Increasingly in today’s society, households need the income from two parents to support a family. This often means relying on child care centers or providers to both look after and educate children while mom and dad are working. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if all providers were equal in quality.

The poor quality of child care providers is evidenced by the numerous cases of fraud and scamming in the past year. Recently, the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families cut payments to over 100 child care providers across the state because of suspicious activity.

As a result, the state is left with a little extra cash.

With that money, Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed a plan to start rating child care providers throughout the state. This system, called YoungStar, would be a reliable way to control quality of care.

The idea behind the system is every child care center or provider would be rated on a scale from one to five. The lower the rating, the less cash the program would receive. There is $400 million up for grabs from the child care subsidy program called Wisconsin Shares. A rating of one would deem the provider ineligible for Wisconsin Shares money, but a rating of five would mean the provider meets maximum licensing requirements and it would receive the most money from the state.

Several factors would go into the rating, including education, the quality of the learning environment, legitimacy of business practices and the general health of the children being provided for.

If the plan is approved by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance, the ratings of child care providers would be available on the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families website.

Because the criteria are extremely exclusive, the system is almost guaranteed to succeed in putting money where it matters and avoid putting money in the hands of fraud.

The problem with the criteria, though, is that all child care providers could scrutinized too rigidly. While the measures for judgments are legitimate, they may not be fair based on differences in child care providers.

Many committee members are already excited about the system’s ability to improve education for young children: “All of the research shows that the best way to close the achievement gap is by investing in early childhood education,” said state Rep. Cory Mason (D-Racine) to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The enthusiasm is nice, but this attitude also shows the rating system may have a negative impact on child care providers who are not solely focused on the pre-kindergarten agenda. Many child care providers and preschools are focused on a method similar to Montessori schools, and others are committed to creative learning.

These alternative methods focus on learning through all five senses and on child-led learning. These methods, while very different from typical child care and preschool, have been proven to prepare children well for both school and life. Not only do these children score well on standardized tests, but they also show incredible advantages in social aspects of education.

I hate to be a cynic — because if Conan can be graceful, we all can — but it’s hard to tell if child care that follows this model and child care that follows a more regimented method would be judged consistently.

Both types of learning are chosen by different types of parents for various reasons. If each type can show it is working in a way that benefits children, they should be funded equally, regardless of whether the children are being formulaically prepared for kindergarten, grade school and the standardized testing that comes along with that.

Will the idea of quality child care need to be homogenized to a certain model to gain funding?

What may be even scarier than the homogenization of the child care model is that this rating system may increase prices at the higher rated establishments. Have you ever been to a four-star restaurant that was as cheap as a 1-star? Probably not. Will 5-stars also include a five-star sticker price?

While the rating system would be extremely beneficial for detecting fraud and giving parents an idea of where not to send their children during the day, it could also make it impossible for some families to afford to send their children to a classy place. After all, not every establishment can be five-star, no matter the incentive.

Until this system is implemented and shows it will treat providers fairly and won’t put less fortunate families at a disadvantage, I’m still skeptical.

Jaimie Chapman ([email protected]) is a sophomore and mother majoring in journalism.