On Wed, 18 Jan 1995, Doug Henwood wrote: > On another list, an irrepressible born-again market enthusiast we'll call > only H.G., after dismissing public jobs programs as "a joke" and "a waste > of money," declared that government should do no more than finance child > care, not provide it - provision being best left to private providers. In > an answer to a follow-up question, H.G. said yes, all of 'em, when asked if > these include nonprofits, co-ops, and/or MacKids. > > Any comments from pen-l'ers on other countries' experiences with public > child care? Is the state a terrible provider? > I can't comment except anecdotally, but I ahve had experience with state and private child cxare here in Columbus, and I think it is fair to say that any parent, regardless of her or his political ideology, would KILL to get the kids into Ohio State University Childcare. The staff gets public employee benefits and better wages than private childcare, so it's professional and quite stable. The facilities--specially built for the purpose on land donated by the state, are superb. Costs are about the same as private care. The waiting list is a yaer and a half to two and a half years long. Incidentally, the way this facility was won, as the result of an action by women students and students' wives is wonderful. Up to the mid-70's OSU maintained (as University of Michigan still did when I was there) that it could not provide childcare. So women took the issue, and their kids, into their own hands and held a "cry-in"--with the babies they occupied the admin building and refused to move until they got the concession to establish a center. Cops couldn't exactly tear-gas babies and beat up Moms, many of them, pregnant, so after several days, the administration agreed to negotiate the terms to establish the center. Alas, I am moving back to Ann Arbor--in many ways an improvement, but U-M still has no childcare, and private care in AA is twice what it is in Columbus. --Justin Schwartz
