[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 165 (Friday, November 19, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2516]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 HIGH-QUALITY CHILD CARE CAN HELP PARENTS MOVE TOWARD SELF-SUFFICIENCY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the issue of quality 
improvements in our nation's child care centers. As a member of the 
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources with jurisdiction 
over the federal welfare system, I voted against the 1996 overhaul of 
our welfare system because of the dangerous effect it would have on the 
health and well-being of children and families in our country.
  Congress was warned by advocates for low-income and poor families 
that without the proper work supports--health care, food assistance, 
and child care services--welfare reform's efforts to push mothers into 
low-paying, low-skill jobs could not succeed. Now as more and more 
families with children are forced to send both parents (or the only 
parent) to work, the absence of child care hampers the ability of 
mothers to successfully make that move.
  Families are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Child care is in 
short supply, is too expensive for many families to afford, and often 
is of poor quality. When families try to get child care, they encounter 
long waiting lists--even for crummy programs--or the care available is 
unaffordable. The message to low-income families is that they must take 
any care they can get. More often than not, parents end up patching 
together a number of child care arrangements and go through the day 
anxious that part of the child care chain will fail. Many mothers are 
reporting that the child care assigned to them by welfare caseworkers 
would place their children in a low-quality setting that would make 
them susceptible to physical harm and do little to prepare children for 
school.
  Working parents need to feel secure about the arrangements they've 
made for their children during work hours, because the quality of care 
children receive can make a difference in parents' ability to work. 
Evaluations of GAIN, the job-training program for welfare recipients in 
California, found that mothers on welfare who were worried about the 
safety of their children and who did not trust their providers were 
twice as likely to subsequently drop out of the job-training program.
  We must increase both the quantity and the quality of the care 
offered. My bill, the Child Care Quality Improvement Act (H.R. 2175), 
promotes quality child care by providing incentive grants to states to 
help them set and meet long-term child care quality goals. My bill 
would base a state's eligibility for future funding on the progress 
made in increasing training for staff, enhancing licensing standards, 
reducing the number of unlicensed facilities, increasing monitoring and 
enforcement, reducing caregiver turnover, and promoting higher levels 
of accreditation.
  Congress has wrongly refused to require significant quality standards 
for the billions in child care dollars we allocate each year. The 
federal government should give states the resources to improve child 
care quality at the local level, but only through a system of 
measurable indicators of desired outcomes.
  As the father of a young son, I know the difficulty families face 
when searching for a caregiver for their children. I believe we must 
give families peace of mind by helping states provide the high quality 
of care every child deserves. We must not threaten a parent's chance at 
succeeding on the job and achieving self-sufficiency.

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