THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 23, 1994 TAG: 9412210135
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
The absence of a strong day-care provision is a glaring weakness in Virginia's proposal to change the course of those who receive public assistance checks, a plan drawn under the supervision of Portsmouth-born Kay Coles James, secretary of Health and Human Resources.
Maybe Portsmouth should draw up an innovative answer for this gap in the plan and look for grant money from a private foundation to pay for it.
One of the main problems in our public schools is the number of children who are four or five years behind when they arrive at school. While teachers try to help the students catch up, some kids are still behind when they reach the sixth grade. Some never overcome their delayed development. They never catch up in life.
A fee-free compulsory day-care system aimed at early development of children, taking children from infancy to kindergarten, would take a great burden off the public schools. But mainly it could change completely the lives of many now destined to fail before they even get started in life.
Unemployed parents of children receiving public assistance should be required to go to the day-care centers with their children. They should be required to work at the center - cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children of those parents who are working. Their work at the center would qualify them for an assistance check.
Not only would the work requirement allow parents to be near their very young children, it also could teach young parents about nutrition and other things important to the development of smart, healthy children.
The program also could include a schooling component for parents lacking basic skills in reading and writing.
Parents, especially mothers, would be healthier for keeping busy in a constructive way, developing not only self-esteem but a background for working in the future to support themselves and their children.
Children would be developing to the point of readiness for school.
In addition, when they see mothers either working at the day-care center or going off to work elsewhere, they will grow up knowing that a check does not arrive in the mail unless you work for it.
The compulsory day care should be viewed as opportunity, not as punishment. Setting the attitude toward the program would be the major challenge for those who devised and implemented the plan.
Because of the state ultimatum coming down on those receiving welfare assistance, most parents would be well-served by a well-run program.
A day-care requirement for Portsmouth assistance recipients should kick in as soon as Social Services begins making payments if children and their parents are both going to receive maximum benefits from the program.
The program would work only if it were a requirement with no options. Either a mother works at the center or she leaves her child at the center to go to work elsewhere. The children would attend the center from infancy to school.
Portsmouth has a lot of empty buildings, including schools, so there should be no trouble finding a couple of sites for day-care centers. Many programs already exist that could fit into a larger format to offer a broad spectrum of opportunities.
The challenge of a compulsory program would come during the first couple of years, when many parents would rebel at the notion that they and their children would be required to attend the center if they expected to receive a check. Some would claim they have a right not to participate.
Once the program got under way, I believe the children and their parents would be happy about it.
The real challenge would be making the centers more interesting and more fun than staying home would be.
I bet there's some money out there to pay for an experimental program, and I bet we could get it with a well thought-out project. MEMO: Agree? Disagree? The Currents would like to hear from you. Send your
thoughts to The Currents, 307 County Street, Suite 100, Portsmouth, Va.
23704-3702, or fax us at 446-2607. by CNB