We’re all in this together
The article about the new early childhood center Playing Field was very good but it implied a perception that economic segregation is normal in the field (“Fair Play,” 9/15/2016).
Looking at the most recent data from Wisconsin Shares, the state’s child care subsidy program for low-income children, 75 percent of the full-day group centers in Dane County are serving children on the low-income subsidy program. What is even more interesting is that percentage is the same for programs inside and outside the city of Madison in Dane County. Adjoining counties are in most cases closer to 100 percent. In Dane County 36 percent of the low-income children on Shares are in five-star programs, the highest-quality centers, as opposed to 42 percent of the overall population in care. And these percentages are probably an undercount, since the Wisconsin Shares system is just one of several ways low-income families access regulated early childhood education programs.
I write this for two reasons. First, I have seen parents who balk at putting their child in a center like Playing Fields (and there are a number in Dane County in addition to Playing Field, using various approaches) that are consciously integrating children from different economic backgrounds. The reality is that the center they ultimately choose will probably also have low-income children in it. The programs that are consciously approaching economic integration, however, will often do a better job at it for not just the low-income children but all the children in the program.
Second, middle-class parents need to realize that when it comes to early childhood education, the services their children receive are closely linked to how much the state or community values low-income children. The level of regulation, the availability and the quality of programs are all affected and largely driven by how much the government values the children who are low income. When the child care budget was cut several years ago (coincidentally the year the disastrous WEDC grants were created for about the same amount), middle-class as well as low-income parents paid for it.
So rather than worrying about your children learning next to children from low-income families, middle-class parents need to realize we are all in this together and pay serious attention to the public policies driving the system. That is the first step in creating a system that provides true quality for all children.
George Hagenauer, Data and public policy manager, Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C)
Correction
In the Sept. 8 issue, the article “Campus of the Future” gave an incorrect completion date for renovations at UW-Madison’s Memorial Union. Construction is expected to be completed in the fall of 2017.
