Blog | An Alternate Universe

My two children go to a safe, clean day school that is somehow still affordable (as long as I don't have any more kids). When we leave them in the morning the only worry is if the toddler has enough diapers to make it through the week. For most of the day the two of them are residents of an alternate universe in which three-year olds say "yes sir" to each other, share toys, and sit still at tables while eating. I can't speak for the other parents, but in many ways the women (mostly) that make the day school feel as if it was commandeered by care-bears are better at raising my kids than I am. In the New Republic, Jonathan Cohn tells a different story.

On other occasions, the process of closing a day care can be torturous. Lahmeyer recalled one place that racked up repeated violations over two years before a judge would shut it down. “I can tell you there’s a fair number [of cases] that we lost because the judge decided, No child’s died yet, so they stay open,” Lahmeyer says.

His investigative piece depicts a parallel day care system for the nations working poor that is under-regulated and indefensible. While many lament the tragic consequences resulting from the widening gap between the rich and everyone else, the effect on children, which won't be realized for many years, is just as catastrophic.

Read the report and let me know if I'm overreacting.