Child Care, Government Financing, and the Public Schools: Lessons from the California Children's Centers

Abstract

In the past decade, issues of child care have become increasingly visible and politically controversial. Changes in the number of women employed, in family life, and in research in child development have weakened though not eliminated barriers to institutional and out-ofhome child care.' Put simply, so many more young children are spending large periods outside the home in various group-care environments that pressure for child-care facilities has outrun supply. With the private market under attack as a mechanism to meet daycare needs, attention has turned to public subsidies.2 At the national level, the introduction of the Comprehensive Child Development Act in 1971 and similar bills in subsequent years and the vetoes by Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in 1971 and 1976 of legislation to expand federal financing have stimulated further controversy. It is likely that the next few years will see renewed efforts to engage the federal government in child care as part of family-assistance legislation. The breadth and intensity of issues raised by the child-care debate are striking: the nature of family life, the legitimacy of government involvement, the relationship of child care to other social services, increasing work opportunities for women, the nature of child development, early preparation for schooling, and methods of funding are