Thoughts on "Nannygate"

The president recently lost a candidate for Secretary of Homeland Security, initially because of irregularities in his childcare arrangements, though there were other reasons as well. A British cabinet minister is in the same jar, slightly different pickle; he was caught trying to expedite a legal visa for the nanny of his married paramour. President Clinton lost not one, but two, prospective Attorneys General for childcare irregularities.

This seemingly common problem stuck in my mind for a couple of reasons. One is that when I was in high school my mother hired people to come in and do light housekeeping for my grandfather, and to cook him lunch and generally be around in case something happened. It allowed him to live alone in his house for a few more years. I remember her sitting at the table working out the social security and other benefits payments for the women. Ma did not go to an Ivy League law school like the prospective Attorneys General or have a lot of big supporters like the prospective Homeland Security chief. She had a public high school education, and was taking classes at a community college about 30 miles away, eventually earning an associates degree in accounting. Yet, she managed to figure it all out. When I asked her about it she said it wasn’t that hard; you just had to read the rules and fill out the forms and send in the checks.

This disparity speaks to at least two key issues in today’s society, in addition to the obvious intelligence and honesty of my mother. The first is that our public schools and community colleges are doing a heck of a job educating people if their students are smarter than the Harvard and Yale crowd. A few years ago I read a comparison of a freshman level course as taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Community College of Philadelphia, same course, different schools. The content was the same. The primary differences were in class size, with CCP having a much smaller number of students in the class, and therefore more student/teacher contact, and the price, with Penn being significantly more expensive. While we often read about the soaring cost of college education, these prices are usually at private schools, even though most college students attend the less expensive state supported colleges and universities. This is where we get most of our teachers and nurses, our engineers and doctors.

The second issue is the difficulty in finding good childcare. I always wonder about those who are found out hiring illegal aliens to do “light housekeeping and childcare” as some of the jobs are described. Now, I’d let just about anyone mop my floors (seriously, anyone is welcome to it, leave me a number, I’ll give you a call), but I’m a little fussier about who watches my kids. If wealthy, politically connected people can’t find adequate affordable childcare legally, how in the world do we expect the middle class, let alone those earning minimum wage, to find it? According to the International Nanny Association (www.nanny.org) the range of nanny salaries in Philadelphia is $500 to $800 a week, in Pittsburgh $410 to $550, about half the time for 2 kids. Nationally the average is $532 a week for live in nannies, and $590 a week for those that live elsewhere. When both of my kids were in full time preschool or daycare we paid, at most $900 a month, and that is on an above average but still modest household income. If my household can afford this why isn’t it possible for people in higher income brackets to find legal childcare,? If my mother can figure out how to fill out the necessary forms, why can’t people with a “better” education level?