CHILD CARE POLICY FOR SANTA MONICA

This research proposes a social welfare policy for consideration by the City of Santa Monica. The proposed policy addresses the unmet daycare needs of indigent children aged five through 12 years of age. This policy proposal is presented in six parts, as follows: (1) basis of social allocation; (2) nature of social provisions; (3) service delivery structure; (4) program funding; (5) organizational context; and (6) strategies for policy adoption.

Major changes have occurred in the demographics of the American work force in the past three decades. In the mid-1960s, women workers accounted for approximately one-third of all Americans active in the work force. In the 1990s, this proportion has risen to at least one-half of the American work force (Carlson, 1990, pp. 4-6). Thus, on the one hand the demand for child daycare is up significantly as a result of the increased numbers of women working who must also provide care for their children, while on the other hand the numbers of neighborhood women available to provide child daycare is down significantly because fewer women are at home during the day (Wash and Brand, 1990, pp. 17-24).

In contemporary American society, it is necessary for all adults in a majority of the country's households to work outside of the home, if an acceptable standard of living is to be maintained (Belsky, 1990, pp. 10-12). When school-age children are presen

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rough the program could be used only to pay for approved child daycare. Financial payments would not be made directly to parents. Rather, federal funds would be provided to states, which would administer the program. In high cost states, the child daycare subsidy per family would be higher than in low cost states. A third policy alternative for the problem of funding child daycare would be the enactment of a meaningful negative income tax in the United States, coupled with a requirement that any monies received under such a program which were spent on child daycare would have to be paid to providers fulfilling minimum federal standards for child daycare. Under such a policy, the elements of the tax credit policy alternative for (1) providing funds directly to families, and (2) providing a freedom of choice in how the funds would be used would be retained. By establishing the threshold level for the negative income tax high enough to cover the realistic cost of child daycare, as well as establishing standards for such care, the elements of the governmental support policy alternative for (1) adequately funding child daycare, and (2) assuring minimum care levels would be retained. Thus, the negative income tax policy alternati
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Approximate Word count = 4585
Approximate Pages = 18 (250 words per page)

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