The Miracle of Day Care
A look at day care in Quebec.
Starting in 1997, the Quebec Family Policy subsidized day care for 4-year-olds at government-approved centers around the province. By 2000, the program had expanded to cover any child not old enough for kindergarten, all the way down to infants. This is universal day care, an audacious idea that recognizes the revolution in women's work over the last 30 years.
Because everyone knows that giving your children to anonymous workers for 8 (or more) hours a day is a great way to make sure that they're raised with your values, attitudes, and ideas. They'll know that you love them enough to earn only the very best.
The results show that parents who leave their children in daycare, aren't doing their children any favors:
Almost a decade after the family policy started, however, there was still a big mystery about it. Nobody had done the work to find out how it had affected children. The province was spending $1.4 billion a year on a grand social experiment, yet no one had bothered to look at the results.
So three economists took up the challenge a few years ago, realizing that the program offered an excellent way to examine a much-debated topic. The three "” Michael Baker and Kevin Milligan, who are Canadian, and Jonathan Gruber, an American "” collected data, looked at various measures of well-being since the program started and compared Quebec with the rest of Canada over the same period.
When they finished last year, the answer seemed clear. "Across almost everything we looked at," said Mr. Gruber, an M.I.T., professor, "the policy led to much worse outcomes for kids."
Read the article to find out how much worse.
It's true, children require economic sacrifice. My parents experienced it. My wife's parents experienced it. I expect to experience it when I have children. But, so what? Children are worth it. Start planning your budget now. Learn to live on one income and save the second. When children come, you'll already be used to living on one income and quitting one job won't be as much of a hardship as it could be.
Your kids will thank you, one day.
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