A Leader in Child Care

Once again, the Irvine community is showing the way with innovative approaches to meeting its need for child care. We say community because it is truly a joint effort in Irvine, involving city and school officials and the private sector.

Ever since the City Council adopted its unprecedented policy of providing child care to everyone living or working in Irvine who needs it by 1992, it has pursued novel approaches to meet its commitment.

First, the city joined with the Irvine Unified School District to create the Irvine Child-Care Project. Then last year, in what is believed to be the first municipal action of its kind in the country, Irvine set up a $1.3-million child-care center run by a public-benefit corporation in the new Civic Center complex.

And last Tuesday, the Irvine council approved what is believed to be another first in the state: A financing program for new child-care centers at seven more school sites using a $1.75-million bond sale guaranteed by the Irvine Co.

Irvine is a center for business, industry and residential growth. It also has a high percentage of families in which both parents work. Those conditions create a constant demand for child-care facilities that Irvine is working hard to meet. Other communities have similar factors that contribute to the acute shortage of day care. It is time that they too made the commitment and followed the course that Irvine is charting so aggressively.