Dan Coats: “I understand the motivation. My concern is that there will be a large number of child care providers who will not meet…”

“I understand the motivation. My concern is that there will be a large number of child care providers who will not meet those standards, will be put in a position that is less preferential than those who do meet the standards, and yet the standards might not necessarily be what the parent determines to be the best care and the best nurturing for that particular child. For instance, let us say a child care provider does not read, cannot read. Would that person ever be able to qualify for the standards? Probably not, because we are talking about a developing child. Yet, if the Senator had the privilege, as I and many of us did, of attending the national prayer breakfast this year, Dr. Ben Carson, head of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University, one of the world's foremost neurosurgeons, was raised by a mother who could not read. After I saw what product came out of that child rearing, I would want my child raised by his mother. Yet, obviously, the Senator's bill would not take away that choice, but clearly that individual would not qualify, with those standards, for the preference given under the Jeffords amendment. You used the words 'nurturing' and 'caring.' Nurturing and caring, as we learned in our hearing on development of the brain and other hearings on child care, is the most important aspect of early child care. It is not flash cards, it is not introducing kids to computers, it is the one-on-one bonds that are formed.…”