How should Pre-School Childcare be Provided and Funded.?

Question

In the U.K. parents are issued with vouchers which can be redeemed at nurseries which provide daycare.

In both the U.K. & Australia generous maternity and paternity leave provisions have been won for both working mothers and more recently working fathers. This is also true to a lesser extent in the U.S. (the provisions are not so generous).

More enlightened companies are now providing creche services at the workplace.

How should Pre-School Childcare be Provided and Funded.

Kate, thanks for the more detailed explanation about the uk, but if you notice, the question asks how childcare should be provided and funded. I quoted uk legilsation to show the difference between different nations and provide some inspiration for answers.

Answer 1

Unlike an earlier poster, I do believe daycare should be provided and funded by the government. That way, more people would be able to get out of poverty and not be inclined to stay on welfare so they can get benefits, which they can't get if they work at most minimum wage jobs. That also gives them an incentive to go to school or get job training and not have to worry about what to do with their children all day. I believe in funding programs that don't benefit me personally because it's for the common good. People should not be penalized for deciding to have children and telling them that everything is their own responsibility and that they have to pay for everything is doing just that. I suppose many of you who don't want your tax dollars going into supporting schools don't mind having my children pay for your Social Security and Medicare benefits even though it won't benefit them personally. This attitude of selfishness needs to stop.

Answer 2

Not at my expense. Why should one income families, who make even less money than two income ones, have to supplement their salaries? That's pretty lousy.

Now, as far as ACTUAL preschool - as in, half days for 3 and 4 year olds, that might make sense. It is difficult to sort out how much "real" school helps little kids, if you actually look at the studies. In this country, the preschoolers are from families willing to pay $6,000 a year for their education - not really a random group. But I would bet that some 3 hour a day, age-appropriate schooling might be a benefit to the little guys.

Baby warehouses are NOT school, however. It is the type of care associated with the worst outcomes, and I'm not paying for it, sorry.

Parents in poverty deserve to choose what care they prefer - the gov't is going to be paying people to give kids a 4 times greater risk of being hospitalized for severe illness? Crazy. Most parents want a nanny, family-style day care providers, or one parent at home. Supplement these choices equally, or you'll have a LOT of angry parents to deal with.

Don't penalize certain choices. In the US, single parents and working parents are usually the only ones eligible for help. That's insane - basically, choosing to have Grandma watch the child or getting married means less gov't help. Every low income child deserves a small "pension", regardless of having married parents, or an at-home mom, or being cared for by "auntie" Laura next door. It's just a smart investment.

If companies are forced to provide daycare, my husband's wages will drop as a result. No thanks. It is not my job to supplement people who could afford not to work, but have chosen to anyway. Providing for our nations children is NOT the same as helping specific women at the expense of other women.

Answer 3

In Canada we have 1 year maternity/paternity leave, yet very few infant daycare centres. This means most parents are left with a lack of care after returning to work at 12 months and daycare centres with toddler spaces at 18 months.
This may be a a rather poorly viewed opinion, but why should the government fund our children's childcare more then they already do? If we can not afford to pay for childcare, we should not be having more children.
As it is, childcare workers are poorly paid, this leads to unqualified staff as who in their right mind would spend 2 years in college to enter a career that barely pays the bills? Trust me I know. I have a 4 year university degree in child psychology and a 2 year diploma in early childhood education. Daycare is my love. I adore my career choice, but it will be 15+ years before I can pay off my student loans.
There are a number of issues in childcare today. Funding is the tip of the iceberg.

Answer 4

In Canada we have far too few daycare spaces to go around. Nothing ever seems to get done. Ironically, so many families are affected yet it's fairly low on the government's 'to-do' list. In the last budget, the current Tory government offered companies a tax break in the hopes of encouraging the creation of creches (on-site daycare facilities). Not a single one was created - anywhere. The private sector is not interested, obviously. What about medium and small business - how on earth would they create onsite-daycare facilities anyway? Let's face it, without government involvement and commitment, it just ain't gonna happen. Parents are sooooo stressed. They are having a helluva hard time trying to raise the next generation of taxpayers - those are the people who will be in the workforce at a future time when you and I are drooling in a corner at the old folk's home. Without taxpayers, the entire house of cards collapses.

Answer 5

All is not Rosie here in The UK re pre school childcare.
Parents are given vouchers but many do not take up the offer of pre school care.
Paternity leave is very very new here Twilight and some corporations frown upon leave for fathers.
Maternity leave is hit and miss.
Most firms allow 6 months paid leave for mothers.
After that mothers can choose to remain at home for a further 6 months but it is unpaid.
Creche facilities are almost non existent in most major companies, so returning mothers have to shelve out an awful lot of money for childcare.
On paper it appears we have it sorted, trust me we do not.

Pre school Childcare if it is to succeed should be state funded and compulsory.

Answer 6

Well, here in the U.S., a lack of family friendly work policies is going to come back to bite the corporations in the backside in a generation. Many intelligent, resourceful people who SHOULD be having children are not because they cannot afford maternity leave, sky-high insurance, incredibly expensive child care and the cost of raising a child. These children that are not being born would normally be those same corporations' future workers.

Meanwhile, the Welfare-dependent, uneducated underclass is breeding like rabbits. So in the future, IBM will have plenty of people to clean its restrooms, but very few to innovate new products.

Answer 7

I definitely think there should be more on-site day care at companies; that would alleviate some of the irrational fear over stand-alone day care centres. If maternity/paternity leave provisions are working for Commonwealth countries, they could work in the U.S., too.

Answer 8

Like all areas of life, those choosing should pay their own way instead of demanding everyone support their choices.

You want kids, YOU pay for them. Besides, accepting any gratuity for having children makes one nothing more than a brood-mare for the government.

Answer 9

Many of us in the US beleive that we should have plenty of child care centers but the responsibility to provide for childrens' care belongs to the parents - not to the government. I do not want to be responsible for someone elses children. I provided for my own. If you can't afford em don't breed um.

Answer 10

I agree companies should provide daycare for their employees. If you relie on the goverment to pay for daycare, then they usually have too much red tape and so you can only work full-time or work someplace where you already know how much money you'll make. If you get tips or work on commission, it's really sticky how much they'll help you out. They'll calculate the most money you can possibly make and then pay their portion, and then you'll be stuck with the rest even if you only make half of what you expected.