01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, June 21, 2005

THROUGHOUT Rhode Island, working parents depend on family child-care providers to keep our kids safe and to start them early on the path of lifetime learning -- pretty important work.

So why are Governor Carcieri and some legislators so afraid to entrust these same child-care providers with a voice to stand up for our kids?

Several studies have documented the link between high-quality child care and the development of children. Parents understand implicitly the positive role that tender, loving care plays in a young child's life.

In Rhode Island, the 1,300 people who provide child care in their homes are required to develop a curriculum, attend certified health and safety trainings, and continue their education in child development and early education.

One of these professional child-care providers is Kathryn Baptista. Kathryn cares for six children, five days a week, in her Pawtucket home. Her first child is dropped off at 6 a.m. and the last one is picked up at 9 p.m. Many weekends, she works in a group home for troubled adolescents; when she gets a weekend off, she attends her church, often bringing "her" children along voluntarily.

Last year, Kathryn came to the State House to meet with legislators with five kids she cares for. She was concerned that Governor Carcieri's proposed budget cuts would eliminate one-third of the families in the system from having access to the kind of care she provides.

The cuts hit home for Kathryn because two children she had nurtured and taught would have been uprooted from her care. But even more troubling, those children's parents would have been forced to either quit their jobs or put their children in a less desirable environment while they went to work. That didn't seem right to Kathryn, and it didn't sit well with most of us in the General Assembly, either.

That's why the Democratic leadership in both the House and the Senate worked with Kathryn and hundreds of child-care providers already united with Service Employees International Union District 1199 to build a coalition of children's advocates, community groups, and working families to stop the governor's $10 million budget cuts to child care.

But what would have happened if Kathryn and other child-care providers hadn't been united, hadn't had help from the union to speak out against cuts that would have hurt children and families in their communities? If Governor Carcieri and a minority of lawmakers have their way, we might just find out.

Last week, the General Assembly voted to give providers a way to address issues of quality, access, and stability of the child-care workforce. But Governor Carcieri is putting politics ahead of what's best for children and working families, and he and his supporters are doing everything they can to stop providers from gaining a voice.

We need to tap into the expertise and knowledge of child-care professionals like Kathryn, who spend their days -- and often their nights, too -- nurturing, teaching, and inspiring a generation of children who are our state's future.

While the governor and his supporters say that children are a priority, they have insulted the people whom the children's parents have trusted to care for them. They say that high-quality care is important, but only if it's cheap. They admit that there are problems with the state's subsidized child-care system, but they aren't willing to support any changes in the status quo.

Rhode Island children and parents are counting on us not just to pay lip service to kids but also to take action that will really protect and improve their early care and learning.

When it comes to questions of how to provide high-quality, affordable, reliable child care for working families, it only makes sense that professional providers such as Kathryn Baptista have a voice.

That's why members in the General Assembly need to stand up to Governor Carcieri and his attacks and protect what's important: our children.

State Rep. Thomas C. Slater (D.-Providence) and state Sen. Juan M. Pichardo (D.-Providence) are co-sponsors of the legislation to authorize family child-care providers to engage in collective negotiations with the state. The legislation passed in both houses of the General Assembly last week.