ABSTRACT
Maynard and McGinnis have presented a comprehensive look at the current and predictable policies that, at federal and state levels, will affect working families and their children. It is appalling to see how inadequate our support for families and their children is. These authors review family support policies and child-care policies that affect both consumers and providers. Parents' ability to choose and pay for their children's care and caregivers' incentives to enter the child-care profession and to improve the quality of their service are both addressed. They note the many problems in our “patchwork” system: problems of insufficient attention to quality and insufficient supply for low-income families. Recent legislation has made a step toward improving the ability of low-income families to pay for child care (using 15% rather than 20% of the family income) and some steps toward training caregivers and improving regulations. They note the seeming political impasse over parental leaves, even unpaid leaves, and the impact of this lack of policy on the unmet need for early infant care.
