Child Care
Information
Whether by necessity or choice, women are usually caretakers within
their families—most often for children. While all families with
children struggle and make sacrifices, for those families with children
not yet in school, the choices are much more limited. Options for care
remain scant, and are usually determined by a family's location and
economic circumstances. Families with preschool-aged children spend, on
average, between 10 and 20 percent of their earnings on care for their
children. These costs are a significant sum for all families, and for
low-income families, the burden is particularly severe.
The federal Head Start program funds local centers to provide
prekindergarten for children of low-income families, but there is no
federally funded program for young children in all families. We can look
to some states that have universal prekindergarten programs, such as
Georgia, as best-practice examples, and fight for similar programs in
our own states. Georgia's program has proven extremely successful in
creating real options for families. About 70 percent of all 4-year-olds
in Georgia are enrolled in the program; families can choose which type
of care they prefer, whether it is a private center, the local YMCA, a
public school, or a religious institution.
The present situation for families with children is bleak; we must
support the expansion of child-care choices for all families. For young
women, the time to act is now; without a significant change in our
current child-care system, our already limited and unaffordable
child-care options could be further diminished.
Top
Take Action!
Visit the Family Initiative at www.familyinitiative.org. A
project of Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), the goal of the Family
Initiative is to educate, engage, and mobilize families from all walks
of life to support major public investment in quality child care,
preschool and afterschool. The initiative's Web site is action-oriented,
with a different online campaign every week.
Top
Links
Early Education Programs by State from Education Week.
The Family Initiative
A project of Legal Momentun (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), the goal of the Family
Initiative is to educate, engage, and mobilize families from all walks
of life to support major public investments in quality child-care,
preschool, and afterschool programs. The initiative's Web site is
action-oriented, with a different online campaign every week.
Families and Work Institute
Families and Work Institute (FWI) is a nonprofit center for research
that provides data to inform decisionmaking on the changing workplace,
family, and community.
Mothers and More
Serving over 7,500 mothers in the United States and beyond, Mothers and More is a
nonprofit membership organization that cares for the caregiver. It
provides a nationwide network of local chapters for mothers who
are—by choice or circumstance—altering their participation
in the paid workplace over the course of their active parenting
years.
National Institute for Early Education Research
The National Institute for Early Education
Research supports early childhood education initiatives by providing
objective, nonpartisan information based on research. The goal of NIEER
is to produce and communicate the knowledge base required to ensure that
every American child can receive a good education at ages three and
four.
Top
| 
