Doug Imig
Sally Cohen's fascinating study of federal child care policy making over the past thirty years combines the very best of both case study and longitudinal analyses. The work pays careful attention to the actors, goals and strategic choices that shaped successive campaigns for an expanded federal role in child care policy and, at the same time, demonstrates the critical influence of structural and institutional factors in shaping those debates and their outcomes. Policymakers as well as students of the policy process will benefit greatly from the insights provided by this book.
— Doug Imig, Director, The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change, The University of Memphis
Alice Sardell
Championing Child Care takes the literature on the politics of American social policy a giant step forward. Cohen's is a sophisticated, theoretically rich longitudinal analysis, based on solid empirical research. She presents the complex interactions among the variables that shaped child care policy over a thirty year period in a clear, enjoyable prose, enabling both scholars in the field and the interested public to understand the policy processes that shaped American child care policy and to think broadly about many issues in American social policy. It is a perfect text for courses in public policy, U.S. politics and social welfare policy at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
— Alice Sardell, Queens College, CUNY
Edward Zigler
The most thorough account ever written about the long, slow, disoriented process of child care policy in America. Her history shows how far we have not come because the needs of policy makers, institutions, and other interests have overridden the needs of children. All who are interested in improving the quality of child care will benefit from this painstaking research presented in this must-read book.
— Edward Zigler, Sterling Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Joan Lombardi
This book is a testimonial to the thousands of people across the country who have spent decades advocating for a better child care system. By documenting the child care movement, Sally Cohen celebrates their spirit and calls upon all of us to continue the struggle to improve and expand services for the children of working families.
— Joan Lombardi, Ph.D., Former Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
