Universal dayare
By REBECCA WALBERG
Proponents of universal day care often claim that institutional care is good for children, and meets the needs of parents. Further, they argue it makes good fiscal sense because it gets parents back in the paid workforce sooner and grows the economy.
A decade after Quebec instituted universal, heavily subsidized care, costing parents $7 a day (originally $5), a paper by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economists makes clear that none of these assertions stand up to reality.
Studies on Quebec's new child-care regime show its young children are significantly more likely, compared with kids in other provinces, to show signs of hyperactivity and anxiety, and suffer more nose and throat infections.
It isn't only the children in day care who are affected. Parenting practices are worse in families that use Quebec's day-care system. Using widely accepted measures of parent-child interactions, the MIT researchers found a decline in consistent parenting and a rise in hostility between parents and children.
Why would parents want a child-care system that increases problem behaviour in their kids and worsens their own parenting practices? Not surprisingly, most don't. When researchers ask parents how they would like their children to be cared for, institutional child care is consistently the last-choice option.
FORMAL CARE
A new British study shows that more than half of parents prefer never to use formal care for children from infancy to 14 years old. And the majority of families with a parent at home do so by choice, not because they can't find a day care spot.
The economic argument for universal daycare falls apart on examination, too. Advocates claim that parents of young children would like to rejoin the paid workforce, but can't without appropriate childcare. If the state arranged child care, they reason, more parents would return to work and boost tax revenues.
Quebec's experience disproves this theory. The number of children in formal day care increased by about a third after the policy was implemented, but the workforce participation of married mothers of young children increased by less than half that amount.
Many households used this highly discounted day care instead of their prior arrangements, meaning that the subsidy crowded out existing providers. While the labour supply did rise after the new policy took effect, this increase was smaller than expected, making universal daycare a net loss for Quebec.
Another economic distortion of Quebec's policy is the way in which it has become a subsidy for the well-off. Previously, Quebec provided a means-tested subsidy for child care to help low-income parents. This targeted benefit was replaced by the universal day-care scheme. Now, a household with a six-figure income pays as little for childcare as a family struggling to afford necessities.
There is no perfect solution to the child care needs of Canadian households.
'BEER AND POPCORN'
The Conservatives' $100 universal child care benefit, derided by a Liberal staffer as the "beer and popcorn" plan, is a good start. But there is room to do more to help young families, such as increasing tax deductions for dependent children, and allowing income splitting for tax purposes.
Quebec's universal day-care plan, which has caused child outcomes to deteriorate, increased stresses on parents and worsened the province's finances, should not be the model for other provinces, or for federal child-care policy. Children deserve better, and so do parents and taxpayers.
Proponents of universal day care often claim that institutional care is good for children, and meets the needs of parents. Further, they argue it makes good fiscal sense because it gets parents back in the paid workforce sooner and grows the economy.
A decade after Quebec instituted universal, heavily subsidized care, costing parents $7 a day (originally $5), a paper by Massachusetts Institute of Technology economists makes clear that none of these assertions stand up to reality.
Studies on Quebec's new child-care regime show its young children are significantly more likely, compared with kids in other provinces, to show signs of hyperactivity and anxiety, and suffer more nose and throat infections.
It isn't only the children in day care who are affected. Parenting practices are worse in families that use Quebec's day-care system. Using widely accepted measures of parent-child interactions, the MIT researchers found a decline in consistent parenting and a rise in hostility between parents and children.
Why would parents want a child-care system that increases problem behaviour in their kids and worsens their own parenting practices? Not surprisingly, most don't. When researchers ask parents how they would like their children to be cared for, institutional child care is consistently the last-choice option.
FORMAL CARE
A new British study shows that more than half of parents prefer never to use formal care for children from infancy to 14 years old. And the majority of families with a parent at home do so by choice, not because they can't find a day care spot.
The economic argument for universal daycare falls apart on examination, too. Advocates claim that parents of young children would like to rejoin the paid workforce, but can't without appropriate childcare. If the state arranged child care, they reason, more parents would return to work and boost tax revenues.
Quebec's experience disproves this theory. The number of children in formal day care increased by about a third after the policy was implemented, but the workforce participation of married mothers of young children increased by less than half that amount.
Many households used this highly discounted day care instead of their prior arrangements, meaning that the subsidy crowded out existing providers. While the labour supply did rise after the new policy took effect, this increase was smaller than expected, making universal daycare a net loss for Quebec.
Another economic distortion of Quebec's policy is the way in which it has become a subsidy for the well-off. Previously, Quebec provided a means-tested subsidy for child care to help low-income parents. This targeted benefit was replaced by the universal day-care scheme. Now, a household with a six-figure income pays as little for childcare as a family struggling to afford necessities.
There is no perfect solution to the child care needs of Canadian households.
'BEER AND POPCORN'
The Conservatives' $100 universal child care benefit, derided by a Liberal staffer as the "beer and popcorn" plan, is a good start. But there is room to do more to help young families, such as increasing tax deductions for dependent children, and allowing income splitting for tax purposes.
Quebec's universal day-care plan, which has caused child outcomes to deteriorate, increased stresses on parents and worsened the province's finances, should not be the model for other provinces, or for federal child-care policy. Children deserve better, and so do parents and taxpayers.
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