Free Republic

China is one of the world's most expensive places to raise a child, relative to its GDP per capita, a prominent Chinese think tank said on Wednesday (Feb 21) as it detailed the time and opportunity costs for women who opt to have children in the country. The cost of raising a child until they are 18 relative to per capita GDP is around 6.3 times in China versus 2.08 times in Australia, 2.24 times in France, 4.11 times in the US and 4.26 times in Japan, said a report by the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute. Raising children also...

A new study found child care centers are an unlikely source for spreading COVID-19, leading researchers to suggest the current testing and isolation recommendations can be revised to align with those for other serious respiratory viruses. Research led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh found kids in child care centers play a “small role” in spreading COVID-19 to their households.

Research shows that quality early childcare offers a wide range of important benefits. A relationship with a “consistent, caring adult” promotes “better academic grades, healthier behaviors, more positive peer interactions and an increased ability to cope with stress,” according to Prevent Child Abuse America. But childcare costs are soaring.This presents a problem for parents, and it’s one that rivals another big cost at the other end of a child’s educational years: college. In fact, according to NetCredit’s research, childcare actually costs more than college in 28 out of 50 states.To determine this, we analyzed the cost of childcare compared to...

A federal effort to throw about $40 billion in taxpayer cash at semiconductor manufacturers is now going to double as a backdoor effort at expanding federal subsidies for child care. According to The New York Times, the Commerce Department is set to unveil new rules on Tuesday that will effectively force recipients of the new federal semiconductor subsidies to "guarantee affordable, high-quality child care for workers who build or operate a plant." The Times reports that the new rules will not specify how recipients use the funding, though it could include everything from "building company child-care centers near construction sites...

The D.C. Court of Appeals just upheld a Washington D.C. law that will require that workers providing pre-K child care have at least an Associate’s Degree to provide child care in the city.The decision comes after a long-running court battle between childcare workers and the city. The requirements were adopted in 2016 and are just now being implemented.A four-year legal battle over D.C.’s new requirements that many child care workers get a college degree has seemingly come to an end.Last week the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for D.C. dismissed a long-running lawsuit challenging the education requirements,...

"The Kid" was released 102 years ago on January 21. It is the story of an economically marginalised man who raises and loves an abandoned baby boy through his earliest years. Modern feminism demonises the caring nature of most men and marginalises mums. The Trump family doesn't do that. As Melania has said, "We must find better ways to honor and support the basic goodness of our children ....." God Bless Her And Her Family

MINNEAPOLIS — Last year, with the federal government making available huge new sums of money for programs to feed needy children during the pandemic, a nonprofit organization called Advance Youth Athletic Development set up what it described as an enormous child care operation in northeast Minneapolis that could prepare 5,000 dinners each weeknight. Based on the group’s claims, the State of Minnesota channeled $3.2 million of the federal food aid to the program. But on a subzero morning in January, the F.B.I. carried out a series of predawn raids around the region. It revealed a sprawling investigation into Advance Youth...

Build Back Better is the next step in the increasing institutionalization of small children.The massive and historic entitlement-and-spending bill, Build Back Better (H.R. 5376), includes the “largest expansion” of government education since public high schools were established by the states more than “100 years ago,” according to President Biden. The bill was passed by the House at the end of November and is now the intense focus of the Democrat Senate and the Biden administration for passage before Christmas. Under the proposed legislation, the federal government would expand and then regulate not just public education but a good portion of...

The executive editor of The Federalist has issued a warning that Joe Biden's proposed $3.5 trillion welfare expansion would set up a deliberate discrimination against Christians across America. Specifically, the "Build Back Better" entitlement bill "would require religious child-care providers to disavow longstanding theology about sex in order to receive federal child-care funds."

As Republicans have rushed to rally around “affordable, accessible daycare,” I have asked a lot of those Republicans the same question. What do Republicans believe to be the best — BEST — environment for a child to be raised? Or at a daycare, or at home by their mom or their dad or aunt or grandma, etc? Republicans, I thought, were always supportive of stay-at-home parents because it is most beneficial for a child. Yet here we are, doing what we can and incentivizing moms and dads to spend less time raising their kids. But here we have a President...

To hear the Biden administration talk about it, there’s something for literally everybody in the 2,000-plus pages of the $1.8 trillion Build Back Better spending packages. After all, you’ll get tax breaks if you want to buy an electric bike, and there will be federal money available to you if you work as a doula, as my PJ Media colleague Rick Moran pointed out recently. But there’s one group that won’t benefit from the largesse that Build Back Better offers if the bill passes as-is: child care facilities affiliated with religious institutions. The New York Times is reporting that lobbyists...

Is it any wonder school officials view themselves as the leading authorities on children?Glenn Youngkin’s gubernatorial win in Virginia sent a clear message to government bureaucrats: treat parents with more respect. Parents are paramount to their kids’ welfare and education, and they have a right to be angry when treated otherwise. Yet parents should also reflect on how we got here and consider how they share at least some of the blame. For decades, public schools have encroached on some basic parental responsibilities — from feeding kids to health care to helping with homework. Is it any wonder school officials...

On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Velshi,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) said she agrees with the notion that people don’t care about gas prices if they can’t afford child care so they can work. Guest host Maria Teresa Kumar said, “One of the things that we saw was a historic infrastructure bill that passed that’s going to alleviate, not just our roads and clean water, but has implications for a brighter future when it comes to climate energy and so on and so forth. However, now, the second part of this plan, the human infrastructure, the one that will build back...

The relentless pursuit of the American Left to occupy more and more territory in American culture continues. Tucked away in the Democrat’s massive $3.5 trillion spending nightmare is a $450 billion provision to subsidize child care while also providing free pre-K for every American family. This measure may seem politically popular on its face. But it reveals a bias that, if enacted, will further marginalize families that opt to keep a parent at home rather than enroll in daycare. To get to the root of it, hear this statement Democrat Representative Bobby Scott (D-VA) made in defense of his party’s...

As the feds struggle to shelter an influx of unaccompanied migrant kids, Texas threatens to shut down facilities that provide them care... In a Tuesday announcement, Abbott said that he would revoke the licenses of Texas businesses housing or placing undocumented minors as part of contracts with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). "The Governor directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to take all necessary steps to discontinue state licensure of any child care facility under a contract with the federal government that shelters or detains unlawful immigrants," says the June 1 press release. Abbott's order also...

Kids over the age of 2 will now be required to wear face masks while at day care and day camps, according to new guidance put out by New York state. This announcement came the same day that fully vaccinated New Yorkers were allowed to ditch their masks while indoors, causing confusion across the board. Throughout the entire pandemic, toddlers have not been required to wear a mask, but the state said it is now following federal guidance put out earlier this month. “We tend to follow the federal guidelines,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference on Thursday....

Access to quality, affordable child care is hard to come by—particularly in Iowa’s rural areas—and our kiddos and working parents are paying the price. As a mom who has been in those situations, I’m going to keep pushing at the federal level to help tackle this crisis. While I was out on my 99 County Tour, I visited Inman Primary School, a new daycare in my hometown of Red Oak. It’s a beautiful facility, and during my tour and discussion with the folks there, it was clear how important it is to our working families in the area. In addition...

The government of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was set to collectively resign on Friday over years of mismanagement of childcare subsidies, lawmakers said. Rutte was to inform King Willem-Alexander of the decision and hold a press conference during which he was expected to outline how the government will manage the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic while in caretaker status. A new cabinet will be formed after parliamentary elections that had already been set for March 17. The decision follows a parliamentary inquiry last month that found bureaucrats at the tax service, with government oversight, had driven thousands of...

The Department of Human Services (DHS) announced policy changes surrounding child care to better accommodate working families, including relaxed guidance for non-licensed child care services. These changes come as schools across the state are reopening in person or virtually — after many parents spent the summer “scrambling” to establish childcare options for their families. One of these changes creates criteria for “learning pods” and other makeshift child care options to ensure they are safe for families. Although these groups are organized independently between same-age school children and their families, they have to register with the Department of Health and Safety...

The coronavirus pandemic has drawn attention to the struggle American parents face accessing high-quality and affordable child care for children under 5. Under stay-at-home orders, the majority of child-care facilities have closed their doors — some perhaps permanently — and many centers permitted to reopen are ill-equipped to bear the additional costs of adhering to local and state guidelines. Many working parents, particularly mothers, have been forced out of work to provide care for their children in this absence. The child-care industry is not only essential to providers’ and parents’ livelihoods, but to the economy as a whole. At the...