Why has child care legislation developed along its present course? How did the political players influence lawmakers? What do the politics of child care legislation over the past thirty years indicate for the future? Based on more than one hundred interviews with legislators and executive branch officials, archival research, and secondary sources, this book looks at the politics behind child care legislation, rather than analyzing child care as a work and family issue.
Identifying key junctures at which major child care bills were introduced and debated (1971, 1990, and 1996), Sally Cohen examines the politics surrounding each of these events and identifies the political structures and negotiations that evolved in the intervening years. In addition, Cohen looks at the impact the election of President Clinton has had on child care policymaking, and how child care legislation became part of other issues, including welfare reform, crime prevention, school readiness, and tax policy revisions.
- Table of Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- 1. Introduction
- Why Study Child Care Politics?
- Context of the Book
- Overview of the Book
- 2. Politics of Child Care Legislation, 1971
- Prelude to Child Care Legislation of 1971
- Child Care Lands on the Legislative Agenda
- Moving Child Care Through Congress
- Nixon and Child Care: A Battle Among the President’s Men
- 3. From Political Stalemate to Welfare Entitlement, 1972–1988
- The Demise of Child Care Legislation
- Federal Interagency Day Care Requirements
- The Early 1980s: Retrenchment and Regrouping
- Welfare Reform Features the First Federal Child Care Entitlement
- 4. Politics of Child Care Legislation, 1987–1990
- Launching a Child Care Initiative
- The Other Side of the Story: Conservatives Offer Competing Proposals
- 1989: Senate Success
- 1989: The House Imbroglio over Child Care Legislation
- 1990: The Last Chance
- 5. Regulations, Implementation, and High Expectations, 1991–1993
- Placing Child Care Regulations in Context
- CCDBG Regulations Spark Feuds over Standards and Other Concerns
- At-Risk Child Care Regulations Add More Fuel to the Fire
- Implementing the 1990 Child Care Package
- 1993: A New Political Era
- 6. Child Care and Welfare Reform, 1994–1996
- 1994: Elections Set a New Stage for Child Care
- Child Care and Welfare Reform Legislation
- The Changed Face of Political Action for Child Care and Children
- 7. High Hopes, 1997–2000
- 1997: New Opportunities for Child Care
- 1998: New Twists for Child Care Legislation
- Ushering Federal Child Care Policy into the Twenty-first Century
- 8. A View from the States, 1996–2000
- Child Care and American Federalism
- Federal Child Care Regulations Revisited
- State Child Care Policies Assume a New Look
- Impact of Welfare Reform on Child Care
- Linking Child Care with Other Early Education Initiatives
- 9. Looking Back and to the Future
- It’s Not Just Women’s Participation in the Labor Force
- What’s Institutional Structure Got to Do with It?
- The Influence of Organized Interests
- Looking Ahead
- Notes
- Index
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