Universal Childcare call to arms! -Mod Approved

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brendawwentz

New member
Hello friends! I wanted to spread the word about Universal Childcare and how a handful of parents from /r/workingmoms have decided enough is enough. We're in the beginning stages of banding together to fight for real change.

Are you interested in joining the cause? Do you know someone that would be?

Send me a PM for the info to join us on Wednesday, Jan 18 at at 8pmE//7pmC//5pmP

Here's the super cool graphic with some information that we've made!
https://imgur.com/a/vBFqRys

Also, join us at our super new subreddit /r/UniversalChildcare

Finally, since this is Science Based Parenting, I was hoping you lovely folk would have information on the effects of universal childcare, the effects lack of available child care has on families, or any additional resources you think would be helpful.

♥

Edit: I totally had mom brain and also went full selfish American. Currently, our group is focused on the US but that doesn't mean we can't help folk in other countries with organizing!
 
@brendawwentz I totally support this. You should also check our r/parentalleaveadvocacy if you haven’t yet for some great resources.

Broadly I think what you’ll hear on this sub:
  • market economics do not work to roll out childcare because it’s an inherently inefficient product to deliver so it needs to be subsidized
  • at the same time, childcare costs are higher than in state tuition in nearly every state and creates an unsustainable burden on many families
  • childcare access has real benefits for socioeconomic family status and parental employment measures
  • center based childcare has more mixed child development outcomes, some positive and some negative
  • because of the above, universally subsidizing center based care may not provide optimal outcomes for all children
  • that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t subsidize childcare! But ideally we would do so in a way that enables families to make choices on what’s right for their child and their family as a whole (whether that’s center daycare, home daycare, nanny, relative care, or a parent staying at home)
  • we have a childcare quality crisis in the US that many parents are unaware of (less than 10% of daycares are high quality but 88% of parents believe their child attends a high quality daycare) so any universal solution should put a large emphasis on childcare quality which broadly requires physical and environmental safety, space and equipment that encourages play, trained caregivers, low ratios and an emphasis on secure attachment building between caregiver and child
 
@raisingarrowsmama It depends on the study but two common tools are the Infant-Toddler Environmental Rating Scale (ITERS - there’s a preschool version too but I’m blanking on the name since I teach toddlers) and CLASS. Many studies and surveys I’ve read based on ITERS found average scores of around 4 along the various subscales, which is described as “mediocre” or “minimal” quality. There’s a lot to be done to improve quality. Another thing you’ll see is “structural” and “process” quality where structural is stuff like ratio and caregiver education and process is actually evaluating child-caregiver interactions.
 
@brendawwentz As a qualified & registered ECE teacher of 20+ years (and working mum!) , PLEASE advocate for access to high quality childcare for all.

Not all child care is the same, and kids really need us to fight for quality standards- safe, enriching learning environments, adults who understand child development & education, good ratios and group size limits.
 
@grampster Yes yes yes! Honestly I have worked places where I would not want to see those centers scaled up to be universal. Quality childcare is so important and I think people often underestimate just how hard (and expensive) that is to provide, especially for infants and toddlers.
 
@hopeandgrace I’m from Finland, and even though we have universal childcare, it’s currently going through a crisis in the capital metropolitan area where there are a ton of kids and not enough available workforce. My kid is starting daycare in Feb and I’m nervously waiting whether her daycare has enough permanent staff or if there will be a new face welcoming my kid every morning. In some places the daycare centers have also kinda secretly tweaked the numbers to make it seem enough staff is available to keep the place open, when in reality there’s not enough carers present…
 
@brendawwentz You could look to NZ as a case study, we’ve had universal 20 hours free childcarefor 3-5 year olds since 2007, and an additional childcare subsidy for low income households. I believe UNICEF told them they should extend it to cover kids from birth at one point from an equity perspective, but the govt decided not to because the evidence for early childhood education (ECE) being beneficial was for the 3-5 year old group, while the under 3s had more mixed academic-social-emotional outcomes from being in ECE. That’s not to say that our ECEs are affordable, but it’s a start. There’s been research on the effect of the policy on women’s labour force participation and earnings, effects on the childcare services, and I’m sure there have been articles on the effect on the kids but my cursory google search is coming up fruitless. The policy was based on a bunch of NZ research from the 80s & 90s showing the value of early childhood education for 3 & 4 year olds.

However, childcare costs for families have crept back up, so you’d have to be careful how your proposed policy is worded and implemented.
 
@plaura94515 I don't have the resources like you've posted but Sweden might be a good country to look at
  • long parental leave. Iirc 18 months that is transferrable between parents and doesn't need to be taken consecutively
  • no childcare under 1 year old, parents expected to look after children until that age
  • Subsidized childcare. Iirc something like $150/month. I'm in the UK and was paying more for 3 says a week even after getting 30 hours free child from 3yo to 5yo
 
@naomif01 Swede here. Children under one can attend preschool if they need to from a care or developmental perspective. Usually because of some issues at home.

After age one, you pay an income based fee, that tops out at $150 a month for the first child and then the cost decrease for each consecutive child.

After age 3 each child is entitled to 525 hours a year (3 hours a day each term) free of charge.
 
@mcewan_15 Do a lot of people work part time or pay for extra care beyond the 3 hours a day? Personally that sounds great to me as both an early childhood educator and a parent but I know other parents who have skipped public preK because it wasn’t full day/full year.
 
@scooper8 Yes, that’s very common. The 3 hours are what’s free of charge. You can have your child enrolled for longer days if you need it but then you have to pay the fee, and also you have to show that you are at work/studying for those extra hours. Our son goes 5 days a week 8.30-16.00 because we both work full time.
 
@plaura94515 Interesting as we get 30 hours free in the uk for 3-5 yo if the highest household earners earn under £100k (which is prob 90% of people). If over £100k you get 15 hours.

BUT most nurseries have to ask for extra as the amount given doesn’t cover all their costs PLUS it’s term time only (not school holidays) so they tend to spread it across a whole year and do core hours only so for January we had still had to pay c£500!

Is the NZ model totally free or does it have to be subsidised by parents like in the UK?
 
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