Improving Child Care Quality: A Comparison of Military and Civilian Approaches

Posted on September 4, 2003

For many working parents, high-quality child care can be unaffordable and hard to find -- but not for parents in the military, which many agree has designed and implemented a model child care system. This Urban Institute overview notes four principles that guided the military to success: viewing child care as a fundamental workforce issue, establishing and enforcing quality standards, training the childcare workforce as professionals, and providing for shared costs between parents and employers.