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By Ellen Keelan, in collaboration with Windham Child Care Association Permission for publication elsewhere is freely granted, so long as credit is given to Ellen Keelan, Windham Child Care Association, and the Brattleboro Reformer. 6. Child Care in Crisis: Advocates move from grassroots to Statehouse On Monday morning, child care providers in Windham County will open their doors to another 10-hour workday. Referral agencies throughout the state will brace themselves for a new onslaught of phone calls from working parents desperate to find someone to care for their children. And across the country, young children will spend their first morning with a stranger who, with luck, will have the skills and dedication to nurture them at this crucial time in their development. But child care in America doesn't have to be a matter of luck. With government surpluses in the news and low unemployment encouraging businesses to consider the needs of working parents, many in the early education field believe the time is ripe to spur investment in a more cohesive child care system. "The economy can't stay like this forever, and we all see this limited window of opportunity," says Windham Child Care Association's Advocacy Initiative coordinator Kim Friedman, who is working with a number of area groups to focus attention on the critical need for improvements in early education and to secure greater public and private funding. "There's just no way to get around the fact that we need more money -- and the fact of the matter is that states don't have the resources and parents don't have the resources. Without a significant infusion of federal funds, we're going to be spinning our wheels." But getting legislators to agree on spending will take stronger organization and lobbying, according to Friedman. "Folks are doing a lot of things that have resulted in good changes -- more public awareness and in some cases more money -- but we're not knocking down the doors of the legislature yet, and we need to if we're really going to see a significant increase in state funding for early education. We need to be heard as one loud voice." Part of the problem, says Friedman, is that parents of young children -- potentially a strong political force -- have little time and energy to devote to the cause. "How do you capture parents' frustration and desire to do something about the child care system when they're working full time and they're totally stressed out, and if they're a single parent they're going home at night to dinner and baths and homework? There's very little room in there for them to become politically involved. And by the time they have more to give, which is usually when their children are older, child care just isn't the burning issue that it was for them." As a result, Friedman and other community organizers are focusing on increasing activism among child care providers -- a group that has traditionally had little economic or political sway. Coretta Bliss, a teacher at Brattleboro Child Development who is active in the Worthy Wage Campaign for early childhood educators, illustrates the difficulty she faces engaging colleagues in political work. "I recently went to a conference of the New England Association for the Education of Young Children," recalls Bliss. "There were hundreds of workshops for child care providers, and they were all standing room only. I walked into the advocacy workshop and there were only six or eight people." Why the lukewarm response? "Child care providers think the political realm is out of their reach," says Bliss. "It's really not, but I didn't know that until I started advocacy work myself." Fortunately, once efforts are underway, the response from Montpelier is welcoming, says Friedman. "Vermont stands out in its willingness to include the early care and education community in the policy-making process. That collaborative, cooperative, non-antagonistic approach to setting regulations, thinking through problems, and figuring out how to increase state funding for child care programs is really welcomed by the child care community and I think results in better policies." It's a willingness that's echoed by agencies throughout the state, according to Friedman. "I'm astounded by the commitment to improving the child care system that all the child care services divisions that I know demonstrate. People work long hours and just pour their hearts into their work. It's not just a job." State senator Jean Ankeny agrees with Friedman's assessment that cooperation, even across party lines, is high. Unfortunately, the money isn't there. Ankeny authored "Priority One," a bill to support the early education system by increasing subsidy levels for poor and middle-class parents; rewarding providers who pursue education and training; and increasing compensation for providers with advanced degrees. So far the bill has received only partial funding. A self-described fiscal conservative, Ankeny believes that spending on child care now will drastically reduce future costs for special education and prisons. "The commissioner of corrections feels we can never turn the rate of incarceration around until we take care of children in the early years. He anticipates that we will need three new prisons by 2005. I'm going into this to save money!" Ankeny encourages citizens to let their representatives know that they would like revenues to support child care, rather than go toward nominal tax cuts. In the meantime, parents like Ellen Pratt of Putney do what they can to shore up the system. Pratt recently took part in Windham Child Care Association's Leadership Training Program for individuals wishing to advocate for early education. She believes that educating parents and others about child care issues will ultimately lead to better care. "I think parents need to be more involved in their child care arrangements, beyond just choosing a provider. There needs to be better integration between child care and home. I sometimes think, how would I feel if I were a child? You'd want to feel that your parents loved your teacher, too." "Now that I'm more involved with providers through Windham Child Care Association, I sense a dispiritedness among them, and it makes me so sad," reflects Pratt. "They're low paid, they're often not treated decently. And these are the people who are caring for our children! It really makes me worry what will happen if things don't get better." | |||
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