"Any economist will tell you that the biggest investment a person can make is in our children. A nation has a choice rather to spend money on better schools or larger jails. That money can feed babies or pay forever for the consequences of starving a child's brain while it is trying to grow. One dollar spent on prenatal care for pregnant women can save more than three dollars on medical care during the child's first year, and ten dollars down the line. A year of preschool costs an average $3,000 per child; a year in prison costs about $16,500." NE

"If parents, business, government, and the community are unwilling to invest time, energy, and resources into the children of today, the consequences of tomorrow will be disastrous." PA

"Eventually, for every dollar government spends for adequate child care, it will get seven times that amount back because the need for government welfare will be much lower." AL

"We, as Americans, need to face the fact that money will be spent either way. if aid is cut back, welfare will increase, and if aid is increased, then money will be needed to support such programs."TX

"Although a policy of providing aid to families may seem to be a very costly expenditure, when examined closely, the government may actually be saving money." PA

"They (taxpayers) will, one way or another, pay for this child. This may not be a direct payment, but tax dollars will be spent to keep this child in jail or to execute him for fatally shooting a cop in a convenience store over a loaf of bread." OK

"Economists have estimated that for every $1 spent on pre-school education saves $4.75 in later aid to children, every $1 investment in prenatal care saves $3.38 in the cost it takes to care for sick babies, and every $1 spent on childhood immunization saves $10 on later medical costs." OH

"Our children are our future and our most valuable resource. if we do not take care of them now and set a good example, we will have a bigger problem in twenty years." NY

"If we spend tax money now on child care, we will spend less in the future with welfare and other types of federal aid." AL

"If children aren't taken care of now, tomorrow's generations will pay the price."PA

"$6 could be saved for every $1 spent (on Head Start) into the program." CA

"Now if the government didn't help pay for child-care, then we would have more people that are not working because the parents would have to stay at home and be with their children. So either way the government would have a little something to pay on child care and welfare." NE

"A nation can spend money for better schools and day care centers or for bigger jails. Consider this, a year of preschool costs an average of $3,000 per child; a year in prison amounts to $16,500." WI

"If education is provided by the government to people who can't afford it, we could save money in the long run." CT

". . .evidence showed in comparing a child-care group to a group without care had 'less remedial educational needs, less dropouts and more college students.' This proves that poor children did so well that there was less need for welfare and help programs. Therefore, if more day-care facilities were provided, the government would save money." AL

"It is a pay now or pay forever situation. The taxpayers can pay now for child care, or they can pay for the women and children to go on welfare." TN

"In conclusion, Jesse Jackson tried to tie up this issue by saying, "We can either fund head start and child care and day care on the front side of life, or welfare and jail care on the back side of life." OH

"Paying for childhood programs now is much less expensive than paying for problems that develop later."OK

"If the government would simply pay child care for those who need it, they would end up saving money by reducing teen-age pregnancies, juvenile delinquency, and also have a higher rate of high school and even college graduation." NE

"Child care is a need that must be addressed. It would be a wiser and smaller investment now than the greater social services expense in the future, that is with welfare and unemployment." NJ

"It would be better to pay for child care now, instead of prisons later." AL

"A measles shot costs around eight dollars. To hospitalize that child who was not given the innoculation will cost $5,000. It takes $135 to finance a school-based sex education program, per pupil, per year. The cost of that child when she becomes pregnant will mean $50,000 of public assistance to her for the next twenty years. To provide a small child with a nutritious diet for a year, it takes $842. The special education needed because that child's brain was deprived of a good meal will mean $3,986 per year." TX

". . .it would be less expensive to pay the day care people, rather than giving the mother food stamps, free health care, and the many other things that comes with welfare." AZ

"I believe that if we start with the money in the beginning it may save us money in the end." WI

"A nation can spend money either for better schools or for larger jails. . .If children are not protected from their abusers, then the public will one day have to be protected from the children. If you walk through death row in any prison, roughly four out of five death row inmates were abused children." CA

"Statistics gathered in Florida by the Department of Education show that early interventions in the form of programs for preschoolers shows that for every dollar spent there is a seven dollar return." FL

"A government run day care center would inspire families everywhere to work, go back to school, and benefit this country greatly. Sure, the government would spend some money, but this project is nothing but beneficial. this would make our country wealthier in the long run." KS

"Because they do not have the financial capabilities to pay for their own day care, the parent would be left with no choic but to leave their children to their own resources after school. When children are left alone, they try to find friends, and often these friends are the wrong kind of friends. A great deal of these children become part of the nation's drug and crime problems. It seems that it would be much more beneficial when acting for the taxpayer to take a small amount of money now and invest it in the lives of the future rater than paying out billions of dollars to rehabilitate drug users and pushers and criminals."NM

"I believe that having government funded day care centers would be an excellent investment." NE

". . .but spending one dollar now would definitely save several dollars later on in expenses for remedial education, crime control, and welfare." TX

"Every $1 invested in early childhood development programs saves $6 in such cost later on." KY

"The price necessary to provide adequate child care seems a very large sum for the government and taxpayers to provide. Nevertheless, an even greater price to pay would be an almost certain increase in poverty and federal assistance funds to families in which parents would be unable to work because of a lack of child care services for their children." MS

"If our young children do not have quality child care programs, how will they learn the basic skills to get them started in life? I feel the cost of these actions is irrelevant. Our children need these programs, and it is only through governmental aid that they can be assisted. As Jesse Jackson once said in a speech concerning child care, "We can either fund Head Start and child care and day care on the front side of life, or welfare and jail care on the back side of life.'" NE

"The nation can spend money on either improving the schools or building larger jails." SD

"Every year increased funds are allotted to the space program and the defense program and cut from child development programs. However, if the government continues to neglect the children, there will be no one to fly the space shuttle or the F-117A Stealth Bomber." VA

"It seems clear that we need to spend more money on child care, but we need to spend it wisely. It should be spent on things that improve skills, job-training, mental health and human values." WI

"Sometimes one has to give a little to receive a lot. There is a right way and a wrong way to spend money. Spending money on poor, jobless families from the government is a waste. However, a government run day care would provide these families with much more opportunity and a real chance at life. . ." KS

"This is ludicrous; we are one of the richest countries in the world and we should be putting a lot more money into child care. I would understand if we didn't have the money to spend on child care, if we were a developing nation, but that certainly isn't the case at all. . . The President spends millions of dollars fighting the drug war in the United States. If he put more of that money into child care, the drug problem in the United States would go down considerably." CT

"If the government can afford to provide incomes for non-working families, it should provide decent and affordable child care facilities for working families. If you are wondering how the government can afford it, it can. I believe if it stops spending five hundred dollars for a hammer, or a thousand dollars for a toliet seat, the government can find ways to afford quality child care." AL

"I think the government's money, or shall I say our money, is wasted on some of the most unnecessary things. I never understood the point of the space program. Why do we have to know what's out there or if there is anything out there at all? Why not use the money for the homeless or starving? More than anything, we need to educate our children and it has to start with the involvement of the government." NY

"The Congressmen/women need to make a decision about whether it is more important for the United States to have the capability to blow up the entire world one more time or will we finally get some serious money into the education and child care of our future, the children. As the old adage goes, 'you get what you pay for.'" IL

"The government should see that the young need more child care. Why won't they understand that they are helping a cause that should be on top of any other problem." CT

". . .it should certainly be the government's responsibility to care for the nation's children. . .The amount of money that decent child care programmes would require may be quite high, but it is the government's responsiblity to pay for such things. That would likely mean an increase in taxes, however, and few Americans would be willing to accept this without a fight. Such an increase would not be truly necessary, of course; with all the money that this government supposedly has, it could easily finance a number of social services, but this would mean that it could no longer spend money on expensive military equipment and other unnecessary things." CA

But there is always difference of opinion . . .

"The favorite argument in favor of granting child-care subsidies is the concept that by not investing in child-care, we are neglecting our economic future, our children. But is this true? . . .No studies have shown, beyond a reasonable doubt, that better child-care produces better adults." MD

"Government funded child care would result in a lot of system abuse. Many parents would use the facility as free babysitters. Child care facilities are meant to be used by the working parent and not by someone who wants to go shopping or meet a friend for lunch and not have to worry about their kids. If these facilities were government funded they could not be monitored correctly and would be used wrongly by some. In certain situations the funds may not even be used for their proper and intended uses by some uncaring child care owners. These funds that are supposed to be feeding the children and keeping their environment safe and suitable would really be used for personal purposes by some people who own day care centers. The more people who abuse the system the more money government will have to spend the next year and in all the years to come. The government is too far away to make sure the system is not abused. If we do not want system abuse the government can not help in child care funding." OH

"The government complicates matters by providing places for a parent to leave his child. As far as I am concerned, government has little, if any, place in rearing a child. Taxes need to go into more needed areas, such as defense. Child care care is too expensive for government to be paying for. Parents who work should either find a reliable babysitter or take their child to work with them. the 'need' for child care should be eliminated." IN