76-11-12

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Day Care Centers

Transcript Day care for children of welfare mothers so they can get jobs and stop being a burden on the taxpayers sounds like an unassailable idea. After all, how much can taking care of a little child cost? If a little subsidy will get mama off the welfare roles and on to the taxpayers roles with the rest of us, it's a good investment. Or it would be if Government didn't insist on acting like government. Last Fall, the State of New York (through its welfare administration) told the insolvent City of New York it should reduce its average day care cost from $75.00 to $65.00 a week. Now $65.00 is about $3,250.00 a year per child. That's a little high just to get someone a job, particularly, if there is more than one child in the family. Incidentally, the swank, uppercrust nursery schools caring for the children of even the very rich only charge $75.00 a week. In New York state outside the big town, day care runs $40.00 a week. That's $2,000.00 per child per year. There really is no way to estimate a national average on this, because the truth is, dozens of government agencies, in several government departments all have a piece of the action under a variety of titles -- child care, child development, and so forth. We start out with what seems like a practical idea. If a mother of small children can't get a job because she has to take care of her children, then find a way to care for the kids while she's at work. A lot of women who aren't on welfare and never were, are working. How do they handle the problem? Well, some of them do pay private nursery schools or day care centers. In those swank $75.00-a-week establishments the staffing level is one teacher for every 10 children. When government gets into providing the day care, however, the staffing standards are little different. For children up to six weeks of age, it's one employee per child. From six weeks to three years, one-to-four employees, and for four to five year olds, one-to-five employees. But five is kindergarten age and there are usually about 20 kids for each kindergarten teacher. I know that federal staffing standards are for the benefit of the child, but one gets an uneasy feeling they might be for the benefit of the staff. To get back to those mothers who've solved the problem themselves, most of them don't use the $75.00 nursery schools at all. There is grandma, or a housewife sister with kids of her own, or a neighbor who happily watches after the children for a few dollars. Still the professional day care idea has a powerful lobby, far better organized than the great majority of mothers who think mothers are supposed to take care of their children if they can. The lobby has professionals who say they, the professionals, can develop the child better than an amateur who just happens to be a mother. Then there are those in the feminist movement who say the state should raise the kids so they won't interfere with mama's seeking a career. One question is avoided by the day care lobbyists. If there is such a crying need and such a demand for institutionalized child care, how come the private sector hasn't moved into the field to supply the needed service for a profit? Meanwhile, Stanford Research, the Urban Institute and even the liberal Brookings Institution have found that most women who need day care can find it and that private care is as good as public, and at a lower cost. Still on Capitol Hill, people such as Vice President Mondale say child development is too important to be left to chance; meaning, to the parents in the home. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 76-11-12 Production Date 03/23/1977 Book/Page RihoH-377 Audio Youtube? No
		Added Notes