Joanna Weiss writes in the Boston Globe about the importance of day care and why it should be a public responsibility. She holds out some hope that Ivanka Trump has adopted this as her cause.
She writes:
“To many new parents, the price tag for child care, a non-negotiable, multi-year expense, comes as a gut-wrenching shock. According to the Care Index, created by the think tank New America and Care.com, US parents pay, on average, nearly $800 per month for full-time, center-based care for children under 5. In Massachusetts, that cost is closer to $1,100 per month, about on par with the median state rent and fully a third of the median household income.”
Her account of the history of government policy is well worth reading.
With Trump determined to spend billions on a border wall, I’m not sure that he is thinking about the well-being of regular people. Maybe Ivanka will get his attention.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If we were a sane nation, not ruled by a cadre of far right wing/libertarian/Ayn Randian/free market bloviators, we would have day care, universal health care, paid family leave, tuition free university education, etc. But all such sane ideas are killed even before they can be discussed; the regressives howl their disapproval and brand any such ideas as socialism, communism, Marxism-Leninism, Satanism, etc., ad nauseam.
And here we are with Trump as president and the GOP in control of the legislature and soon the SCOTUS as well.
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YEP! (unfortunately)
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For the first five years of my daughter’s life I was a single mother and it was a total nightmare. I could not understand why women did not speak out about this issue of childcare. Were they feeling so guilty for working? I had no choice and had to work. Besides, women in WWII worked and the government provided childcare for them then. They can easily do it now. This cost breaks the back of so many parents and worse, can lead to neglect and abuse of children. I am afraid I have no hope for this to be resolved under the rule of #45 and his ilk. Thank you Joe for your comments!
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As I have said before, my cousin lives in France. Her husband passed away when her children were quite young. Rather than return to the US, she decided to stay in France where state run childcare, of excellent quality, is available. In addition to the well known Ecoles Maternelles, parents are eligible for other tax breaks and credits related to raising a healthy child.
In the US we provide little to no government support for young children other than CHIP, Medicaid, and Head Start, for low income families. The US and Papua New Guinea are the only two nations that do not offer paid maternity leave to new mothers. In the US you are on your own, a system that works well for the “haves,” but not so well for the working poor. http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/11/socialist_child_care_in_europe_creche_ecole_maternelle_and_french_child.html
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Let’s not kid ourselves? Ivanka probably thinks that (1) day care is a good thing because it is mostly privatized already and (2) it can make more money for those gazillionaire friends of hers.
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The Bottom 3 quintilles Are almost flat while the fourth is barely up .
The second graph is of female participation in the work force .
The author repeats the often heard response from the right “if you can’t afford to have kids don’t ”
I’ll give a slightly different response nothing to do with how I feel about female participation in the workforce.
If you cant afford to pay your workers a living wage that enables one bread winner to support a family get out of business or pay up for the cost of childcare. Of course they will always come back with ,you are crushing mom and pop businesses . The Walmart’s
aren’t mom and pop. Go back to graph one. Look at the income of the top quintille and
the top 5%.
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In the US a mother was arrested because she sent her young child to play in the park across the street while she worked her shift a McDonald’s. He childcare coverage fell through for the day, and she was afraid of losing her job. Just what kind of childcare can anyone afford from a minimum wage job?
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. My point agreed
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Thanks, Joel. How did you get the graphs to come through?
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Actually I expected only a link. But I used the copy image location
option
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