Based on more than 100 interviews with government officials and extensive archival research, this book looks at the politics behind child care legislation. Identifying key times at which major child care bills were introduced, Cohen examines the politics surrounding these events and subsequent political negotiations. Cohen also looks at the impact President Clinton had on child care policymaking and how child care legislation became part of other issues, including welfare reform and tax policy revisions.
Based on more than 100 interviews with government officials and extensive archival research, this book looks at the politics behind child care legislation. Identifying key times at which major child care bills were introduced, Cohen examines the politics surrounding these events and subsequent political negotiations. Cohen also looks at the impact President Clinton had on child care policymaking and how child care legislation became part of other issues, including welfare reform and tax policy revisions.
Why the United States has failed to establish a comprehensive high-quality child care program is the question at the center of this book. Edward Zigler has been intimately involved in this issue since the 1970s, and here he presents a firsthand history of the policy making and politics surrounding this important debate. Good-quality child care supports cognitive, social, and emotional development, school readiness, and academic achievement. This book examines the history of child care policy since 1969, including the inside story of America's one great attempt to create a comprehensive system of child care, its failure, and the lack of subsequent progress. Identifying specific issues that persist today, Zigler and his coauthors conclude with an agenda designed to lead us successfully toward quality care for America's children.
"Working mothers are common in the United States. In over half of all two-parent families, both parents work, and women's paychecks on average make up 35 percent of their families' incomes. Most of these families yearn for available and affordable child care--but although most developed countries offer state-funded child care, it remains scarce in the United States. And even in prosperous times, child care is rarely a priority for U.S. policy makers.In In Our Hands: The Struggle for U.S. Child Care Policy, Elizabeth Palley and Corey S. Shdaimah explore the reasons behind the relative paucity of U.S. child care and child care support. Why, they ask, are policy makers unable to convert widespread need into a feasible political agenda? They examine the history of child care advocacy and legislation in the United States, from the Child Care Development Act of the 1970s that was vetoed by Nixon through the Obama administration's Child Care Development Block Grant. The book includes data from interviews with 23 prominent child care and early education advocates and researchers who have spent their careers seeking expansion of child care policy and funding and an examination of the legislative debates around key child care bills of the last half-century. Palley and Shdaimah analyze the special interest and niche groups that have formed around existing policy, arguing that such groups limit the possibility for debate around U.S. child care policy. Ultimately, they conclude, we do not need to make minor changes to our existing policies. We need a revolution"--
Valerie Polakow spent a year traveling around the country listening to low-income women from diverse backgrounds tell their stories of struggle, resilience, distress, and occasional success as they encountered ongoing child care crises. The resulting work is both a compelling account of the lived realities of the child care crisis, and an incisive critique of public policy that points to the United States as an outlier in the international community. Drawing on historical and international perspectives, Polakow creates a groundbreaking analysis of child care as a human right, persuasively arguing for a universal child care system. “Who Cares for Our Children? is one of the most disturbing books I have read in a long time. It should have a major impact on debates over poverty and social policy.” —From the Foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed “In this beautifully written and provocative volume, Polakow deftly steps aside and lets real mothers, struggling against the odds to keep their families safe and sound, speak for themselves about what they need. This book delivers a timely message: Child care should be viewed as a human right.” —Martha F. Davis, Northeastern University School of Law “A collection of moving and often chilling personal narratives. . . . Who Cares for Our Children? is a powerful and well-documented analysis of the worlds of low-income families.” —Beth Blue Swadener, Arizona State University “Thoroughly researched and grounded in a heartfelt sympathy for the struggles of families . . . that face such painful choices and dilemmas in meeting the needs of their children.” —James Garbarino, Loyola University Chicago
From the universally admired author of the bestselling classic Your Baby and Child: “a masterful work [that could] revolutionize the way America cares for its young children and bring about a radical improvement in the lives of children and their parents” (The Boston Globe). Who is caring for today’s children? How well are they succeeding? What does care cost, and who is paying for it? Leach answers these and other urgent questions with facts and figures gathered from the most current research, brought to life by the voices of parents, including those involved in her own five-year study. She highlights the urgent need in America today for measures to raise the quality of child care and to make the best care we can provide available to all families, just as it is in most other developed nations. Setting out clearly and candidly what is known about every aspect of child care—including the often hidden feelings and fears of parents—Leach presents a critical case for change.
In Homecoming John Bradshaw one of the world's leading figures in the field of psychology and recovery, explains his revolutionary techniques to reveal the inner child.He believes that the wounds we receive during childhood and adolescence can continue to contaminate our adult lives. His methods explained clearly in this book, help people to reach back to the child inside and heal those wound.Homecoming includes unique questionnaires which allow readers to work through John Bradshaw's world-famous inner child course themselves. There are specifically designed exercises that allow you to reclaim and nurture your inner child, so that you as an adult can grow and move on. 'Three things are striking about inner child work' says John Bradshaw. 'The speed with which people change the depth of that change, and the power and creativity that can result when the wounds from the past are healed For more information on John Bradshaw please visit www.johnbradshaw.com
Numerous books have been written about Victorian child care pioneers, but few biographical studies have been published about more recent child care and welfare giants. In the revised edition of this classic book, Bob Holman, a champion for children in his own right, looks at the lives of six inspirational individuals who have made significant contributions to the well-being of disadvantaged children. Each of the six discussed - Eleanor Rathbone, Lady Marjory Allen, Clare Winnicott, John Stroud, Barbara Kahan and Peter Townsend - has been important in establishing present systems of child care and welfare, and in stimulating debate around issues which remain high on policy and practitioner agendas. Champions for children is essential reading for childhood and youth studies, sociology of the family, social work, social welfare, academics and students with an interest in child care and welfare issues.
