What Would You Do Without Child Care?

I’ve been working on child care policy for about 15 years now, and I’ve seen a lot of articles like this one that ran in USA Today on Wednesday. Every time I read one I wonder why it’s so difficult to make progress on ensuring that working families have the high quality, affordable child care they need. Honestly. Around 58% of children ages birth to six have mothers who are employed, and almost 78% of kids ages six to 18 have moms who are working for pay. Most work full-time. Most mothers of babies, toddlers, and school-age kids need some kind of child care or after-school program so they can work.

So why don't federal and state policy makers put more funding into child care, even in less economically challenging times? One theory I’ve considered is that progress on child care policy suffers from a high-turnover constituency. That’s advocacy and organizer-speak, so let me break it down. You’re a parent, and you need to work. You can’t find child care, or you can’t find child care you like or trust. Or you can’t find child care you can afford on your hourly salary. You feel desperate and angry. You are a perfect advocate, because you can call policy-makers and say, “Look, if I can’t find or afford decent child care then I can’t work! That’s not good for my family!” That’s powerful.

But then, eventually, you work it out. You find a child care situation that you can afford. Maybe it’s perfect, or maybe it’s not the best for you or your kid, but it works for now, and it lets you get to your job. Then you’re really busy – because you’re a mom or a dad, and you’re working outside the home. Who has time to call legislators or write letters to the editor? Your problem is solved, and you need to move on. You are part of a high-turnover constituency.

But lots of other moms and dads are still out there, facing the same situation you used to face. And they are struggling. So this is my appeal to all you parents out there who either have great child care now, or used great child care when your kids were younger. You know how important it was to you and your family. Look around you throughout your day. Look at your your nurse, your cashier, your child’s teacher, and your waitress. I wonder if they have children. I wonder if they’re having a hard time finding child care. I wonder if they could use your help – your voice – in improving child care policy.

If you think maybe they can, contact your state and federal legislators and let them know how important it is to provide funding for child care subsidies and quality supports. Other parents and kids still need you. For more information on how to help, check out these organizations: NWLC, Early Education for All (in MA), NAEYC

For All You Cape Cod Parents and Kid People!

If you've never been to the Upper Cape Early Childhood Conference put on by the Upper Cape Family Network, five area Community Partnerships for Children, and the Child Care Network of the Cape and Islands, this is the year! It's on Saturday, October 31st, 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at Bourne High School, and will be jam packed with information and fun for parents, early childhood professionals, local businesses, policy makers, and anyone who has an interest in what our young children need and deserve. You can enjoy workshops, continental breakfast, a (free) Discovery toys Give-away, and raffle prizes -- all for $30.00.

Workshops include:

• Different Children, Different Needs (with Jeanine K. Fitzgerald)
• Building Bias-Free Foundations (with my frolleague Tracey Bromley Goodwin!)
• Everything You Always Wanted To Ask the Pediatrician… But ran Out of Time to Ask! (with Dr. Lisa Dobberteen)
• A Match Made in Heaven: NAEYC Guidelines and EEC Regulations
• And much more!

To register or for more information, email Tina Toran at ttoran@falmouth.k12.ma.us by October 16th.

While I'm plugging local events and thinking about Tracey, I also want to pass on information about a workshop for parents on Navigating ADHD she and her partner Holly Oberacker are holding in Sandwich on November 7. For more information or to register click here.

These people love kids, and I love these people - thanks for letting me share!

Afterschool, Summer, and Closing the Achievement Gap

About a year ago my then-seven year old daughter came home from school and declared that we shouldn’t vote for Obama because he wants kids to be in school during the summer. From her narrow perspective, school is fun but summer is more fun. That’s when she can dance, swim, and play with abandon. Who would want to mess with that? Similarly, I’ve been watching good thinkers, people who I consider to be like-minded, react with dismay to President Obama’s suggestion that in this less-agrarian era in which the economy demands educated, skilled workers, we might consider lengthening the school year and/or the school day. From a personal perspective I can relate to his critics. We just had a great, glorious summer. We spent time at the beach and the mountains. My kids had many sprawling, unstructured summer days. Summer is one of the reasons I enjoy having a flexible, work-at-home career. A good summer break is what kids who are over-stressed, over-protected, and deprived of nature need. Who would want to mess with that?

But here’s the reality of most families. In its new report, the Afterschool Alliance reports that 15 million U.S. children are alone and unsupervised after school. Their parents aren’t working at home – they’re working at grocery stores and hotels and in office buildings. And they keep working through the summer. The kids who aren’t in afterschool programs during the school year are also very likely not in summer camps during the summer. And while I wish they could all have the relatively carefree summers my children enjoy while I work in my guest room office, I know better. As a person who grew up with both parents working after school, I know those unsupervised afternoon hours can be liberating and empowering. They provide an opportunity to develop responsibility, maturity, and judgment, and to learn how to make your own mac and cheese. But they can also be long, lonely, and full of opportunities to make bad, even dangerous, choices.

But President Obama’s interests are less developmental than educational. After all, depending on whom you ask it’s not the mission of our public schools to provide a safe and developmentally appropriate place for kids while their parents work to pay the bills. They need to somehow close the achievement gap – the one among U.S. students, and the one between our students and those in other countries.

Through a combination of high quality after-school programs, extended learning opportunities through school, and school or community-based summer programs that prevent summer learning loss, we might be able to close that gap.

• In Massachusetts, some districts have been funded to try Expanded Learning Time, and teachers participating in the evaluation of the initiative have reported that it provides the time to complete their curricula and meet the needs of all students.
• Two 2007 studies (one by Dr. Karl Alexander at Johns Hopkins University, and one by Dr. Beth Miller for the Nellie Mae Education Foundation) looked at summer learning loss as a key to the achievement gap. Both found that a big contributor to the achievement gap may be the difference in the ways kids from different socio-economic groups spend their summers. Those who spend some of their summer in educational activities – which can include having fun at a summer camp with well-trained staff – lose less of what they’ve learned from one school year to the next.
• Finally, a variety of research suggests that high quality after-school settings – programs that have trained staff and offer children a variety of activities and learning opportunities – can lead to more school success for kids.
  

None of those options precludes kids playing or having the freedom to make choices. In fact, high quality educational experiences -- whether they're in the classroom, at camp, or in an afterschool program -- include letting kids play.

So, what’s the answer? Longer school years and school days may be the answer for some kids and for some communities. A lot depends on what other options those kids and their families have during their time outside of school – after school and during the summer. What seems clear is that policy makers, schools, and parents have to consider all of these strategies in their efforts to close the achievement gap and give kids the education they need to be happy and successful adults.

Show your kids where policy happens!

Hey all you Wonky Moms and Dads out there! I was just thinking that this is the time of year when parents are starting to plan that school vacation get-away for February or April school vacation. You know - Disney. The Carolinas. Maybe a nice island somewhere.

All tempting, but why not do something different this year? If you haven't already, this may be the year to take your kids to their nation's capital! Show them where policy is made, tour the museums and maybe even the White House (get your tix early for that one!), visit your Congressional representatives... We took our kids to Washington, D.C. last year, and it was a great way to introduce them to some history, provide a backdrop for our dinner-time discussions of current events, and empower them to be active citizens who respect and enjoy their national treasures. Here's my son at the gates of the Department of the Treasury. He was doing a report on Alexander Hamilton at the time, and seeing his statue was one of the highlights of his trip. That, and riding in the flight simulator at the Air and Space Museum.

I know times are tight, and not all of you are on the East Coast. For a democracy destination within reach, you can also check out your state capitol. Take a tour, visit your state legislators if they're in session, and enjoy absorbing the power of democracy that is palpable inside those walls. You might even be able to see a committee hearing or watch some floor action.

Just a thought as you browse through your travel brochures and start making plans... If you're thinking about visiting D.C., here is a great site to get you started!

Policy News Families Can Use

Here are a few child and family policy-related nuggets from today’s news. How do they affect you and yours?

Health – The journal Pediatrics released 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health data yesterday that found that the rate of autism (also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD) as reported by parents in the U.S. has increased to one in 100 children, up from a previous estimate of 150. The Centers for Disease Control web site backs that research up, and further expresses hope that “these new data might raise awareness about ASDs to help improve early identification and intervention and to provide information for policy and service planning.” According to an Associated Press story, some of the increase is being attributed to earlier diagnosis and a broader definition for Autism.

Education – Raising a current or future college student? The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is considering raising the amount allowed per student under Pell Grants, federally funded college tuition grants for low income students. Pell Grants are a critical support for low income students and their families because unlike student loans they do not leave graduates in debt. In a Philadelphia Inquirer story, Laura W. Perna, an associate professor at Pennsylvania State University Graduate School of Education, is quoted as saying that two-thirds of students who received Pell Grants in 2007-08 came from families who earned less than $30,000. She also cited recent studies finding that the grants covered “32 percent of the average cost of tuition and fees at four-year public colleges and universities nationwide in 2007-08, down from 50 percent a decade earlier.”

Food – The Center for Science in the Public Interest looked at Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data on illnesses caused by food, and found that these are the foods most likely to make you sick: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts, and berries. Unfortunately, the analysis did not include meat and poultry, because those are regulated by the Agriculture Department, and the Center only looked at FDA regulated foods, but some of the outbreaks included pathogens more commonly found in meat and poultry. Authors think there may be a link to large scale production and processing, so if you haven’t already you might want to get to know your local farmer. According to a Department of Health and Human Services article, Congress is considering a bill that would expand the FDA’s authority over food producers and make it easier to identify and remove tainted foods from grocery stores. In the meantime, eat your veggies but wash them well first!

The Soda Strategy for Healthier Kids

I’m not a purist. I try to be healthy, but I’ve had my share of soda addictions over the years. There was the Dr. Pepper-for-breakfast era in high school. Classic Coke in college. And anyone who sat in a conference room with me between 1995 and 2007 knows that diet Coke got me through many a long meeting. I’ve done my share to pay Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent’s salary. But honestly, I care more about children’s health and covering the cost of health care than I do about Kent’s efforts to give the world a Coke and a smile. So his Cold War era argument against President Obama’s proposal to tax soda to help pay some of the costs of health care reform, currently being considered by President Obama and Congress leaves me a bit, well, cold.

While speaking at the Rotary Club in Atlanta (home of Coca-Cola), he said, “I have never seen it work where a government tells people what to eat and what to drink. If it worked, the Soviet Union would still be around.” Choice of beverage caused the fall of the Soviet Union? That seems unlikely.
The fact is that we know children’s consumption of soda contributes to childhood obesity. And we know that the public is paying at least part of the costs of treating that childhood obesity and the diseases related to it, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes. When a public health problem becomes not just a belt-buster but a budget buster, it’s time for government to step in.
The federal government has a couple of policy options to lower children’s soft drink consumption. One strategy is public education, and that is obviously important. It can reach children directly, compete with the Mountain Dew ads on TV, and create a culture in which the behavior is less accepted. Education has been an effective part of the efforts to keep kids from smoking and using drugs. (Remember this ad?)

But the evidence seems to show that these campaigns work best in combination with attempts to make it harder to purchase the substance of choice – making them more expensive (yes, through taxes) or banning them entirely. So the second strategy government can use is to target the purse strings of the primary purchasers of sugary sodas (parents) and make it less attractive to fill their shopping carts with two-liter bottles of Yoo-hoo.
A soda tax is likely to decrease soda drinking among adults and children alike, and that can only be good for public health. But to the extent folks keep buying Coke, the tax has another benefit. Those revenues can be set aside to help pay the costs of the health problems the children and adults who continue to drink soda are likely to develop. In policy terms, that’s a win-win.
There is another criticism to the soda tax and other “sin taxes” like it. Some are concerned that such taxes are regressive – that is, that they demand more from lower income tax payers who can afford it least. One study of New Yorkers did in fact find a relationship between soda consumption and lower household income. But even if that is true nationally, soda addiction is not nearly as strong as tobacco addiction or alcohol addiction. People have choices, and for the sake of kids’ health, they need to make smart ones. Maybe a soda tax will be the push they need to make better, healthier choices for healthier children.
To weigh in on the soda tax, contact your Senator or the White House today. For more information, visit the Campaign for Commercial Free Children, or (for a different point of view) the American Beverage Association.

You Too Can Be a Wonky Mom (or Dad)!

I love public policy. And I love my family. I was passionate about the former well before the latter came along. But not surprisingly raising children has intensified my desire to improve the world through lawmaking (or law changing), especially for kids and the people who care for them.

Those who know me in real life know that this divides my energy in many ways throughout a typical day. I’ve searched for child care for my infant daughter while researching the quality of child care for families in Boston. I’ve followed the health care debate on a day that I took my son to a well visit at his pediatrician’s office (covered by excellent health insurance, natch). I’ve read about the achievement gap, while reviewing my son’s state test scores. The resources and opportunities available to my children make me keenly aware of the challenges of families who aren’t so lucky, and that drives my desire to learn more, and do more to improve the public policies that impact them every day.

I’m blessed with a great network of frolleagues who lead similar professional and personal lives. I can’t list them all here, but you know who you are, and you each inspire me every day. I will give a special shout out to my friend who recently mentioned the challenge of trying to follow health care reform for Results while losing sleep to her son’s teething.

Here’s the thing parents– even if you don’t have a policy degree and have never set foot in the halls of Congress, you too can be a Wonky Mom or a Wonky Dad! It is my greatest hope and desire that if this blog does nothing else it challenges other parents out there to recognize that the world of public policy interacts with their homes, their neighborhoods, their schools and their communities every day. And, more importantly, that they have a role to play in shaping it, not just for themselves but for all the other families out there like them.

To help you get started, here are a few issues that are already underway in Washington, and some resources to help you step up and speak up. I’m leaving health care off the list because I’ve written about that recently, but feel free to check out my earlier posts.

Student Loans for College - H.R. 3221, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 passed the house last night. Besides setting up the Early Learning Challenge Fund for quality child care and early education, it also shifts college student loans from private financial institutions to the federal government. Proponents say that cutting out the middle man will save money for families borrowing for college. Opponents say it’s a government take over. What do you think? Let your Senator know, because that's where that bill goes next!

Child Nutrition – The federal laws that help children have access to healthy food are due to be renewed by Congress this year. According to the Food Research and Action Center, this reauthorization (for definitions of words used in Congress, go here) will include the School Breakfast and Lunch programs, Summer Food, Child and Adult Care Food (provides food in child care settings) and WIC (Women Infant and Children) programs. You can learn more and sign up for email updates at FRAC’s web site.

No Child Left Behind – This is the nickname for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also up for renewal this year, which sets federal policy for public schools with students grades K-12. If you have kids in school, this is the source of the requirement for standardized testing (MCAS in Massachusetts) beginning in 3rd grade. As it makes its way through reauthorization, policy makers, educators, and yes, parents, should speak up about standardized testing, teacher training and qualifications, charter schools, expanded early learning, and federal funding. Our kids spend at least six hours a day in their schools – let’s make them count!

These are just a few of the family friendly issues facing legislators this year. Ready to become a Wonky Mom or Wonky Dad? Visit one of the sites below to get started (and of course it won’t hurt to follow this blog and @childfampolicy on Twitter!).

• Results is a great grassroots organizing network that will help you learn to speak up and give you the information you need to be effective. Tell Meredith I sent you – and that I hope she got some sleep last night!


• The National Women’s Law Center works on issues affecting women and girls. I especially love their Family Economic Security team!


• MomsRising makes it easy and fun with easy to understand updates and fun to use techie organizing tools!

Good luck with your good work! Let me know how it goes on your journey to Wonkdom!