ED394659 PS024023
Title: Everybody's Children: Child Care as a Public Problem.
Author(s): Gormley, William T., Jr.
Author Affiliation: Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.(BBB01336)
Pages: 243
Publication Date: 1995
ISBN: 0-8157-3223-6
Available from: Document Not Available from EDRS.
Availability: The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue,
N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (paperback: ISBN-0-8157-3223-6, $16.95;
hardcover: ISBN-0-8157-3224-4).
Language: English
Document Type: Book (010); Reports--Evaluative (142)
Geographic Source: U.S.; District of Columbia
Journal Announcement: RIESEP1996
In the face
of social changes that are increasing the demand for available,
affordable, quality child care, it is difficult to continue to think
of child care as a purely private issue. This book presents an analysis
of the state of American child care. It evaluates child care policies
and the national attention given to young children and their families.
There are seven chapters in this book. Chapter 1, "Private
Headaches, Public Dilemmas," sets forth the position that child
care has not yet secured a firm niche on the public agenda, and
emphasizes the reasons why the government has special responsibilities
to care for poor children who need high-quality child care. This
chapter also discusses the research methodology used for the research
reported in the book. Chapter 2, "Child Care as a Social Problem,"
describes recent changes in the child care market from work, family,
parental, and societal perspectives. Chapter 3, "Child Care
as an Institutional Problem," considers both the formal and
informal institutions that together comprise the child care infrastructure.
This chapter also introduces several procedural criteria that may
be used to evaluate the current system. Chapter 4, "Markets
and Black Markets," focuses on the quality of care in two settings:
for-profit group day care centers and unregulated family day care
homes. Chapter 5, "Do's, Don'ts, and Dollars," subjects
government to the same scrutiny that the child care industry received
in Chapter 4. This chapter focuses on regulatory
reform, categorical grants, and block grants. Chapter 6, "Do-Gooders,
Go-Getters, and Go-Betweens," claims that intermediary institutions--schools,
churches, businesses, and resource and referral agencies--should
be encouraged to provide, subsidize, further develop, and improve
child care. Chapter 7, "Reinventing Child Care," discusses
four kinds of child care reform models and concludes that with the
right incentives, coordination, and discretion, a better world for
children can be achieved. Contains an index and a list of references
for each chapter. (MOK)
Descriptors: Business Responsibility; Change Strategies; Child Rearing;
Church Role; *Day Care; Day Care Centers; Early Childhood Education;
Evaluation Criteria; *Evaluative Thinking; Family Day Care; *Government
Role; Parent Role; School Role; Social Change; *Social Problems;
*Standards
Identifiers: Analytic Approach; *Child Care Needs; *Day Care Quality;
Family Resource and Support Programs; Infrastructure
