Federal Study on Day Care

* Re “Day Care? Ask Moms and Save $45 Million,” Column Right, April 8: This liberal was in danger of entirely agreeing with Arianna Huffington. I applaud Huffington for exposing bureaucrats who wasted millions of tax dollars on a worthless child care survey.

But then, she let loose with an obtuse aside about a church in Arkansas that ended its day care service. The 27 working moms affected by the shutdown, Huffington huffed, chose to seek other day care facilities rather than quit their jobs. In a sentiment more characteristic of Pat Buchanan, she stopped narrowly short of chiding the 27 Arkansas women for displaying such temerity. A lapse in reasoning on the columnist’s part? Perhaps. I would like to think, however, that poor Huffington was distracted at her workstation by a house full of children screaming for her attention.

HAL WOLKOWITZ

Tarzana

* The answer to Huffington’s criticism of the federally funded research project on the effects of child care is to be found in her own column. As long as there are groups like the First Baptist Church in Berryville, Ark., which use (incorrect) beliefs that working mothers “neglect their children, damage their marriages and set a bad example” to justify not providing child care, then unfortunately, we need scientific research to “prove the obvious” that such beliefs are not true.

JUDITH TODD

Professor of Psychology

Cal State Dominguez Hills