Although these concerns are usually considered a private headache, William Gormley argues that child care is a social problem of critical importance, aggravated by weak institutional supports, and that there are compelling reasons for government intervention. In this important new book, Gormley offers a balanced and comprehensive analysis of the market, government, and societal failures to ensure available, affordable, high-quality child care in the United States. Unreliable child care, he says, contributes to family stress and undermines efforts to achieve educational readiness, welfare reform, and gender equity. Neither regulators nor family support agencies distinguish sharply enough between good and bad child care facilities. Meanwhile, government and businesses provide inadequate financial and logistical support.
Children suffer as a result, as does society as a whole.
Gormley recommends a number of reforms, including information sharing, flexible enforcement, targeted subsidies, and family-friendly workplaces. He contends that different levels of government and societal institutions must work together to achieve the goals of efficiency, justice, choice, discretion, coordination, and responsiveness. William T. Gormley, Jr. is professor of government and public policy at Georgetown University. The result is a volume that is likely to be the definitive work of child care policy analysis for some time to come.