[speaker001:] uh hello Steve
[speaker002:] hello
[speaker001:] uh you were going to talk about child care
[speaker002:] yeah uh we well me and my wife we got a five year old and we have
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh kind of like child rearing he we have problems with him every now and then but other than that it's it's pretty he's a pretty good kid
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and we uh really don't really have any problem with finding day care for him because I'm in the service and we just take him to the day care on base
[speaker001:] I see how much how much do they charge
[speaker002:] they charge about forty five dollars a week
[speaker001:] uh-huh that seems relatively low by commercial standards isn't it usually about sixty to a hundred a week
[speaker002:] um yeah it's it's pretty pretty expensive on the outside
[speaker001:] right um so you've you've been you've been pleased with the service
[speaker002:] oh yeah they do a lot of you know lot of stuff in in their day care and stuff
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh how long have you been taking your son there
[speaker002:] oh about a year now
[speaker001:] uh-huh before that did he go somewhere else or
[speaker002:] well before that my wife was kind of stay at home mom now she went back to school so
[speaker001:] I see you say you went back to school
[speaker002:] no the wife went back to school
[speaker001:] oh I see uh-huh
[speaker002:] so he's been there for almost a year now
[speaker001:] uh-huh um gee I think where where does she go to school
[speaker002:] she goes to UT uh Arlington
[speaker001:] uh-huh okay yeah I had a student who went there at one time but I think we're getting off the topic so
[speaker002:] yeah uh
[speaker001:] so um let's see I mean I I was uh reading I read a lot of articles on child care back when it was when there was a debate in Congress over funding of uh child care centers and what should be done
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I came out uh very much in favor of a tax credit approach where parents would be given a tax credit and they would select whatever services they wanted for their child rather than to have the government subsidize certain providers
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and uh that was I I thought it was important well I mean it is important uh that that people have the opportunity to select the service that they would choose because a lot of kids are in you know in centers well well not really centers but they're being cared for by neighbors and uh
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh that's the sort of they they prefer it that way the parents do because they know the people who are caring for their kids and they don't have to take them very far plus about a third of the kids are in church run centers and there was a big church state controversy over whether the government could fund those are not I think they ultimately decided to but they placed a lot of restrictions on it so it wasn't clear that the church child care centers would want to go to the trouble
[speaker002:] um yeah
[speaker001:] so uh anyway I continue to be an advocate of the um of the tax credit approach now myself I'm not married so I don't have any kids and it's not a problem but uh still I know a lot of people that do and uh you know I mean you you you really wouldn't wouldn't um uh well I'm on gee I'm on the benefits committee at the university here and uh child care is a topic of conversation we the university started up a center this year but it's about two miles away from campus and I'm not sure it's going to be real convenient for people to take their kids over there
[speaker002:] yeah well well when I was stationed in Lubbock Texas uh they had a child care center right on base uh right at the school I mean
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and that helped out my wife because she just went part time there and you know take a couple of classes a week but
[speaker001:] uh-huh right uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh I think it's a good deal deal but um like you were saying it's about two miles from the school and that's
[speaker001:] yeah it's just a lot of time
[speaker002:] it's not going to be very good I think they should talk about putting one right on the campus itself
[speaker001:] yeah well they say they claim that it's a better environment for kids than to be in with all the students
[speaker002:] well they kind of have this I think in a different building you know on right on the uh edge of the campus and everything where they really didn't get in
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah yeah I am sure that a lot of it had to do with how cheap it was to acquire the building if they would've built a new building then it would've I'm I'm sure it would have cost a lot more than if they uh if they put it down where they did where real estate's probably cheaper
[speaker002:] in oh yeah um I think they used one of the existing buildings they already had
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so you know it it worked out pretty good
[speaker001:] so so so what do you think about the about the child about the tax credit versus the subsidy approach which seems seems most appealing to you
[speaker002:] uh well I haven't really thought about it like that  because well you know we pay
[speaker001:] yeah I think well the
[speaker002:] excuse me we pay for any you know the child care but we don't pay as much as they do off base
[speaker001:] that's right yeah
[speaker002:] uh I think the government should subsidize some of it you know to give the parents you know some break on on the money portion of it
[speaker001:] well I mean they they yeah the issue the issue is whether they can take it off of their taxes or whether the government decides which centers are qualified the other problem