Elliot’s Provocations

While the U.S. is busy debating whether or not to finally invest in our failing child care system, Canada is busy doing it.

If you’ve been following my work at all, you know I bristle at many “incremental” solutions to child care challenges.

As I travel internationally, I have been thinking a lot about how we position child care in the United States. I am increasingly concerned by an ascendant school of thought that emphasizes a role for employer-sponsored child care benefits.

Last fall, I received an email from a distraught mother.

What, in the end, do we want young children (and young parents) to be ready for? For a nation that forces you to run a race before your legs can even hold your own weight, or a nation that says ‘we’ve got you, take your time’?

I dislike the economic case for child care. I’m not talking about my take on the role of employers, but the near-constant way lawmakers and advocates of both parties rest their case for supporting child care on its function as an economic driver.

I wrote last year about the strange schism between early child care and school-aged child care, and I don’t want to belabor the point other than to say parents of school-aged children represent a shockingly untapped care constituency. Instead, I want to talk about summer care, and summer camp specifically.

Elliot’s Provocations unpacks current events in the early learning world and explores how we can chart a path to a...

Amid major union actions in the auto and entertainment industries and a historic looming strike by health care workers, I want to talk about the role of unions in child care.