TV Reviews : Child Care’s Sorry State in ‘Who Cares for Children?’

If you’re a working parent, chances are you’ve experienced the Child Care Anxiety Syndrome: Where do you go? Who do you trust? How will you pay the average annual costs of $3,000 to $5,000 per child?

With more than 65% of mothers with school-age children holding a job outside the home--many of them single parents--the sorry state of child care in America has become critical. A PBS special, “Who Cares for the Children?” airing tonight at 8 (Channels 28, 15, 24, 50), takes a nitty-gritty look at the issue as part of a national media campaign called Child Care America.

Actress Rhea Perlman of “Cheers,” mother of three, hosts this hour of unsettling statistics, visits to good and bad day care facilities, interviews with parents, sociologists, psychologists and other professionals.

It’s an overall grim picture, but there are scattered exceptions. A few states have instituted serious programs and some private corporations have found cost-effective solutions. In New Jersey, the Campbell Soup Co. has an on-site day care center, enabling employees to visit their children during the day.

First Bank of Minneapolis has set up “Chicken Soup,” the first licensed day care center for mildly ill children, picking up most of the $40-a-day fee for its employees.

It is clear from the facts presented here, however, that the need has barely begun to be addressed. There are no overall standards of quality. Day care providers, who become an integral part of one of the most accelerated learning periods of a child’s life, are not required to be credentialed. They are at the bottom of the wage scale, earning less than parking lot attendants.

Without federal involvement, we’re told, any improvements are simply patchwork. In this political year, child care has become a bumper sticker issue.