Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/quantity-or-quality-the-impact-of-federal-support/5012410/
Federal funding for child care services has increased dramatically in the past two decades, and is likely to rise even more sharply in the coming five years. This upsurge in federal support has enabled ever-growing numbers of American families to access early childhood services, but it can be questioned whether it is having as dramatic an impact on the quality of child care in this nation.Last year, the federal government allocated nearly $14 billion toward child care subsidies for about 14.8 million children. This total represents an increase of over 150% in the past decade.
Calculating federal child care funding is no simple matter. The GAO recently identified over 90 federal early childhood programs in 11 federal agencies. Calculating the total amount contributed by each of these programs is a major challenge since not every program breaks out child care expenditures separately, and those tallying expenditures typically make different decisions about which funds to include in their calculations.
Nonetheless, the chart on page 12 gives a general sense of trends in federal funding. As this chart reveals, the bulk of federal child care subsidies comes from four programs.
Head Start
Head Start has been providing comprehensive educational, nutritional, health, and social services to economically disadvantaged ...