Womenstake

Lasting Impacts of High-Quality Child Care

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center

The latest results from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, which has been following 1,364 children since their birth in 1991, show the long-term positive impact of high-quality child care. The study found that at age 15 those who had been in high-quality quality care before age 4 ½ were performing better on academic and cognitive assessments and were less likely to display problem behavior. 

The differences in teens' academic performance and behavior associated with the quality of care they had in their preschool years were relatively small. And the influence of parents and other family members and other factors outweighed the impact of child care. Yet the persistence of those differences related to child care is striking, and children and youth need every extra boost they can get.

The study also found that teens who had spent more time in child care were slightly more likely to display impulsive and risk-taking behavior. This only reinforces the importance of high-quality child care, particularly for children who are in care for long hours.

Child Care: Supporting Moms on Mother’s Day and All Year Round

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center

I'm looking forward to celebrating Mother’s Day by getting together with my mom and dad and my sister and brother and their families and trying to get my mom to do as little as possible other than enjoying spending time with the family. But I'd like to think that Mother's Day isn't just about taking one day of the year to show appreciation for all our moms do. It should also be a day to think about ways to make it a little easier for our moms, as they try to juggle their uncountable responsibilities, all of the other days of the year.

There’s nothing we can do to make being a mom completely carefree. There are just too many things for them to worry about as they try to make sure their children are safe and happy and support their families in multiple ways, including financially—a particularly challenging task in today’s economy. Yet we can try to lend moms a hand in managing everything. One way to do this is by giving working moms the tools they need to find and afford reliable child care and early education for their children. Dependable child care is essential for enabling a mom to get and keep a job—and, once she's gotten a job, for enabling her to concentrate on her work secure in the knowledge that her children are in good hands.

Follow the Child Care Money

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center

A new report from NWLC highlights the ways in which states are using $2 billion in additional child care funds available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make a difference for children and families. 

NWLC’s report, Supporting State Child Care Efforts with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Funds, offers numerous examples of how these funds are enabling many states to maintain and expand families’ access to child care assistance as well as to invest in initiatives to improve the quality of care. In these tough economic times, the additional funding for child care has also helped save and create jobs—for the parents who have been able to work because they have reliable child care, for the child care providers who have been able to maintain enrollment in their programs, and for the trainers, specialists, and other individuals employed to help improve the availability and quality of child care.

A Second Crack in the Glass TV Screen

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center 

After waiting months to see if ABC would diversify the Sunday morning talk shows when it filled its opening at the anchor desk of  “This Week,” we finally have our answer, and it’s a good one. Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s long-time foreign correspondent, will be taking over the slot as moderator of the show. This follows CNN’s recent decision to make Candy Crowley the anchor of its Sunday morning show, so suddenly the long-time bastion of white males is not so male anymore.

But this doesn’t mean we can be satisfied with the progress that’s been made so far. The Sunday morning shows need to continue to move forward to further increase the diversity of their anchors, their guests, and the topics they cover. And hopefully, the new female hosts will not be content to simply break the glass ceiling by being where they are, but also break some new ground in the way politics are covered on Sunday mornings.

Child Care on the Agenda

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center 

Today the President made clear he recognizes that child care is central to efforts to strengthen middle-class families. 

At a meeting of the White House Middle Class Task Force, the President announced several proposals to help families, including those juggling their responsibilities to care for their children and their elderly parents as well as those trying to pay off student loans. 

By including child care in this agenda for middle-class families, the White House is acknowledging that families working to get ahead cannot succeed unless parents have stable, affordable child care that enables them to get and keep a job and that offers a nurturing, supportive environment for their children.

Child Care and Family Leave Essential for Working Women

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center 

Two recent articles in the Wall Street Journal and in The Economist highlight the expanded participation of women in the workforce—the proportion of the workforce accounted for by women is approaching 50 percent—while also pointing out that supports for women’s participation in the workforce have failed to keep pace with that change. 

The U.S. continues to lack paid family leave policies that would allow parents to take time off to care for their very young children without giving up needed income, and does not even require employees to offer paid sick days so parents could take time off when their children are ill. Moreover, child care policies remain far from adequate—while the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant program provides some assistance to some low-income families, many low- and moderate-income families cannot get help paying the high cost of care, and high-quality care is scarce, particularly for parents with infants and parents working hours other than the standard 9-to-5. The shortcomings in U.S. policies are particularly striking compared to the more generous benefits offered in most other developed nations.

The trend in women’s workforce participation is unlikely to be reversed. Working women have become essential in contributing to their families’ income and to the nation’s economic growth. Yet whether women will be able to work with peace of mind that they are meeting their commitments to their children and families will depend on whether the U.S. makes more progress in its work-family policies. As women continue to enter the workforce in growing numbers, expanded supports for high-quality, affordable child care and family leave are fundamental to enabling them to balance their responsibilities to work and family. 

Can Women Anchors Break the Glass TV Screen?

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women's Law Center 

With George Stephanopoulos planning to leave his Sunday morning news program, "This Week," for his new role co-anchoring "Good Morning America" on weekday mornings, there is a great opportunity to make the Sunday morning shows look more like America and American politics today. While we’ve broken many gender and race barriers in politics in recent years, the Sunday morning news shows covering politics are still all anchored by white men. ABC could take a major step forward by filling the opening at "This Week" with one of the many women qualified to do the job, such as Gwen Ifill, Soledad O’Brien, Andrea Mitchell, or Michel Martin.

It is extremely frustrating to watch a male anchor discuss with his all-male panel policies affecting women, such as abortion, without any input from women themselves. It is even more frustrating to watch a male anchor fail to even cover critical women’s issues or to watch him discuss issues such as the economy or health care without even mentioning their particular impact on women.

The Sunday morning shows have come a long way in getting more diverse guests and more diverse panelists to debate the issues. But that’s not enough. We need women not only debating the agenda, but helping set the agenda -- deciding which issues to debate, what questions to ask about the issues, and who will debate the issues.

With Nancy Pelosi sitting in the House Speaker’s chair and Barack Obama sitting in the Oval Office, isn’t it long past time to have at least as much diversity among the people sitting at the anchor desk on Sunday mornings?

More Backward Than Forward on Child Care

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst,
and Helen Blank, Director of Leadership and Public Policy, 
National Women's Law Center  

A new study by the National Women’s Law Center of policies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia reveals that between February of 2008 and February of 2009 more states made cuts than made improvements in their child care assistance programs. This is troubling news for the many low-income families who need help affording reliable child care that allows parents to work and gives children opportunities to learn — particularly since it follows years of stagnation in child care assistance policies and funding.

The study examines four key policy areas — income eligibility limits for child care assistance, waiting lists for assistance, reimbursement rates for child care providers serving families receiving assistance, and copayments required of parents receiving assistance. A majority of states did not make changes in these areas between February 2008 and February 2009. However, of those states that did make changes, more moved backward than forward.

In 2009, a family with an income above 200 percent of poverty ($36,620 a year for a family of three in 2009) could not qualify for assistance in over three-quarters of the states — even though a family at this income level could barely afford to meet its basic needs in the majority of communities across the country.

In many states, families cannot always receive help even if they meet the eligibility criteria. In 2009, nineteen states had waiting lists for child care assistance or turned families away without even adding their names to the waiting list.

A Challenge to States: Building Strong Early Learning Systems

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst,
and Amalia Reiss, Intern,
National Women’s Law Center 

The President and Congress are demonstrating their commitment to early care and education by issuing an important challenge to states: Develop strong, high-quality early learning systems that help ensure children enter school ready to succeed. States that accept the challenge will receive new resources and support to meet this goal, which is essential for our children and our nation. 

An Early Learning Challenge Fund, first discussed by President Obama during the campaign and included in his budget proposal earlier in the year, has now been fleshed out in legislation introduced by Representative George Miller (D-CA) on July 15. The Early Learning Challenge Fund, which is proposed as part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 (H.R. 3221), would provide $1 billion a year over 10 years to states that agree to work toward a comprehensive strategy for improving the quality of their early learning programs, particularly those serving disadvantaged children.

The initiative would make two types of grants available to states: Quality Pathways Grants for states that already have made significant progress toward establishing systems for improving the quality of early learning settings and that can serve as models for other states, and Development Grants for states that have some elements of a strategy to promote early learning but need an extra boost to achieve a truly systemic approach. States would be able to use the grants for several key components of a high-quality early learning system, including initiatives to boost the education and compensation of the early learning workforce, a system for rating the quality of early learning programs and helping them achieve progressively higher levels of quality, parent outreach and engagement, and coordination with other services for children and families—many of the same key components addressed in the Center’s Child Care Agenda.  

Fair Pay for Child Care Providers

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst, 
National Women’s Law Center 

Fair Pay Day is not just about fair pay for women in the same jobs as men—it’s also about fair pay for women in predominately female-held jobs, such as child care.  Child care providers, despite the valuable role they play in nurturing and teaching young children and enabling parents to work and support their families, are paid an average of only $19,670 a year.  And during these challenging economic times, many child care providers are struggling to stay in business, and many child care staff are at risk of having their already-low pay cut.

Still, there are currently several promising strategies and opportunities for helping child care providers improve their compensation and education.  In 13 states that have authorized home-based child care providers to organize and negotiate with the state, child care unions are working to secure improvements in pay and working conditions for the family child care and family, friend, and neighbor care providers they represent.  Twenty-one states have adopted the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Project, which provides scholarships and raises or bonuses to child care providers who complete a specified amount of education and commit to continue working in their child care programs for a set period of time.  The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides funding for several programs and initiatives that can be used to support professional development opportunities for child care providers and other early childhood educators. 

On this Fair Pay Day, we need to consider how to build on these efforts to support the child care providers who are providing such essential support to children and families.

See who else is writing about workplace fairness for women on this Equal Pay Day.