PERSPECTIVES ON ZOE BAIRD : Embrace Change: A Child-Care Law

Secretaries, teachers, clerks and saleswomen all have struggled to see their children safely and happily situated for the day before they push off to their own jobs. Single parents have felt especially burdened, knowing that they haven’t the luxury of a fallback.

On one hand, it is hard to sympathize with the travails of the wealthy and privileged; on the other, it serves to underline how neglected this area of national need is. No President has dared to touch it with the proverbial 10-footer; the business lobby is too powerful. But research has shown that when businesses establish on-site day-care centers, the cost involved is more than compensated by employee loyalty. Sick days plummet and production rises.

As the President urged, we need to embrace change. Congress should pass a comprehensive child-care bill--soon, so that rich women can openly and fairly employ their child-care workers and unrich women will have the same satisfaction of knowing their children are somewhere safe, supervised and affordable. Until that is accomplished, the President would do better to withdraw Baird’s nomination in favor of someone less encumbered by moral conundrums.