This Is Basic Stuff That Must Be Done

Poor Hillary, the conventional wisdom goes. At 50, the first lady’s been relegated to pink suits with matching pumps and “soft” topics like child care.

Not so fast. There may be few issues more important to American families and our collective future than the one Hillary Clinton has just tackled.

This country wraps its ragged quilt of a child care system around millions of children. It patches makeshift alternatives over holes unraveled by high staff turnover and mediocre care. While excellent day care centers do exist in this country, too many children are nestled in a system that can’t adequately nurture and protect them.

Nearly half of all infants and 60 percent of the country’s toddlers are now in day care. As welfare reform sends low-income mothers into the work force, the need will only grow.

Our economy does not allow many young parents, who are often earning starting salaries, the option of being single-earner households. For those with visions of the 1950s dancing in their heads, it’s time to come back to reality. Unemployment is less than 5 percent. Even if all American mothers suddenly made that choice, it’s clear this economy could not withstand their mass exodus.

So why can’t we create a day care system that works in this country?

We can. Both business and government have done just that in the name of national defense. During World War II, the Kaiser Shipbuilding Corp. built two high-quality child care centers at the entrances to its Portland shipyards. These centers cared for nearly 4,000 children, freeing their mothers to work almost 2 million hours between 1943 and 1945.

Today, the Department of Defense cares for 200,000 children each day, in centers that are open to military families around the clock. Fees are based on family income, averaging $65 per week per child. The government picks up the rest of the cost.

Innovative businesses around the country have started flex-time, part-time and job-sharing arrangements. They’ve opened child care centers or helped subsidize the costs of care elsewhere.

At 50, Hillary Clinton is pushing to create more collaborative approaches among government, business, communities, churches and schools. No, the answer won’t be a giant federal program. Don’t expect to see the pink-suited one promoting a Social Security-sized child care system. Instead, think about the ways we manage to send children to college in this country - with a mix of private and public funds, and with more help available for low-income kids than others.

A key to improving the quality of child care will be boosting workers’ salaries. Presently, many early childhood education graduates quickly leave the field. The average child care worker’s salary in Spokane is approximately $12,500, which is less than that of house cleaners, garbage collectors and dog trainers.

The issues are complex. But this country’s inability to provide ample quality care for its young has become apparent in our high rate of emotionally troubled children and in a growing incidence of violent crime by young teens.

We would find the resources to care for our children if our nation’s defense - the protection of our country’s future - rested upon doing so. Maybe, just maybe, it does.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jamie Tobias Neely/For the editorial board