Military families confront long deployments overseas, relocation and others challenges. Amid this potential disruption their need for high quality child care is a major concern, a report says.
Military families place a higher value on early childhood care than health care, according to an analysis from the Pew Center on the States. Like many other families around the country, these parents also can struggle to access high-quality child care, the analysis found.
…Military families struggle with wait lists for higher quality programs, including those offered on base. Further, almost half of our nation’s service members are in the National Guard and Reserves, and they typically do not live on or near official installations. These families, as well as those of geographically isolated Active Duty personnel, likely have little or no access to CDCs (Child Development Centers). – “On the Home Front: Early Care and Education a Top Priority for Military Families,” 2/11. (See the report for footnotes.)
The armed services represent a large group of early learning consumers - 680,000 children age five and under live in military families - and while the Defense Department supports child care centers and other services, it’s not enough, Pew reports.
Unlike many of the stresses military families face, federal and state policy makers can take concrete and sustainable steps to ensure military families have access to the high-quality, affordable early education and care programs they need to ease the strain of daily challenges and to be successful in the vital work they do for our nation. – “On the Home Front.”
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Debt Ceiling Analysis: The debt-ceiling deal is final and its spending caps will likely lead to cuts in early education programs. A couple of efforts to analyze what these cuts could mean: