• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Rating system could improve child care in state

More states are implementing Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) for child care and early education. Wisconsin should join them.

Wisconsin allocates $375 million a year for the Wisconsin Shares program to provide low-income working families with affordable access to child care. The program is a key component of the state’s strong system of supports that helps low-income parents succeed in the workforce.

But access to child care isn’t enough. We should make sure that the care and education we are investing our public dollars in is of high quality. Every dollar we invest in high-quality early childhood programs for low-income children yields big returns. Kids in high-quality programs do better, dramatically reducing the need for investment in remedial services later on.

All parents want to know their children are in safe, nurturing environments that help set the stage for success in school. We know from extensive research that the early years are critical for later success in school, especially for children from low-income families. Research also tells us what the components of high-quality early learning and care programs are. Now more than ever, this is the time to move beyond issues of access and focus on quality and accountability for programs serving our children.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia operate statewide quality rating and improvement systems, and 28 other states are exploring or preparing to launch them. They’re designed to make child-care quality transparent and easily understood through a simple rating system. Studies of efforts in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and North Carolina all demonstrate that a good quality-rating and improvement system is effective in raising the quality of child-care programs, especially those serving low-income children.

QRISs are gaining momentum nationwide because they offer a systematic way to improve early learning in a wide-ranging private market. We believe that implementing such a system in Wisconsin will increase the value of the public and private investments we make in early care and education programs. A well-designed QRIS will help parents make better choices about how to invest their own dollars, improve accountability for public investments (such as Wisconsin Shares), and establish quality standards that communities can support.

Wisconsin has been a national leader in early care and education. But we’ve fallen behind in efforts to ensure that all kids in child care have great starts in life. Wisconsin should commit to transforming our current patchwork of child-care settings into a high-quality system with well-educated staff and effective programming. High-quality early childhood programs are remarkably effective in increasing children’s ability to complete high school and post-secondary school, retain employment, avoid the criminal justice system and live lives of greater economic independence.

Early learning matters. Gov. Jim Doyle has advanced a basic, pragmatic proposal in his biennial budget to use federal dollars to assess the quality of licensed early care providers through a QRIS. That makes sense. The Legislature should join him in taking this important first step toward a child-care system that provides the kind of early experiences that make differences.

Charity Eleson is executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, a statewide, nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group. Phone (608) 284-0580.