$1 Billion for After-School Programs?

The U.S. Census Bureau released a study last month suggesting that, in 1995, 2.4 million children under the age of 12 were left home alone either before or after school. Of course you know what Bill Clinton’s answer is — lets spend $1 billion funding government after-school programs. Instead, how about reducing taxes so middle class families can spend more time with their kids.

And make no mistake this is definitely a middle class problem. Eleven percent of the children left home alone came from families who were at the poverty level, while 22 percent of the children came from families with incomes twice that of the poverty level. Some analysts interpreted this as meaning that cost was not an issue but missed the point.

As the data from the Census report indicate, families in poverty were less likely to leave children alone largely because one or both parents were not employed or in school and were available at home to watch children after they left school.

Cost of after school child placement is not the only factor that goes into deciding to allow children to be home alone, but it certainly is one of them. Rather than spending $1 billion dollars, why not simply lower taxes so that parents could arrange shorter or alternative work schedules that would allow them to spend more of their child’s after-school hours at home?

That wouldn’t satisfy the government’s need to insert itself in almost every aspect of life, but it might do a lot more to strengthen families than shipping kids off to government after school programs.

Source:

Millions of U.S. students home alone. CNN, October 31, 2000.

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