
percent of women and 67 percent of men
I was stretched at home, stretched at work
reported wanting to work less than a full-
and not giving 100 percent to either. Now
time schedule or not at all. A third of women
I'm confident I'm giving my children what
said they would prefer to stay home; but so
they need: a secure. stable environment."
did 21 percent of men.
Women who feel strongly that they want
But if one spouse quits, it is typically the
to be home usually are better off for doing
woman, and that sends the wrong message,
so. said Janice Steil, professor of psychology
Ms. Coontz said.
at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y.
"Not only does it reinforce women's sec-
"Being employed is not better for all
ond-class position in the work force, but it
women," she said. "It depends a lot on
reinforces Dad's second-class position in the
factors such as how good your child care is
family," she said. "She becomes the expert,
and whether it's what you really want to
do."
and he never catches up."
Ms. Wethington said women often adjust-
It is far better for a family, Ms. Coontz
ed by building support networks and finding
said, if both parents cut back on their hours
other roles, like volunteer work.
and share the responsibilities equally.
What accounts for the improved mental
After dropping out of the work force for
health of women in the work force? Rosa-
two and a half years, Linda Kaye Briggs
lind Barnett, author of "She Works/He
reached that conclusion last year. Ms.
Works" (HarperSanFrancisco, $24), said
Briggs, 42, of Gig Harbor, Wash., stayed
work offers social interaction as well as a
home with her son, Marcus, now 4, after
sense of mastery and immediate reward
losing her 70-hour-a-week job as a bank
that tends to bolster self-esteem.
executive in a reorganization. She kept
"You have performance criteria, you're
busy, at first giving luncheons, taking Mar-
using your skills, you're growing," said Ms.
cus to the park and doing volunteer work.
Barnett, senior scientist at the women's
"Then came a time when it wasn't enough,"
studies program of Brandeis University and
she said. "I had always defined myself by
senior scholar in residence at the Murray
my job, and I was lost. Financially, I wanted
to share the burden with my husband."
Research Center at Radcliffe College.
But she also wanted time for her family,
Researchers have also found that the
and so did he. So they decided to scale back.
more roles people have, the happier they
She took a job allowing her to work 40 to 50
are.
hours a week, though the pay was $30,000
"On average, if you lose roles, your anxi-
less than her old job. He switched to a less-
ety and depression will increase," said Peg-
demanding job and took a $20,000 pay cut. So
gy Thoits, professor of sociology at Vander-
far, they have no regrets.
bilt University. Yet the quality of the role is
"I think I'll always work outside the
important, too. If you have a rigid, tension-
home," Ms. Briggs said. "But make no
filled job in which you think you lack control,
mistake what comes first. He has red hair,
the level of anxiety and depression could
and he weighs about 36 pounds."
increase. "In that case," Ms. Thoits said,
"abandoning the job might be a mental
health benefit."
THE WASHINGTON POST
Page A10
Page 1 of 2
October 12, 1997
Empty Nest Is Cause for Flight as
First Lady Increases Policy Trips
By Peter Baker
Central Asian republics such as Kazakh-
her and the president. But her busy
Washington Post Staff Writer
stan and Uzbekistan. And laced through
schedule tells the tale. "Oh, I miss her,"
all this will be domestic trips to New
the first lady lamented.
MIRAFLORES LOCKS. Panama Ca-
York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los
Her energies are focused on last
nal-As the 33,000-ton South Korean
Angeles.
cargo ship inched its way through this
week's gathering of first ladies, where
Aides estimate with perhaps only a
storied passageway between the oceans,
she pressed her Latin American coun-
touch of exaggeration that Clinton will
the administrator called upon Hillary
terparts to push for more participation
spend just two or three nights at the
Rodham Clinton to turn the lever that
by women in their emerging democra-
White House in the next month or so. If
opens the gates. Impressed by her
cies, and next week's White House
that seems like the schedule of some-
performance, he offered her a job.
conference on child care, where she will
one avoiding the empty nest at home,
"I'm your person," she answered
that is no accident.
explore ideas including a national regis-
cheerfully. "Everybody's always asking
trv of those who watch children profes-
"You can't know it's empty," the first
what I'm going to do when my hus-
sionally
lady said, "if you're not there."
band's no longer president. I have found
Such a proscribed role may be less
In an interview aboard her military
my calling!"
than she desired when she arrived at
jet on the way home Friday evening,
Actually, the more immediate ques-
Clinton talked about her daughter's
the White House five years ago, but it
tion these days is what she will do not
seems to be one that both she and the
absence, her own upcoming 50th birth-
when her husband leaves the White
country are comfortable with. A new
day, her husband's new hearing aids
House but now that her daughter is
and their plans for life after the White
poll by U.S. News & World Report
gone. And the answer is plenty. With
House. The notoriously media-wary
shows that 59 percent of registered
17-year-old Chelsea living across the
first lady opened up with six reporters in
voters have a favorable view of her
continent at Stanford University, the first
a way she rarely does on the record,
generally and that 67 percent approve of
lady is reentering the public policy arena
sharing stories, making jokes and re-
the "job" she is doing-a higher rating
with a burst of activity, from a new
vealing a human side that normally
than her husband has ever generated in
domestic campaign for better child care
remains hidden behind a far cooler
the magazine's polling.
to a renewed international crusade for
public persona.
All this comes as the first lady is
women's rights.
Yet in a sign of how difficult such
about to turn 50, an event she must
Her trip here last week to meet with
public exposure remains for her, aides
confront if for no other reason than
the hemisphere's other first ladies and
later said she believed the tape-recorded
"people are not going to let me forget."
visit the Panama Canal was just an
session was off the record and insisted
Fifty days before her Oct. 26 birthday,
opener. Today she heads back to Latin
on clearing quotes with her before they
her staff gathered 50 friends for a
America, this time with President Clin-
could be used. In the end, she screened
surprise White House ceremony in
ton. Later this month, she will hop over
out only a few harmless recollections
which each held a candle and gave a
to Ireland, Northern Ireland and Eng-
that dealt with other people or were
reason why they love her.
land for a few days, and then next month
seen as too personal.
she takes off on a 10-day journey
Among them was an anecdote about
through "the Stans," as her staff calls
the impact of Chelsea's departure on
THE WASHINGTON POST
Page A10
Page 2 of 2
October 12, 1997
Each day since then, aides have given
just a minute, don't say anything be-
other places," she said. "The Carters
her gag birthday gifts, including candy
cause I want to hear everything you say,'
spend a lot of time in Plains, they spend
"pep pills" and a book titled "E-mail for
and totally un-self-consciously he takes
time in Atlanta, but they also spend time
Dummies"-necessary to figure out
out his hearing aids from both ears,
everywhere else."
how to communicate with her daughter.
hands them over to his military aide.
She noted that her husband will be
What she thought was going to be a
puts in new batteries and puts them
one of the youngest ex-presidents and
simple birthday event in her home town
back in-all of this right as we're sitting
recalled that Theodore Roosevelt "did
of Chicago has mushroomed into a gala,
down to dinner-and says, Now I'm
so many things" after leaving office at
as she discovered when she recently ran
ready.'
50. However, she made a face when
into a fellow native, Commerce Secre-
She added: "It was SO touching."
reminded that one of those things was
tary William Daley.
Clinton herself is growing somewhat
an unsuccessful comeback try for the
"What is going on with your birth-
less self-conscious. At one point during
presidency. She pointed out with seem-
day?" asked Daley, the brother of the
her visit to Panama, she delved into a
ing satisfaction that the Constitution
mayor. "I hear they're going to have
discussion of screwworms and the dis-
now precludes such an option.
fireworks."
ease they transmit to livestock, demon-
Still, she acknowledged that leaving
"Fireworks!" the first lady exclaimed
strating a remarkable mastery of the
the White House will be tough for her
in disbelief as she related the story. "I
subject that she later attributed to her
husband. Already, she said, he is wistful
didn't really feel anything until every-
years in Arkansas.
about the approaching end of his admin-
body started asking me about it," she
"You guys think it's all glamour," she
istration-never mind that it remains
said Friday. "Turning 50 doesn't bother
joked with reporters. "It's screwworms!
three years away.
me. Being told or sort of realizing that
It's brucellosis!"
"My husband's a very nostalgic and
I'm a half a century old, that's different."
While she said she is not given to
philosophical man." the first lady said.
Yet another sign of age has not
much birthday-inspired introspection
"When I first met him, he was nostalgic
troubled her, namely her 51-year-old
about her life, it was clear that she and
about his boyhood in Arkansas. He just
husband's prescription for hearing aids.
the president, who celebrated their
has a wonderful capacity for taking in
"Tm really proud of him," she said,
22nd wedding anniversary yesterday,
every experience and savoring it. Now
"because I know a lot of men who can't
have thought about what they want to
he realizes that he's got fewer years
hear at all, but they're too vain to wear
do after his term ends in January 2001.
ahead of him in the White House than
hearing aids. I hope that this really
For all of the speculation about a
behind him. And so he's thinking, 'May-
encourages more people, men and
move to California or Illinois or even
be this is the last time I'll do this,' or. T
women, to get hearing aids."
Martha's Vineyard, Clinton said they
really should enjoy this because I don't
She recalled sitting next to President
plan to return to Arkansas, although she
know if that'll happen again," she said.
Ronald Reagan at a White House dinner
suggested that may only be a home
"Tm not there yet. But I see that he is.
when he turned to her and said, 'Now
base. "I think we'll spend time in lots of
He's really relishing it."
THE WASHINGTON POST
Page B6
October 10, 1997
Barry Urges Closer Check on Day Care
He Says Need for More Inspectors to Monitor City Centers Is Urgent
By Katherine Boo
Washington Post report. City officials
agency's decision to close the child
told The Post that licenses for more
Washington Post Staff Writer
care facility, which officials said will be
than half of the District's 350 day-care
allowed to reopen when it can prove to
Mayor Marion Barry, saying he is
centers have been delayed because of
inspectors that it is rodent-free.
"extremely concerned" for the safety
serious health and safety violations,
A spokesman for the Department
of District children in city day-care
including crowding, unqualified teach-
of Human Services, which monitors
centers, called yesterday for in-
ers and rat infestation.
centers that provide taxpayer-subsi-
creased funding for the Department
Dozens of the centers with lapsed
dized day care for poor children, said
of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs
licenses are still receiving public
the department will consult with top
so that the agency can hire more
funds to care for low-income chil-
officials from several city agencies
inspectors to monitor conditions at
dren. even though city regulations
about how to improve the quality of
the centers.
forbid funding centers that don't
the centers. The spokesman noted
This is urgent," the mayor said
have a current license.
that the department submitted legis-
while touring two of the city's public-
In addition to asking that money
lation this summer to modernize the
ly funded centers. "I'm kind of sad we
be shifted to the agency to expand its
city's 23-year-old day-care rules.
had to come to this."
inspection force, Barry asked the
Helen Blank, director of child care
Barry's push to beef up oversight
agency to come up with a plan to
for the Children's Defense Fund.
of day-care centers came as the
notify. parents that their children are
said problems of rats and crowding
agency ordered the emergency clos-
in centers with expired licenses.
may not be exclusive to District
ing of the Rosemount child care
He said closing centers with ex-
day-care centers.
center in Northwest Washington af-
pired licenses "would wreak havoc
"What's happening in the District
ter inspectors found evidence there
on District families." Instead. the
is shocking and dismaying." Blank
of rodent infestation.
mayor urged the centers to work
said, "but until we take child care
Rosemount was one of 180 day-care
with the city to improve conditions.
seriously and ensure that good stan-
centers operating with expired licens-
Rosemount President Steven Stein-
dards are enforced, we're going to
es, a situation described in a recent
born declined to comment on the
see situations like this again."
THE WASHINGTON POST
Page A25
October 10, 1997
Dionne Jr.
Child Care Without Ideology?
President Clinton's detractors see
moral ruckus than how kids should be
child care as one of those adorable
by churches, neighbors-or Grandma.
brought up and who should do the job.
soccer mom issues he routinely cm-
Well. yes, some regulations can be
Conservatives make a fair point when
braces to his political benefit. No won-
crazy. But recent day-care horror sto-
they insist that government programs
oder he and first lady Hillary Rodham
should not discriminate either against or
ries suggest that the well-being of kids
Clinton are hosting a White House
requires some enforceable rules and
in favor of couples in which a parent
Conference on Child Care on Oct. 23.
safety checks.
stays home. But if the debate gets
what's not to like about nurturing
bogged down in people's views of femi-
Expanding choice would help too. "If
skids?
nism and government parents looking
parents have choices. they're not going
It turns out that as soon as the
to choose the option where a kid has a
for just a little help won't get any.
Government gets involved. the answer
Traditionalists such as Bauer say the
roach crawling on him or gets locked
this: plenty. The veterans of two decades
in a closet." says Margy Waller. an
problem is that parents, especially
Louchild-care arguments bear the scars
analyst at the Progressive Policy Insti-
mothers. are working too much out-
of ideological combat. The impasse
side the home. But there are many
tute. But options require money.
created by the old battles is why SO
whether for vouchers. tax credits or
two-paycheck families-carning: say,
much remains to be done.
more school-based infant care. Where.
$35,000 or $40,000 3 year-in which
Already. there are warnings that this
will the money come from?
the mother or father would love to be
conference has a hidden agenda: to
home at 3 p.m. when the kids get out of
The mantra for the conference. says
revive proposals for a massive federal
White House spin-doctor-in-chief
school, yet simply can't afford to leave
day-care program. "If what WC do is
Rahm Emanuel. is "access. affordabili-
work.
empower government to spend more
ty, safety." A clever slogan that, be
If Bauer wants to lobby his allies
time with our kids instead of empower-
cause it's designed to bury as many
among conservative business people
sing parents to have more private and
ideological issues as possible. In the
to demonstrate their traditional values
sectarian [i.e., church-based] options,
case of child care. Clinton's gift for
by letting more parents get home early.
then we're moving in the wrong direc-
dodging ideology may be exactly what
more power to him. In the meantime,
kids and their parents are looking for.
tion." says Gary Bauer. president of the
what about that two-paycheck couple?
Family Research Council.
Might it not be helpful to keep the
"I certainly have qualms." said David
schools open until 6 p.m. with home-
Blankenhorn, president of the Institute
work assistance, music. arts or sports
for American Values, "and I know
programs?
others have qualms. about using re-
Bauer says 1 loudly ideological "No!"
cent research on early childhood de
because this would "continue down the
velopment to justify new federal child-
road we're on where we think govern-
care programs and regulations."
ment bureaucrats and social workers
The research he's talking about
can make up for what parents should
found that the amount of stimulation
do." Blankenhorn has a less reflexive
and affection children get in their first
response. welcoming the idea of "using
three years has a lot to do with how
school grounds for community-based
well their brains develop. Many par-
programs available to all children."
ents know this instinctively, but the
Another idea likely to emerge from
scientists helped kick off the new
the conference is using regulatory and
round of concern about infant care.
tax relief to help employers create
Two things are true about the child-
more and better child care at work-
care debate: (1) Ideological conflicts
places and to encourage small employ-
ers to pool resources.
are inevitable. and (2) they are the last
The conference will also deal with
thing this discussion needs right now.
the reality that there's a let of bad child
Ideology is a fancy word for people's
care out there. This raises the hackles
morals, habits. values and commit-
of conservatives. who warn that bu-
ments. Few questions raise more of a
reaucrats will regulate the care given
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
Mrs. Clinton says too little child care available
DOCUMENT 34 OF 61
ASP9728000101
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Mrs. Clinton says too little child care available
295 Words
2032 Characters
*
10/03/97
The Associated Press
NATIONAL
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday she
*
hoped participants at a White House conference this month can come up
*
with solutions to a shortage of child-care facilities in America.
"There simply is not enough child care for those who need it," she
said in a speech at the University of Maryland after touring the
*
university's child-care center.
The speech capped a week in which the first lady also visited
*
child-care centers in southern Florida and at the Marine Corps base
at Quantico, Va., in an effort to build interest in the Oct. 23
conference.
At Maryland, Mrs. Clinton cited research showing that much of
*
existing child care is inadequate.
*
"A recent national study of child-care centers found that 70
percent of children are in care that is barely adequate," she
explained. "Ten percent are in care that is dangerous to their
health and safety.
"Infants and toddlers are at greatest risk, with 40 percent in
care that poses a threat to their health and well-being," she added.
"Only 20 percent of our children are in what we could call
high-quality care centers."
The first lady also contended that "equally disturbing patterns"
often are found in family homes.
And she added, "Even when quality care is available, frequently it
is out of reach financially."
That point was emphasized after her speech by a university
* secretary who told the first lady that child care takes about 25
percent of her salary. Without the aid of a church scholarship, she
would not be able to afford the care, she said.
Mrs. Clinton said she hoped that some of the proposals at the
*
White House conference will focus on the economic problems.
"We need more subsidies for working families, particularly for
single parents," she said.
Source: Associated Press, October 3, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
First lady suggests child-care liability cover,
DOCUMENT 36 OF 61
ASP9727500116
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First lady suggests child-care liability cover, subsidized jobs
SANDRA SOBIERAJ
624 Words
4367 Characters
*
10/01/97
The Associated Press
NATIONAL
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
QUANTICO, Va. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton is beginning to
*
outline a child-care initiative that could offer liability protection
for caretakers and ask private business to subsidize jobs for
low-income parents.
"This is not just an altruistic, good-feeling sort of an issue.
It's a real bottom-line one," Mrs. Clinton said Wednesday. Lacking
*
child-care worries, she argued, working parents are more productive
and efficient.
The first lady staked out some potentially controversial positions
in discussions here and with business leaders in Miami to preview an
*
Oct. 23 White House conference on child care.
While Mrs. Clinton has definite ideas about a framework for
reform, spokeswoman Marsha Berry said it remains unclear whether her
husband's administration will propose a package of legislative and
* executive actions on child care.
Mrs. Clinton stressed that, in contrast to her ambitious and vain
* attempt in 1994 to overhaul health care, improving child care was
likely to be an incremental feat accomplished through
government-business partnerships. Her health care panel's splashy
town hall forums have been replaced for this effort by toned-down
classroom tours and roundtable talks with experts.
*
Would-be child-care reformers, she said, shouldn't "get spooked
off by the nay-saying voices who tell them it's going to be
impossible.
We can be creative."
For the second time, Mrs. Clinton raised the possibility of
*
creating a national registry of criminal child-care workers that
would include "any allegations of abuse or neglect."
*
And she favored protection from lawsuits for child-care centers,
if a way can be found to separate everyday accidents from "grossly
negligent, reckless, intentional mistreatment."
*
"You cannot expect businesses or private homes to offer child care
Source: Associated Press, October 1, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
unless they have some assurance that they can be protected from the
unforeseen and accidental kinds of mishaps that happen in anybody's
household," the first lady said.
At the Quantico Marine base, Mrs. Clinton lauded the military for
offering "a good example" of high-quality, affordable care.
*
The Defense Department, which provides child care at nearly all
hours to some 200,000 children daily, operates the largest
employer-sponsored program in the nation. With fees set on an
income-based sliding scale, the average family pays $65 per week per
child and the government picks up the rest of the tab.
"This, for us, is a readiness program. To be completely ready you
have to take care of families," Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre
said.
Bringing a small contingent of national reporters on her two-day
trip, the first lady appeared determined to redouble her activism
after a months-long lull in which she focused almost exclusively on
packing her only child off to college.
"I'm looking for ways to divert myself from my empty nest," she
joked.
The two days in Florida and Virginia provided glimpses of this
first lady's many, sometimes conflicting, roles.
A traditional classroom visit, where she nodded approvingly as two
dozen rowdy 4-year-olds sang "I am a VIP in my family," was followed
by a substantive round table where Mrs. Clinton freely floated ideas
*
on reforming federal, state and private-sector child-care policies.
Mingled with the official was the political: a fund-raiser for the
debt-ridden Democratic National Committee. Headlining eight donor
events so far this year, Mrs. Clinton has brought the DNC close to
$900,000.
*
On child care, the first lady suggested:
- More small businesses to pool resources and form creative
partnerships in order to subsidize costs for low-wage workers.
- A comprehensive public-education campaign to teach parents how
* to identify quality child care. "A lot of times they don't know what
is quality," she said. "If somebody's nice to them, it doesn't
matter that they don't know the difference between caring for a
1-year-old or a 4-year-old."
- Help from the media to publish public-service announcements
"helping to train parents to be better parents."
I0607
*
End of document.
Source: Associated Press, October 1, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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National child care registry suggested by Mrs.
DOCUMENT 38 OF 61
ASP9727400165
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National child care registry suggested by Mrs. Clinton
SANDRA SOBIERAJ
452 Words
3014 Characters
09/30/97
The Associated Press
NATIONAL
(Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
MIAMI (AP) - A national registry might be what parents need to
protect their kids from abusive caretakers, first lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton suggested Tuesday.
The proposal, which aides cautioned was only being explored and
has yet to be fleshed out in detail, was one topic slated for
*
discussion at the Oct. 23 White House conference on child care, the
first lady said.
Mrs. Clinton spoke to reporters traveling with her to southern
Florida, where she planned on Wednesday to visit to the Children's
Center at Baptist Hospital, the first in a series of appearances
meant to gin up interest in the October conference. She planned to
cap the two-day trip with a tour of the Marine base at Quantico, Va.,
* and a speech highlighting the military's innovations in child care.
On Tuesday night, she headlined a $125,000 fund-raiser for the
Democratic National Committee. Her private roundtable discussion and
photo session with top donors, followed by a speech to some 500 women
activists who had paid a minimum $125 apiece, marked the first lady's
seventh outing this year for the DNC.
President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper have
also fanned out to fund-raisers around the nation to help retire the
party's $15 million debt from last year's elections.
Possible fund-raising violations by Clinton, Gore and the DNC
during the 1996 election cycle are now the subject of protracted
Senate hearings and Justice Department scrutiny.
The first lady's spokeswoman, Marsha Berry, said Mrs. Clinton is
not at all squeamish about her fund-raising role, particularly with
the DNC's Women's Leadership Forum, which party officials describe as
a means of involving women who can't afford the four- and five-figure
price tags of many political events.
Mrs. Clinton "wants to energize women to get involved and she
makes no bones about it," Berry told the three reporters traveling
Source: Associated Press, September 30, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 1
Dow Jones News/Retrieval®
with the first lady. It was only the second time in 4 1/2 years that
Mrs. Clinton has allowed the press to accompany her on a domestic
trip.
In a freewheeling discussion en route to Miami, Mrs. Clinton said
she would explore the concept of a national registry to trace the
* employment histories of child care workers and give working parents a
tool for checking the backgrounds of those to whom they entrust their
children.
She suggested that such a registry could include information not
only on caretakers who have been convicted of crimes, but also on
* those who have been fired with cause from a child care job.
Mrs. Clinton did not detail how the registry would be paid for and
administered, or how privacy rights would be protected. Any such
* child-care registry is only being broadly explored as a possibility,
Berry said.
I0607 * End of document.
Source: Associated Press, September 30, 1997
Copyright © 1997 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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