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HGSE professor Kathleen McCartney conducts research on issues including child care, poverty, parenting, and social policy. For the past 13 years, she has served as a principal investigator of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Child Care and Youth Development. McCartney's work informs theoretical questions related to early experience and development as well as social policy questions concerning regulable aspects of child care. Q: Are there existing programs or organizations to which low-income families can turn when seeking high-quality, affordable child care? A: There are a number of places that families with fewer economic resources can go as they search for high-quality, affordable child care. Head Start programs, for example, function as part-time child care for many families. In addition, families receiving supports via the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (or welfare reform) often qualify for childcare subsidies that can be used to purchase licensed child care. Finally, some programs offer care on a sliding fee basis; in fact, several of the Harvard University affiliated centers offer sliding fees. Unfortunately, even with these aids, most low-income families still cannot afford high-quality child care. For the most part, subsides are either temporary or insufficient. Consider that center-based infant care in Cambridge costs $1,600 or more per month. Even middle-class families struggle with those kinds of fees. And yet, this is what quality care costs. As it is, it's a fair statement that childcare costs are subsidized by early childhood teachers, who are grossly underpaid. The average childcare worker makes $7.80—below a living wage. The U.S. childcare market is essentially broken—parents cannot afford to pay more, and teachers cannot afford to make less. Q: Can childcare programs be evaluated for their capacity to increase a young child's preparedness for preschool and kindergarten entry? What are some of the important criteria for doing so? A: The distinction between childcare and nursery school is blurring. Quality childcare programs offer a curriculum that is identical to early childhood education programs. Specifically, curricula should cultivate school-related skills and knowledge, especially emergent literacy skills. In addition, quality programs should have lower child-staff ratios, qualified teaching staffs, and collaborative relationships between teachers and children. Children attending quality programs should work on projects with peers, explore topics that interest them, and experience learning as play. In addition, children attending quality programs should have teachers who respond to them sensitively and responsively. There is ample evidence these kinds of quality programs prepare children for school, both cognitively and socially. Children from at-risk families in particular seem to profit from early care and education. Q: Apart from a universal childcare policy, how might the national and state governments contribute effectively to efforts to expand childcare and childcare options? A: There are a number of strategies national and state governments can use to improve childcare quality. Stricter licensing requirements are needed in many states with respect to indicators of care that can be regulated, like teacher qualifications, group sizes, and child/staff ratios. In many states, the standards are insufficient to guarantee safe environments for children. States can also use Child Development and Block Grant monies to fund professional development for childcare staffs. Many states already do this, but because turnover rates for childcare teachers approach 40%, training is not enough. We have to find ways to improved teacher compensation. From my own work as well as the work of others, it is clear that teacher compensation is one of the best predictors of quality. But efforts to increase quality are sure to backfire without additional government supports, because they will inevitably result in increased costs that will surely drive many families to use unregulated, lower quality care. Although government subsides account for 73% of the costs of higher education, they account for only 39% of childcare costs. We need to find ways to increase government support of child care. For More Information
HGSE News, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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Kathleen McCartney on the costs of child care, and why we should care about those costs (2 minutes) 
