Childcare rant

I know, usually it's all kittens and puppies, rainbows and unicorns, look-at-the-cute-pictures-of-my-kids over here on my blog, but today I'm detouring from la-la land to go off on a little rant.

What is wrong with our country????? We place so little value on early childhood education and child care. I'm pretty sure that a large percentage of families are like ours, where both parents *have* to work. No, we don't live in a fancy house or drive expensive cars. We haven't been on a vacation in two years. So we're not both working to support an unrealistic lifestyle; we're both working to pay for our (average) roof over our heads, keep our kids in clothes (mostly second-hand or outlet sale finds), and eventually send them to (public not private, unless they're geniuses and get full-ride scholarships) college. Actually, we're probably luckier than most two-income families, because we can afford for me to work part-time -- I'm only in the office three days a week.

For B, we're paying $154/week for preschool, slated to go up to $170 in the new year. For E, it will be an additional $215/week. So we'll be shelling out about the equivalent of our mortgage payment each month for childcare. Without going into our personal finances, let me just tell you this: that is a SIGNIFICANT percentage of our take-home salary. We will not be saving a penny until B starts kindergarten, and we may well take our savings down to near $0 by then. And no, it's not a hoity-toity fancy expensive private preschool. It's run by a non-profit, so the fees are CHEAP by our city's standards. It is a great school too, and B has really blossomed there. So changing childcare providers is not really an option for us.

Before we chose this particular school, I must have looked at at least 30 others. And I would not have sent my kid to a single one of them. They were either just disgusting dumps, or creepy, or understaffed, or obviously just babysitting kids without any effort to educate them or contribute to developmental progress in any way. After I visited one particularly creepy place (it was in an old 7-11 store, so it had no windows or doors other than the front--all the back rooms were like cinderblock cells), I later ran into the staff person who'd been working in the infant room when I visited. She was actually at the school we eventually chose, interviewing for a job. She took me aside and told me not to send my baby to the place I'd first seen her, where she currently worked. I told her I wasn't even considering it anyway, but thanks for the heads-up. A couple months later, the guy who owned it was arrested for molesting the kids in the center. And this was after he'd already been convicted of child molestation several years before and ordered not to go back into the childcare business. WTF??

Just for fun, let's compare France and the US on a couple of points here:

1. Parental leave.

In France, it is the law that a mother is entitled to a minimum of 16 weeks paid maternity leave, and fathers get a minimum of 2 weeks paid leave. Plus, both parents can take up to three years of unpaid leave after the birth of a child and their job must be held for them. After a second child is born, a working parent who decides to stay home receives an allowance from the government. For the first three years, it is an amount equal to half the national minimum wage. So in France, the government pays you to stay home with your kids.

In the US, the Family Medical Leave Act requires your employer to give you leave, but they don't have to pay you. Maybe you're lucky like I am, and your employer will choose to give you paid maternity leave even though they don't have to -- I'll get 12 weeks. M will get none.

2. Child care.

So let's say you're a French mom who would rather go back to work than stay home with the kids. You can choose between a licensed and government-subsidized: child care center, family home child care provider, or in-home babysitter. The centers are run by local governments, non-profits, or parent associations, and parents pay only a small fee, based on income. The average amount a parent pays is $11/day/kid; actual operating costs are more like $50/day/kid. Oh, and I'll just throw this out there -- basic healthcare, such as vaccines, is provided at these centers and included in the basic fees. All care providers must have a bachelor's degree, and there is always a nurse on the staff and a doctor and psychologist make regular visits. Or if you do stay home with your kids instead of going back to work, but you need a little me-time, you can drop your kids off at a licensed, government-subisidized short-term child care center, where you pay about $1 per hour.

3. Preschool.

For kids aged 3-5, France has universal free preschool. Nearly 100% of the kids in the country attend. In the US, unless you're lucky enough to live in Florida or Georgia, you'll be paying for preschool out of your own pocket, or maybe your kids will just continue in a childcare setting until kindergarten without ever even going to preschool. Do you still wonder why the math and science skills of American students are declining in comparison to those of kids in other countries?

So let's tally up this scorecard:

France: 16 weeks paid leave, plus up to three years of unpaid leave with job protection

US: zero mandated paid leave for childbirth or adoption

France: $110/week for two kids

US: $385++/week for two kids

France: Free preschool for everyone!

US: Preschool? We don't need no stinkin' preschool. Kindergarten is good enough. They can just fingerpaint and play with playdough until they're five.

Yes, I know it isn't really free. You pay for it with your taxes of course. The average French family pays about half of their income in taxes; the average American family pays about 42%. I wonder how what percentage of our income we're paying on childcare and healthcare, things French families get for free? I haven't calculated it, but I know it's more than 8%. Try more like 25 - 30% for our family. Call me crazy, but I think the French family is getting more bang for their income tax buck than my family is.

But it's not even really about how much we pay in taxes; it's about our priorities in spending that money. Given the choice between funding an occupation of a foreign country or high-quality childcare and universal preschool for all American children, I think it should be obvious which choice has more long-term benefit for our nation. And it really is that simple. Education matters. Health care matters. Poverty matters. These are not just liberal touchy-feely attitudes held by naive people who don't understand national security. More poverty = more crime, more spending on prisons, more drug use, more child abuse, less education, less civic engagement. In short, poverty = social decay. How is THAT in the long-term good interests of our nation and our security? Oh, and poverty in France and the US? Based simply on wages and earnings, about 25% of the kids in both countries would appear to live in poverty. However, after you consider the child and health care services, as well as free preschool, available in France, only 6% of French children actually live in poverty, versus 21% of American children.

The bottom line is that our national priorities are forcing parents to choose between bad and worse for their children. We must change our priorities, and we must elect people who not only share our priorities, but have the moral fiber to actually make hard choices and force change. Or we could all just move to France. Damn, I wish I'd paid more attention in high school French!

So are you a little surprised to see all this here? The truth is that I am actually a very political person with pretty solid background in politics and government, and I have A LOT to say about this kind of stuff. I have kept it off the blog until now, but I can't really say why. I think I will be talking more about politics and society here in the future. Interspersed with cute baby pictures and funny stories about B, of course.