At GS, parents criticize daycare rules

More than 100 graduate students and faculty have signed a petition blasting the University's policy on child care subsidies. The document charges that the policy forces families to "compromise their values in order to qualify for assistance."

The debate between the graduate students and the University focuses on a clause of the policy that excludes those with stay-at-home spouses from receiving subsidies.

The petition claims the requirement unfairly discriminates against foreign students who cannot work due to visa restrictions and parents with multiple children who choose to put one or more in daycare and stay at home with the rest.

The petition comes on the heels of a move by the Board of Trustees to make the University child care policy more inclusive. The subsidies — once valid only for child care at the two small, usually full facilities affiliated with the University — can now be used for almost any form of child care. This means many more families will be covered.

Aaron Schurger GS, who wrote the petition, said expanded coverage is "surely a good thing." But he said the restriction makes the policy discriminatory and misconstrues the function of child care.

"That restriction touches on something very significant, which is a big difference in worldview between a prior generation of parents and this generation," Schurger said. "Child care still serves a significant value in allowing a parent to go to work, but I don't think we see it anymore as only serving that purpose."

Schurger said he believes that child care "is a formative early childhood experience" and that the policy is "blind to [daycare's] benefits to the children."

Administration officials said that Schurger is missing the main purpose of daycare.

"That may be his view," said psychology professor Joan Girgus, who heads the Child Care Working Group of the President's Task Force on Health and Well-Being. The group, which was charged in 2005 with improving child care options at the University, made the recommendations that led to the recent policy changes.

"I don't have a view about whether all children should go to daycare or not," Girgus added. "That wasn't what we were thinking about when we defined this program."

She said the rationale behind providing child care is to support the employees and students of Princeton.

"The philosophy is really focused on the employee and the student who would be less able to work and to study if they were not able to provide child care for their children," Girgus said.

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Both sides agree that money is not the issue here. Schurger said that, from discussions and meetings, he has gotten the impression that "the issue of limited resources is not at the top of the list" of the administration's objections to striking down the restriction.

Girgus agreed that the plan's coverage restriction does not stem from financial concerns. "First we defined the program," Girgus said. "Then we looked to find the resources to fund it in this particular case."

This year, Schurger qualified for the subsidies for the first time since coming to Princeton in 2001, after his wife got a job as a conference interpreter for the United Nations in New York.

He previously received assistance directly from the University preschool. "Had we not had that help, I would be half the graduate student I am today," he said.

Schurger said that discussions with members of the child care task force have been friendly but not productive.

"Apparently, the petition will have no effect," he said. "I was told that. I was kind of shocked. Apparently, it won't even be considered."

Schurger said he will nonetheless send editorials to local newspapers, continue collecting signatures and "see it through, maybe just for the record."