[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 50 (Wednesday, April 29, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E711-E712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    PALCARE--MODEL CHILD CARE CENTER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 29, 1998

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, last week President Clinton delivered an 
important address in the Rose Garden about the critical need for 
quality, affordable child care in our country. The President reviewed 
several ideas and proposals designed to meet this demand, contending 
that we have ``to act on the overwhelming weight of the evidence about 
the importance of the earliest years in the child's life.''
  I wholeheartedly agree with President Clinton, and I believe that I 
can point him to an outstanding example of what can and should be done. 
Palcare in Burlingame, California, is an exceptional, nonprofit child 
care center designed to address the most serious concern that dual-
income and single-parent families in the Bay Area are forced to 
confront--the need to ensure a safe, nurturing environment for their 
children. I visited Palcare last month and came away with an immense 
appreciation for its educational excellence, its devoted staff, and, 
most of all, its invaluable assistance to mothers and fathers from 
across the Peninsula.
  I am delighted to congratulate Palcare on the fifth anniversary of 
its opening and on its exceptional record of community service in San 
Mateo County.
  As our country has shifted from an industrial to a service-based 
structure, the traditional one-income family has become more the 
exception than the rule, and 9-to-5 work days are increasingly becoming 
a rarity. Many single parents hold three or more jobs, struggling to 
create a positive environment for their children while fighting to earn 
the financial resources to feed them, clothe them, and educate them.
  Palcare responds to their social dilemma described by former U.S. 
Secretary of Labor Robert Reich during a visit to the child care center 
in 1995: ``Finding good child care is a challenge for everyone, but 
it's compounded by nonstandard hours. Our service-based economy is 
increasingly running 24 hours. Parents are required to work early in 
the morning, nights and on weekends.''
  Mr. Speaker, this excellent child care center provides the highest 
quality service night and day, seven days per week, for over two 
hundred families. It enhances the work force by enabling parents to 
take jobs they would otherwise be unable to accept; it gives our 
youngest citizens a constructive educational milieu in which to grow; 
and, perhaps most important, Palcare allows mothers and fathers

[[Page E712]]

employed at the San Francisco International Airport and its surrounding 
communities to work without fear for the safety and well-being of their 
sons and daughters.
  Palcare's origins reflect the diverse coalition of Bay Area 
organizations that rely on its vital work. Corporations and labor 
unions, public interest groups and private foundations, county and 
local governments alike joined together during the late 1980's and 
early 1990's with the goal of reducing pressure on working parents. 
These disparate elements disagreed on many political and economic 
issues, but they were united in their vision of the benefits which 
hard-working mothers and fathers were entitled to receive.
  They wanted a top-notch, secure facility with the space and comfort 
to serve as a cocoon for the intellectual, social, and physical 
development of young children; an educated and motivated staff with an 
Early Childhood Educator devoted to each and every boy and girl; a 
level of flexibility to accommodate the complex and hectic work 
schedules of single parents and multiple-income families, and a measure 
of affordability that would allow mothers and fathers to avoid painful 
choices between important parenting priorities. These ideals guided the 
creation of Palcare and formed a combination of values which has 
resulted in Palcare's extraordinary success over the past five years.
  Mr. Speaker, to give credit to all of the individuals and 
organizations that have contributed to Palcare's growth and acclaim 
would require a book, but I want to mention some of the key ones. Its 
Founding Partners, the varied array of interests determined to develop 
a solution for the area's child care crisis, deserve special 
recognition: United Airlines, the San Francisco International Airport, 
the Airport Labor Coalition, San Mateo Country government, the City and 
County of San Francisco, Mills Peninsula Health Services, The Child 
Care Coordinating Council, the San Mateo Central Labor Council, and The 
United Way. This partnership has been bolstered by many large and small 
employers from throughout the Bay Area who have contributed generously 
to Palcare's scholarship fund to dilute the financial burden on working 
parents, and who have donated valued supplies and services to the 
center. Recent benefactors have included The Gap Foundation, PG &E, 
Xerox Corporation, and the Visa Corporation.
  The organization has also been blessed by the sincere efforts of 
Palcare Parents, several of whom sit on the 21-person Board of 
Directors and many of whom formed an active Parent Advisory Committee 
to suggest improvements to the center. Above all, Palcare is the 
product of its talented and nourishing staff under the leadership of 
Executive Director Nirmala Dillman. Mr. Speaker, these fine individuals 
and bodies stand proudly as a model for child care providers and 
community leaders across America.
  I am joined in my appreciation of Palcare by many impressive 
entities. The center has been recognized by the Women's Bureau of the 
Departmental of Labor, the Association of Work/Life Professionals and 
the California Association for the Education of Young Children as an 
example for others to emulate. These experts are exceeded in the degree 
to which they cherish Palcare only by the mothers and fathers who draw 
comfort and security from its services. Art Pulaski, a good friend of 
mine who is Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the California Labor 
Federation, AFL-CIO, and a Palcare Parents, said: ``The thing I think 
about most is my kids--that they're safe, well cared for, and happy. 
It's important to me that they are prepared for school, academically as 
well as socially.''
  For the sake of Art's son, Luke, and for all of the other Bay Area 
families that value its services, it is a privilege and honor for me to 
congratulate Palcare on five years of invaluable contributions, and to 
express my hope that every parent in America will eventually have 
access to the type of care which Palcare so ably provides for our 
community.

                          ____________________