Care For Children

In your Jan. 25 editorial "A new health-care entitlement," you stated that ''Americans have yet to conclude that health care should be socialized. [W]e still believe health care should be a function of the private sector."I assume the accuracy of your polls about opinions of Americans, but you sure failed to talk to a lot of people I know.The key issue here is how we care for those in our community who cannot care for themselves. You do not question Americans' willingness to care for children, but only raise the question of how poor the children need to be before we share our "largess" with them.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening outlined his vision of a better future for Maryland children yesterday and pledged a tougher fight for his "Thriving by Three" program in the next legislative session.In a 20-minute pep talk at a two-day summit on child well-being at Morgan State University, the governor said one of his goals was to make sure that the state's children were "well-educated and healthy -- physically, mentally and morally headed in the right direction."Glendening's program, aimed at providing quality health care for children up to age 3, would offer prenatal care to mothers and assistance for children.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has created the first new health-care program in decades with the passage of the Children's Health Initiative. This program will bring more than $60 million to Maryland next month, which could be matched with $30 million in state dollars for extending health care to Maryland's approximately 170,000 children without health insurance.This opportunity for Maryland must not be lost because of poor planning and conflicting programs. But that could happen.Maryland's efforts to provide adequate health care for indigent children have been well intentioned, but sporadic.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-led Congress might be about to balance the budget and cut taxes, but the era of big government doesn't seem quite over yet.Included in the budget legislation entering the final stages of negotiation with President Clinton is a major new spending program that would provide health care for up to 6 million uninsured children of the working poor.Sharp disputes remain over the structure of the program and over whether the cigarette tax should be raised to help pay for it. But Congress and the White House have long agreed that at least $16 billion worth of new federal help for uninsured poor children is on the way."

PROVIDENCE -- During World War II, American mothers had to be virtually dragged out of their homes and into the work force. Nowadays, according to sociologist Arlie Hochschild, women have to be dragged out of the office to care for children and the household. The thesis in her controversial book, ''The Time Bind,'' is that many women devote long hours to paying work not out of economic necessity but out of preference.How things have changed. The recent death of the real-life Rosie the Riveter has summoned up that very different era of 55 years ago. ''Rosie the Riveter'' was the name of a hit song that paid tribute to the American women who worked in the nation's defense plants.

IMAGINE THE REACTION if a fire injured children in a public school where officials had not bothered to follow the fire code. Parents would be calling for heads to roll.Yet some parents of the six children injured in a fire at Diana Smith's illegal Parkville family day care -- where Baltimore County fire officials found a long list of fire code violations -- feel authorities are being too harsh in citing the woman yesterday and making an issue of the fact that she was not licensed to care for children.

State day care policy began 30 years agoYour Sept. 29 editorial, "Improving the care of children," accords well-deserved tribute to the Maryland Committee for Children for its pioneering and continuing strong advocacy for quality day care for children. Missing from the editorial was mention of Theresa Lansburgh, also an early and long time leader with the Maryland Committee.In fact, if memory serves correctly, Ms. Lansburgh was appointed by the late Gov. J. Millard Tawes in 1963 to head a commission to study day care services for children.

A few children whose drug-addicted homeless mothers have begun treatment and can't be proper parents can now live temporarily at Dayspring Children's Place, designed to give them skilled and loving care in an East Baltimore rowhouse.The small two-story home on North Glover Street is the first of its kind in the city, according to the coordinating Young Women's Christian Association. Six children up to 10 years old will live there with trained staffers for about two months. Their mothers can visit but live elsewhere until their treatment allows more normal child-caring and transitional family housing.

Forgive Sandee Besser if she has an identity crisis.Her white uniform indicates she's a nurse, but on any given day at Glyndon Elementary School, she's also a teacher, cafeteria monitor, confidante, role model and "mama hen." These days, it's all part of being a school nurse in Baltimore County -- or elsewhere in Maryland.With many families short on time and health insurance, the school nurse often becomes a child's primary health care professional, making the first diagnosis on injuries and illnesses.

For many working parents, the day care dilemma can be mind-boggling.I can clearly recall the hours my husband and I spent trying to decide who would care for our three sons when I was working away from home. I remember how difficult it was to find quality part-time care for two preschoolers and an infant. Never mind that they were all boys -- a fact that frightened away even the most experienced day care providers.We were fortunate to eventually find a wonderful day care mom who remains a family friend to this day. But for some families, the day care search is filled with frustration and disappointment.