CAN GOVERNMENT RAISE CHILD-CARE QUALITY - THE INFLUENCE OF FAMILY DEMAND, POVERTY, AND POLICY

The quality of child-care centers and preschools-situated in a mixed m arket-varies enormously. Advocates for higher quality urge higher subs idies and stricter central regulation. Market advocates argue instead that local demand and parental-choice remedies will spark quality gain s while ensuring competitive prices. Federal and state governments hav e responded with an array of policy interventions: targeting subsidies on preschools serving low-income families; enacting statewide quality standards; creating tax credits and vouchers for the ''working poor'' and middle-class families. This article assesses the influence of the se alternative policies on preschool quality, based on a national surv ey of 1, 805 centers in 36 states. Discrete policy effects are assesse d after taking into account the influence of contextual sources of fam ily demand: statewide levels of wealth, maternal employment, and pover ty rates. Contrary to K-12 patterns, we find that center quality is hi gher in centers receiving greater subsidies. However, the subsidy effe ct depends on the particular indicator of quality being observed, effe cts are also conditioned by state-level contexts. Statewide sources of family demand, antecedent to policy interventions, help to raise cert ain facets of preschool quality. Tax credits hold no discernible influ ence on quality. Implications for building policy strategies in ''mana ged choice'' school settings are discussed.