This stigmatizes both the parents and the child. Australia, Belgium, and Italy, for example, have rejected the welfare model, which uses public funds only for the neediest children, and now provide nearly universal access to preschool opportunities. In France, preschool for children aged 3 to 6 is free to the families. Such an approach also addresses the fact that a large number of the poor are children. Census data from 1995 indicate that 11 million children under age 6 have mothers who work outside the home and thus make use of some form of child care.
Mothers working and supporting young children rely on child care.
These parents were in a program that provided child care subsidies to them for a limited time of 12 months. Employed poor White mothers with children under age 5 paid 24 percent of the family income for child care and poor African American mothers paid 17 percent, compared with 8 percent by employed nonpoor White mothers and 10 percent by nonpoor African American mothers. The second approach is the Head Start model, which focuses on children and their education and development. Quality of child care in centers is associated with diversity in backgrounds of the children and with training and salary of the staff. The likelihood of high quality in a child care program is increased by ensuring diversity in ethnic backgrounds and socioeconomic levels through the use of sliding fee scales based on family income.