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Cash could be better spent outside daycare

By Jennifer Buckingham - posted Friday, 26 October 2007


Arguments for the public funding of child care rest on the claim that it is a public good: that it provides benefits for the individual and for society, and that investment' in child care will reap social and economic pay-offs. Perhaps the most abiding and persuasive claim is that good child care is beneficial to all children.

However, a more careful reading of the research reveals that the evidence base of many claims about child care does not support their weight.

There is a loud chorus of advocates calling for increased public funding so that all children can attend "high-quality" child care.

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The main parties have largely acquiesced, with massive government spending leading to the point that it is estimated that the federal Government now provides more than half of the cost of child care for most families.

This would increase further under a Labor government, according to an announcement by Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd last weekend.

Numerous reports on child care have been produced in Australia during the past decade by almost every government-funded agency undertaking social or applied economic research. They overwhelmingly make strong claims about immediate and ongoing positive effects of formal child care for all children, most often citing the results of American studies such as the High Scope Perry Preschool Project, a longitudinal study that has followed its subjects from early childhood into their 40s.

The Perry Preschool Project is responsible for the oft-repeated claim of a seven-fold return on investment in early childhood care programs (that is, centre-based child care with highly trained staff), and dramatically reduced risk of unemployment, criminality and teenage pregnancy. The problem is that the project was a targeted program designed for children aged three and four from severely disadvantaged families, who had been identified as being at risk of developmental delays. The project involved part-day preschool attendance and home visits by childcare professionals. This means that although the results are striking and significant, they do not necessarily apply to younger children and babies, or to children with a wider range of backgrounds and abilities. They also do not apply to long day care.

Other American studies regularly cited to support the argument that child care is widely beneficial include the Abecedarian Project, Project CARE, Head Start and Early Head Start. Each of these studies involved children from low income or disadvantaged families. Each of these studies involved a combination of centre-based child care and home visits and, in some cases, health and parenting services.

Again, the results achieved cannot be expected to be replicated with the general population.

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There are only a few studies offering comparative evidence on infants in child care and infants in parental care, and they offer mixed results. Swedish research has found some cognitive benefits of child care, but the effect dissipated over time. Another large US study, conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, found that child care in infancy was associated with later behavioural problems, and the relationship became stronger over time.

These conflicting results characterise international and Australian research and make drawing conclusions difficult, if not dangerous.

Despite this, many Australian experts on child care seem to have no hesitation endorsing child care for all children.

For example, Australian Institute of Family Studies director Alan Hayes told the commonwealth parliamentary inquiry into Balancing Work and Family in 2005: "Child care is no longer, and has not been for a decade at least, seen as a labour force participation issue alone. Child care is a key contributor to the development, health and wellbeing of children, and this perspective is increasingly acknowledged."

Confounding preschool programs for disadvantaged three and four-year-olds with child care for all infants is a disturbingly common mistake. Nobel prize-winning economist James Heckman has expressed concern that his highly influential findings on the economic benefits of early intervention for disadvantaged children have been misinterpreted. In an article on The Wall Street Journal website, Heckman says: "Science doesn't support universality ... We have to promote (early childhood programs) more cautiously."

The most that can be said with any certainty, based on the evidence, is that older children from socially and economically disadvantaged families can benefit from high-quality child care, probably best delivered on a part-time basis. It is by no means clear that such advantages extend to the broader range of children, nor to full-time formal child care for infants.

The decision to use child care is a personal one, based on each family's individual circumstances. In terms of policy, however, a judgment must be made about the use of public funds.

The evidence suggests that well-designed, tightly targeted programs can be effective for children from socio-economically disadvantaged families, but it does not justify public funding for the expansion of universal child care.

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First published in The Australian on 23 October, 2007



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About the Author

Jennifer Buckingham is a research fellow with The Centre for Independent Studies.

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