That makes sense, since of the states studied, North Carolina had the least stringent child-care standards and the poorest economic climate. I don t want results like this to scare parents and make them feel that they need to pull their children out of child-care centers. There aren t a lot of alternatives, Peisner-Feinberg says. Instead, she d like the findings to spur policy makers to enact more stringent licensing regulations for day cares and allot more funds to improving care. But all of that takes money.
Parents can t bear the cost of that completely.
That figure would be much higher if workers were paid competitive wages. Making up these discrepancies will take a mix of public and private money, Peisner-Feinberg says. Bryant is leading an evaluation of Smart Start , North Carolina s effort to ensure that all children start school healthy and ready to learn. Smart Start is hard to evaluate because it s not a program you go enroll in, Bryant says. It s a collaborative process that channels money to counties to use as they see fit.