Editorial: Day care needs better attention

EVEN though the first years of a child's life are considered critical in development, government frequently fails to set strong standards that professional day-care centers must meet. Too often quality day care is relegated to a footnote in public policy debates about how to best help children.

But this week the Clark County Commission took a step in the right direction when it passed a "Standards of Care" program that it hopes will aid families in making better decisions when choosing a day-care provider. The county wants to establish rating systems for commercial day-care centers and for those people who provide day care from their homes. The program also will look at ways to improve consumer awareness and get providers to improve themselves.

For working parents who must find professional day care, leaving their children in the hands of total strangers is frightening. In Nevada these fears were heightened further in 1996 when Working Mothers ranked Nevada 47th in the nation for day care.

The Sun's Art Nadler reported Wednesday that Nevada fared poorly because many directors of day-care centers had only a high school diploma and staff members had weaker credentials and made only minimum wages. In addition, while some states provide money for day-care center employees to get continuing education, Nevada has done nothing.

There aren't easy answers to improve day care. But it is time the state demands more. The Legislature should explore the merit of requiring directors of day-care centers to take some college-level courses in early childhood education.

The Legislature should mandate continuing education for day-care employees, financially supported by day-care centers and the state. The state's community colleges could be enlisted to provide this continuing education.

The suggested improvements admittedly are modest, but they are a beginning. Larger issues of adequate pay for day-care workers and day care's high costs, especially for lower-income families, also need to be addressed. But hopefully the state finally will get serious about this issue that concerns so many working families.

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