"According to Robert Woodson, president of the National Center of Neighborhood Enterprises, Washington D.C. alone has fifty-seven forms that a person must fill out in order to be considered for a license. . .the nit-picky rules are often a hindrance rather than a help. . . These laws not only make it hard to get a license, but also raise the price of operating a day-care center by requiring a house or building to meet specific standards." MI

"If the government decides to take on support of child care, it is almost unlimited to what they could regulate." NE

"Day care will never become affordable until the system is deregulated." IL

"Federal studies show that these regulations do relatively little to improve the quality of day care, while, at the same time, force an increase in day-care costs and limit the supply of day-care centers." MI

"Examples of regulation causing too many problems border on the ridiculous. For one woman, to renovate her home to local laws would have cost her about two thousand dollars. In another instance, laws stipulated that a day care center must have thirty-eight inch-wide doors. Because the doors in the proposed facility were only thirty-six inches wide, a wall had to be knocked out to accommodate the laws. Another woman discovered that if she wanted to add another child to her roster she must have separate boy's and girl's bathrooms in her home. In Winston-Salem, N.S., the local zoning board restricted a woman from taking care of fifteen children for the sole reasons that her front yards were five feet too short and her side yards were four feet too short." SD

"The inspector who examined the house would not give a license because the ceiling in one place in the basement was too low, even though the woman pointed out that she would probably be the tallest one to go in the basement. It did not matter that the children were happy, or that the parents felt secure about leaving their child there. Nor did it matter that other day cares do not always give children as much attention as these children received." MI

Many students suggested the federal government give way to state and local authorities. . .

"The only feasible solution for the child care debate is to give the responsibility to the states to care for their own inhabitant's needs." OH

"The regulation and control of child care should be left to state legislatures, where it can be more closely controlled. In the federal government, the child care debate is being exploited by both sides and no progress is being made. Existing grants to the states can be used to expand child care services if managed properly by state governments." PA

"If a national child care system was set up it would supercede the regulatory authorities of the states by requiring that minimum standards be met if any federal support is to be given to a state. The ability of a state to respond to the needs and desires of its own citizens concerning its regulation of child care will be sacrificed to an all-encompassing federal government." OR

"State and local governments should have a part in providing day care and seeing that all laws are carried out properly. I do not think that national government should have the main role in carrying out laws of child care but they should be able to oversee some aspects and areas of it." OK

"Funding for child care should be a state not national issue. Each state should set up their own system for funding. After the state passes laws and sets budgets, the major responsibility would move on to the county officials. Then it would be more of a local decision as to how things were coordinated and taken care of. If each county had a local 'watch dog' program setup the state cvould control how, why, and when the supplied funds were being used at each facility. The local 'watch dog' members would be able to visit each facility annually to decide how much money they should receive." OH

"I think the state, not the national government, should make the laws on the care of children according to the kind of area they live in. The laws should be strong enough to protect the children, but should not get in the way of parents disciplining children. The laws should be set according to the morals of the area, not according to the ideas of the whole country." NE

"The states need to follow these ( federal govt's) guidelines to keep all the states uniform, but take on the rest of the responsibility of running the center themselves. States must find it necessary to fund programs for child care without the federal government. . .Each state needs to be independent and help themselves." OH

"I believe that the individual states should handle this issue because this way the care provided would be a lot more personal." CT

"Our government needs to have state run child care centers." TX

". . .there do need to be upgrades and revisions in our present child care programs, but these are the job of the state govenments." AL

"State government, not the federal government, should be responsible for child care and aid. The federal government should merely provide resources for the states to carry out their responsibilities." OH

"If child care has to be controlled and run by the government at all it would be best to have it run by state or better yet local government. When programs are run by smaller forms of government the elected officials usually understand their constitutents better and work harder to do what they want them to do. Also if the child care is at the local level the parents have a much better chance at controlling what goes on in the child care facility so that their children are cared for properly and not abused in any way." NE

"Many states in the U.S. have non-profit organizations donating funds for child care. For example, Texas is helping Dallas reach the standards set by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. By May of 1988, $350,000 had been contributed. North Carolina's child care resources draw on a fund supported by the county of Charlotte, with matching funds from the busienss community. The money is used to pay for child care for welfare parents. Money not used is returned to the fund to keep tax expenditures low. 'For example, Florida lets employers deduct one hundred percent of the start-up costs of an on-site child-care center.'" NY

"The federal government should not create the whole system, but it should fund the state and the local authorities so that they can put the money to its best use." CT

"Providing funds for child care should primarily be the state's responsibility." OH

"The quality and regulation of child care is a state, not a federal responsibility." AL

"The federal government has a very general overview of what is happening in every state, whereas the state governments have a better grasp of what is going on in their own territory. Because of this, the state government would do a better job of distributing the money to various child care services better than the federal government." CT

"As an opinionated person I believe that the federal government is financially incapable of correctly providing sufficient child care. It is my belief that the local governments should take the responsibility. I think the government should take a long last look at the issue and lay down some ground rules, appoint persons to oversee and insure adequacy, and then place the problem into the hands of either state or even as local as county governments." MO

"Congress should assign states the responsibility of deciding how childcare systems will be operated in those states, whether on a statewide program, or subdivided into counties, cities, communities or other divisions." TN

"The state and national governments together can control or reduce the problem. If one state succeeds in child care, each state along with the national government will follow their guidelines to solve the problem. Therefore each state should try something different to see what can be done that really works." TX

"The government of the United States does not have the ability to take on the burden of child care in the American home. At 220.4 billion dollars the national deficit is monstrous. . .The states should take the burden off the federal government and set up their own programs for their own reforms. The federal government should also stay out of business affairs but encourage actions through tax breaks and grants that would help to develop solutions. Instead of making reforms and setting standards that would only make child care more expensive the government should encourage parents to stay at home and businesses to guide employees in caring for their children." OH

"San Francisco passed an ordinance that requires developers of major projects to provide space for day care centers or to contribute to existing facilities." OK

"Corporation supported child care, along with the state development of child care, should provide for most of the country's child care needs. The federal government should just provide support and funds for the states. It should not have the task of regulating child care nationwide." OH