Our 3 Cs of Childcare

A Staggering Lack of Priorities

 
The 3 Cs of American Child Care: Carelessness, Chaos and Callousness. We are failing and it is shameful. 
 
We have liberated women to have careers. We ask that they be promoted and paid equally. But we have carelessly stopped short of helping them with child care. Affluent couples can afford expensive nannies and subsequently high-quality child-care facilities. But most couples can’t afford such and rely on a patchwork of random solutions that include some relatives or neighbors. Or Mom simply throws in the career towel for several years. Our solution for this dilemma is chaos. 
 
Politicians callously ignore the problem. The solutions are in place around the world. But American “exceptionalism” prevents us from learning from other nations that have sensible child care programs. When we suggest universal child care, it is called “socialism.” Bigots claim that couples of modest means should not have children unless they “can afford to”. Others claim that a “woman's place is in the home”. Millions of us haven’t crawled out of the 19th Century.  
 
That is only part of the problem. If we really believe that the first few years actually form a child's life – literally creating the next generation, why wouldn’t we pay the people who care for a child as much as we would pay teachers K through 12? Isn’t a child’s development worth more than minimum wage or slightly more? Shouldn’t the child be nurtured by a highly trained expert? 
 
If we can agree that all children deserve well paid professional child care, the big question is how do we pay for it? The answer is simple. The same way we pay for K-12. Taxes. I maintain that we should replace our careless, callous child care chaos with a universal system supported by Federal assistance paid directly to school districts. And to support the approach, Federal assistance paid directly to “Child Care Training” schools. Develop experts for every age group – for kids of about 3 months through Pre-K.  
There is plenty of money to do this. We throw trillions at stupid wars. We throw billions of subsidies to big fossil fuel companies and ethanol (corn) producers. We fail to collect hundreds of billions from the rich and corporations because we under fund the IRS. There is plenty of money for this. It is just in the wrong pockets.  
 
What kind of nation are we when we won’t invest in the future of our own progeny? Doesn’t it display foolish disregard for the future of our country? Doesn’t our lack of investment in those first few years cripple us competitively in the world – when so many other nations do it better? Please try to name a social program that is more important.  
 
American Exceptionalism at Work:  The US is a Child Care Laggard 
 
Catherine Rampell elaborates: Our Child-Care System is failing.... 

President Biden’s Plan: The American Families Plan