Finding high-quality, affordable child care is of paramount concern for millions of American families. Child-care providers, concerned about the high costs associated with providing a quality service, are unable to access, through the traditional market mechanisms, the funding they need to support their start-up and operating costs. For providers to offer a high quality service—to hire trained professional staff, maintain group sizes and staff-to-child ratios at NAEYC-recommended standards, provide a curriculum that early childhood professionals view as developmentally appropriate, and provide a healthy and safe environment for children—additional resources are needed.By properly targeting their resources, states can be an important catalyst for private sector initiatives. By designing programs that leverage taxpayer dollars with private investment, states can create new cost-effective approaches. Groups within the private sector such as employers, real-estate developers, lending institutions, and community development corporations are finding that investing in child care can be a good business decision.
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