Why do we have to settle for such a lousy system of childcare? Working parents who agonize over finding decent and affordable childcare often have to settle on something that may not be decent. And if that's hard on the parents, just think of the kids! It's not that we're too poor, either. Some countries no wealthier than we are have excellent child-care systems that are even publicly financed. How do they do it?
A group of specialist who recently went to France to examine its system of child care give some answers to this question in A Welcome for Every Child: How France Achieves Quality in Child Care (New York: The French-American Foundation 1989). The visitors found a comprehensive generously financed national system that includes public and private schools for preschoolers, a range of child-care options for younger children and free preventative health care for children under six.
French children don't have to attend preschool, but almost all the county's three-to five-year-olds do -- 85 percent in public schools and 13 percent in private schools. Since only about 46 percent of French mothers are in the workforce, the high percentage of kids in schools demonstrates how satisfied parents are with the system. And they are right. French census data show that children who attend preschool increase their chances of passing first grade, no matter what their socioeconomic background, and this in turn is a good predictor of success later in school.
The quality of French preschool teachers undoubtedly has something to do with the quality of the system. Unlike their wretchedly paid and often poorly trained American counterparts, these teachers must have the equivalent of a master's degree in their field, and they are paid accordingly. The government works hard to get good people into the profession and keep them there by giving them a free education and a modest living allowance while they study. In return, new teachers promise to teach for five years after graduation.
Child-care programs for younger French children offer the choice and flexibility Americans like to talk about and with a much higher level of quality than we manage. There are the familiar options of child- care centers and home-care. And there are child-care networks of 6 to 35 individual home-care providers who are recruited, trained and monitored by central administrators.
The child-care centers and the networks are supervised by pediatric nurses with specialties in child-development, so the kids get highly professional care. Even individual home-care providers are far more likely to licensed and supervised than the ones in this country. In fact, the figures are staggering. According to the report. 75 percent of all French home-care providers are licensed, in comparison with as few as 10 percent here.
One reason for this contrast is that the French government's determined use of incentives. Parents get special tax deductions when they hire a licensed child-care giver rather than an unlicensed one. And when care-givers become licensed, they are eligible for fringe benefits that other French workers get: retirement and disability benefits, unemployment insurance, paid maternity leave and paid sick and vacation leave -- all financed by the government. They also are entitled to a minimum wage, although they may bargain with their employers for more.
As a result, the French can set and maintain a decent standard for people who take care of children in their homes. Parents know that the people they employ have met certain requirements and have agreed to be advised and monitored by pediatric nurses who visit their homes at least every three months and more often if needed. Parents don't need to fly blind, the way that we often do here. And they don't have to accept something that is not acceptable because that's all there is.
The universal preventive health care service is another piece of the French child-care system. It actually begins before children are born with free prenatal care for their mothers and continues with free examinations throughout early childhood and preschool. The system offers parents incentives to get preventive care for their children by linking examinations with admission to and continuance in child-care programs and by giving allowances to parents who take advantage of the services.
What kind of lessons can we draw from the child-care system in France? A Welcome for Every Child doesn't suggest that we adopt the French system. But it makes French child-care a mirror in which we can see our own shabby practices. We talk vaguely about being a child-centered society and come up with half-funded programs that serve a tiny fraction of our children. The French believe society is responsible for giving all children a good start - for "awakening" and "welcoming" them. And they act on that believe by spending $7.12 billion a year, or about $130 per capita, on their child-care program.
Why shouldn't we do as much? We are not a poor nation by any means; in 1985, the average income of the American citizen was nearly twice that of the average French citizen -- $16,494 compared to $9,251. In failing to care for all our children, we are cheating them and, ultimately ourselves.