1990-1991 Harry Singer Foundation National Essay Contest
What, If Any Should Government's Role Be Regarding Child Care In The United States?
Camden High School, Camden, Tenneseee
1st Chad Cantrell 
2nd Jill Dinwiddie 
3rd
Jacqueline Harris
We are not able to identify the excerpts below with a specific student. In the early years the Foundation made an effort to protect the privacy of particpants. Only later did we discover that students would rather be recognized for their opinions and research.
Government's Role
"The government has the power to pass laws and tax. These powers must be
used to ease the burden of this problem. The government may step in at any number of
places: paying parents directly to help with the cost of child-care; giving special tax
breaks or benefit to companies that offer day-care facilities to employees; paying for the
trainig required for good child-care workers; paying child-care workers in addition ot the
payment received from parents; passing job security laws for parents and guaranteed
parental leave; or increasing child-care standards and enforcing these standards."
unidentified student
"Government is in no way obligated b the Constitution to provide a system of
public child-care for any reason, but it is obligated to serve the needs of the citizens
of this country and its democracy. It is this system of citizen needs and the government's
abilitiy to meet these needs that creates the necessity of a government-operated
child-care system."
unidentified student
"Congress should assign states the responsibility of deciding how child-care
systems will be operated in those states, whether on a statewide program or subdivided
into counties, cities, communities or other divisions."
unidentified student
"I feel that government should not try to compel businesses to provide child-care
opportunities. Instead of 'punishing the bad,' they should 'reward the good' by giving tax
incentives to companies who have child-care programs. It seems that this method would
probably be more receptive to both small and large companies. This approach would
encourage these types of programs and be a step in the right direction."
unidentified student
"We need to remember our present educational system in public schools did not
evolve until our government intervened. Preschool education, justifiably, should be no
exception."
unidentified student
Parents
"I also feel that the responsibility does not all land in the hands of the
government. Parents need to get actively involved. I feel this is a problem in today's
society. The parents are so busy with work and other things that they do not take the time
to get involved. Most parents drop their children off, pick them up, and that is it. As a
parent, it is your job, not only the government's, to make sure the center is fit."
unidentified student
Latchkey Kids
"Mothers have helped each other out for centuries; however, as society
develops, more and more women have discovered that combining strengths and uniting forces
is their only hope of survival. In order to prevent having a 'latch-key' child, in which a
child comes home from school to an empty home, many parents allow their kids to go over to
a friend's home after school until a parent returns from work. Neighboring ffamilies
carpool, take turns babysitting and share many responsibilities, unfortunately, this is
not always possible."
unidentified student
Taxpayers
"It is a pay now or pay forever situation. The taxpayers can pay now for
child-care, or they can pay for the women and children to go on welfare."
unidentified student
Other Countries
"It is a Although the Unites States may not be a leader of the
industrialized nations in child-care, it is handling its problems of child-care much
better than any of the third world nations."
unidentified student
Solution
"An ideal situation to the entire child care controversy would be for the
mothers to stay home."
unidentified student