Rethinking the Welfare State: The prospects for ... - e-Library

Early childhood education 135
opted in ensuring that the value of vouchers exercisable at accredited child care facilities
would be maintained at satisfactory levels for all recipients. Moreover, the typically high
ratio of non-profit providers in the child care market 95 should also limit chiseling
concerns—alternatively, a strong system for monitoring schools and disseminating results
(see discussion of qualified suppliers above and government post-design role below)
would discourage for-profit institutions from risking long-term profitability in favour of
short-term gains. 96
On balance, we would also argue against mandatory pooling in the context of child
care. Children’s needs can be diverse, and specialized services may be necessary in some
areas, especially disability services. Mandatory pooling would reduce many of the gains
to be made from specialization as well as prove potentially unrealistic as a matter of
staffing and training. Instead, calibrated vouchers scaled to both income and other special
needs are probably the best way to limit cream-skimming, ensure equity and still allow
necessary specialization of services. We would set the value of the child care voucher at
the cost of providing a developmental program of child care to an average child, while
allowing fluctuations in value by income and needs. Income differentials, for example,
could be handled as per Bergmann’s proposal. She suggests that above an income cut-off
point families would be required to make co-payments representing no more than 30
percent of income earned over the cut-off. The amount of the co-payment would be
determined on a sliding scale, thereby increasing the payment as income rises. 97 She
stresses that this would help to mitigate the problem of affordability of quality care for
middle-income families.
Government’s post-design role
The introduction of a child care voucher scheme would almost certainly increase the role
of the government in North America, given that in many developed countries
governments are not extensively involved in the current provision of child care. Although
the government would cease to be a direct provider of child care services (as it is to a
limited extent in some North American jurisdictions today), there would be a very large
residual role for government to play in the accreditation, regulation, monitoring and
funding of child care providers. Governments would also have to be the distributor and
financier of the voucher instruments, in addition to being responsible for ensuring that
vouchers carry sufficient values to meet minimum access and equity concerns.
Political economy
There is a large and growing demand for affordable, high-quality child care in both
Canada and the US. Important participants in debates over child care reform are women’s
groups that point out the close connection between the ability of women to take an active
role in the work force and the availability of affordable, high-quality child care. In
addition, many poverty advocates argue that the root of the welfare cycle for many poor
families—particularly those headed by single women—is the inability of mothers to work
because they cannot afford to pay for adequate child care for their children. In addition,
qualified child care providers or prospective providers stand to benefit substantially from
any increase in the demand for child care services induced by a voucher system.