A RIGHT TO CHILD CARE: AN URGENT NEED

WHEREAS, more than two-thirds of the new workers entering the workforce in the last decade have been women, and two-thirds of these women have children. The majority of these children are under six years of age. By 1995, two-thirds of all preschool children and four out of five school-age children will have a mother in the workforce; and

WHEREAS, many union locals have sought to negotiate financial support for child care in their contracts while also seeking legislative provision for child care at work sites; and

WHEREAS, availability of adequate child care provides support for people seeking to do the best possible work in their occupations and professions; and

WHEREAS, affordable, high-quality child care facilities can be a factor both in retention of experienced employees and recruitment of new employees in schools and elsewhere; and

WHEREAS, at the same time, child care in this country is limited in supply, costly and of drastically uneven quality. Because of this desperate situation, the AFT urges that the federal government act to help provide safe, affordable, quality child care; and

WHEREAS, the AFT has long advocated uniform, high standards for child care. State child-care standards vary across the country, and often their inadequacy allows for-profit groups to get by with providing inadequate and unsafe child care. Although research indicates that a small-sized child-care group is key to learning, health and safety, 32 states do not regulate group size for preschoolers, and 26 states do not regulate size for infants. Studies show that complaints against unregistered family child-care providers were three times as likely to be severe as those against registered homes. The AFT also believes that credentialing standards for teachers and other child-care providers should be upgraded. Certification and licensing of personnel are essential, as well as retraining and inservice training of all staff; and

WHEREAS, several bills are before Congress now. The AFT has been working with other unions, religious, social welfare, civil rights and other groups for a comprehensive child-care bill, the Act for Better Child Care Services. Another bill, based on a model developed by Edward Zigler, would create a pilot program to test a new model of delivering child care through the public schools. A third bill amends the Head Start Act to move one group of low-income families toward self-sufficiency. Others are in various stages of development, including proposals that will feature the public schools as major providers of child care and early childhood education; and

WHEREAS, the enormous need for good child care warrants a significant new federal response:

RESOLVED, that the AFT urges Congress to act soon to remedy the deplorable lack of care for this nation's youngest citizens; and

RESOLVED, that AFT dedicate resources and persuasive power to aiding locals in promoting efforts to make child care a recognized benefit and right of employment in all of its affiliates and the communities where they work; and

RESOLVED, that AFT dedicate its resources and power to promoting a living wage for child care professionals so that quality child care is feasible, as well as being a recognizable benefit and a right.