Behind a Child-Care Credit Are Options for the Parents

If there has been one constant in American life in this second half of the 20th Century, it is change. This is nowhere more evident than in the makeup of the American work force, which is undergoing its greatest transformation since the Industrial Revolution.

The most dramatic aspect of that transformation has been the entry of women into the work force, particularly women with young children. As recently as 1960, only 19% of women with children under 6 years of age were working. By 1985, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, that number had reached 54%. The working woman is now the norm in America.

That new reality has brought with it a new set of challenges. Millions of American parents--men and women--now must juggle the responsibilities of work, family and community. It’s not always easy.

I’ve visited with families in every corner of America this year--farmers in Illinois, small businessmen and women in New Hampshire, teachers in Los Angeles. My conversations with these families have convinced me that the single most important issue arising from the changes in our work force is the affordability and availability of child care.

That’s why I have proposed a four-point plan to help Americans give the children the care they deserve.

After all, it is better to build children than to repair adults.

My child-care plan is built around a simple notion: that we should help families without trying to run their lives. We should increase the options available for parents with children, but still let them choose how to care for their own children. This means making child care more affordable, and more available. And it means making our support flexible enough to allow for the many different kinds of care that parents now choose--or may choose in the future.

The first part of my plan, then, is the creation of a “children’s tax credit”--a credit of up to $1,000 a child for each child under 4 years old. The credit would be targeted at those families for whom the challenge of meeting the demands of work and family are greatest--low-income families--and it would be “refundable,” meaning that even families who are so poor that they don’t pay taxes would receive the benefit.

Most importantly, the tax credit approach allows parents to decide for themselves what kind of care is best for their children, whether it be provided by a center, a relative, a neighbor, a church or a synagogue. Some have proposed to spend money building state-run facilities and the accompanying bureaucracy, but I don’t think parents should have to choose between state day care and no child care. And I don’t think the country wants to pay for what New York magazine has called a “classic bureaucratic extravaganza.”

A second part is to maintain the existing tax credit given for dependent care, but take it a step further. Right now, too many low-income families go without the assistance we have made available to upper-income families because they do not earn enough to pay taxes. Therefore, I propose to make the dependent-care credit refundable, too. A family could choose to take the greater credit--the children’s tax credit or the refundable dependent-care credit.

Any successful approach to child care must encourage employers to recognize their own best interests and provide care for the children of their employees. The third part of my plan is designed to encourage business to do this by removing the biggest current obstacle--the lack of liability insurance coverage. My plan would set up a federal reinsurance pool to help companies get insurance coverage for the care that they provide.

In addition, my plan would encourage the development of greater choices for parents whose children have special needs and better information for parents who are now having trouble simply finding good care. It would provide seed money for sick-child care and before- and after-school care programs. And it would provide more consumer education and upgrade information and referral services.

Lastly, I believe that the federal government should be a model for private employers and not an excuse to which they can point. The fourth point in my proposal would require each federal agency to see to it that its employees have access to child care.

When we combine these four proposals with a greater investment in successful early childhood education programs like Head Start, and with a return of standards, discipline and excellence to our schools, we will be making an appropriate investment in our nation’s most important resource--our children.

It’s been said that we can leave only two important bequests to our children. One is roots; the other wings. A children’s tax credit and a comprehensive child-care plan would help families make sure that they have both.