I don't think it's as bad as the headline implies

disclaimer: I'm not the child care expert.

If the problem of actually securing a job one can live on is solved, I don't see a problem with the child care being provided by a relative or friend. That relationship connection can offset the lack of inspections and such…it is significant that children be cared about, as well as cared for.


Women Who Leave Welfare Find Few Day Care Options
By LESLIE KAUFMAN

Since the nation's welfare system was overhauled in 1996, New York City has received hundreds of millions of additional state and federal dollars intended to help women leave welfare for work and to greatly expand the city's low-income child care system.

But the money has not significantly increased the number of licensed day care slots, for which the waiting list is now over 36,000. Instead, more than two-thirds of the 14,400 slots created in the last five years are in so-called informal care, the lowest-cost, unlicensed form of child care, which is not inspected or regulated by the state.

There are many reasons for the growth of informal care: it costs the government about one third less per child, it is flexible enough to meet the unconventional hours many poor parents work, and because it is usually provided by a relative or a friend who receives checks directly from the government, women coming off welfare often prefer it to other choices.

But the explosion of informal care in New York and in other parts of the country has been met with concern by advocates for welfare recipients. They cite studies showing that informal care is less stable than licensed care based in centers and homes, and its safety and educational value are unknown.

Worse, they argue, parents leaving welfare do not really have a choice in care, as federal law demands, because they are given a limited time to find child care, and because center-based day care is so oversubscribed.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on May 10, 2004 - 5:46am :: Economics
 
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I'm not the child-care expert either, but as a single mom with a pre-schooler in day care, I've gotta make a comment.

No, it's not necessary to have government inspected and licensed daycare be the only choice, but it should be a choice....there's simply not enough daycare. It's like a game of musical chairs...more children who need day care than there are slots available. I used informal childcare for years....my retired mother. Now mom has terminal cancer. I had to scramble to find child care, and I was damn lucky to be able to do it, period, let alone find child care compatible with her Early Start school (which she needs).

See, that's the thing with the informal network of friends, relatives, neighbors. People get sick, or move, or get a new job, whatever. Then what? Then you've got to frantically call around and try to find new arrangements that may not exist, or may not be affordable. And you'd better be able to do it soon, because if you have to take more than a couple of days off of work, you'll lose your job.

Posted by  amarettiXL (not verified) on May 10, 2004 - 6:28pm.

Hm. Maybe they could recruit some of the people who are already getting paid for the informal arrangements. Similar money plus benefits would likely do it.

Posted by  P6 (not verified) on May 10, 2004 - 8:58pm.

yeah, you're right...but that would just make too much sense. The need is there, and if the pay and benefits were at a living wage the job interest would be there too...but that's the thing. Children aren't valued in America, and most politicians refuse to see this as a societal problem...they see it as an individual's problem. The fact that this is an issue for millions of individuals, and thus is a societal problem, hasn't hit them over the head yet.

Oh, and education, too. "Who is qualified" to care for children. Don't get me wrong; I'm not disparaging the worth of early-childhood education. My daughter was born very premature, and I've learned a lot with the assistance of early childhood development professionals. But requiring folks to have a degree right off the bat beefore being hired is slamming the door in the faces of a lot of (mostly) women who could and would do the job. Why isn't there an apprenticeship program for child-care, the way there is for the building trades? "Earn while you learn"...work during the day, night classes twice a week.

But again, children have to be valued, first.

Posted by  amarettiXL (not verified) on May 11, 2004 - 8:30am.