TV Review : Channel 8 Documentary Describes The Growing Crisis in Child Day-Care

“No Place Like Home?” leads with the facts.

First few minutes of the half-hour show, scheduled to air tonight (Monday) at 8 p.m. on KFMB-TV (Channel 8), presents the problem clearly and simply: Nearly 60% of women in the United States with children under six work. In San Diego alone, 90,000 more places are needed in child-care centers. In the last 10 years, the program notes, federal funding for child care has been cut by 50%.

Produced by KFMB’s “Eight Cares” unit, host Connie Healy, a single parent, is shown dropping off her son at a day-care center. “I can tell firsthand” about the problems trying to find child-care facilities, Healy says. “I go through it along with thousands of you every day.”

The program labels the current child care situation a “crisis,” and, without sensationalizing the issue, makes it very clear that something has to be done. The problem, the program says, is a phenomenon of modern times. There are more single parents and more families with both parents working.

It’s a problem, the program notes, that is going to get worse unless it is addressed immediately. It is a problem with long-term ramifications for society. A view of a little boy looking out the window, waving good-bye to his mother, will be the show’s enduring image.

Little effort is made to present possible solutions, beyond showing a state program that is helping some women, and a look at companies with child care programs for employees. However, “No Place Like Home?” strongly illustrates the problem, the crisis of child care, and that appears to be its primary goal.