Choice in Childcare hops across the pond

Email from David Cameron today:

The Guardian publishes what is of course proposed on the other side of the debate,

Beverley Hughes, children’s minister under Labour and now in the Lords, has issued an admirable “mea culpa”. She says that Labour got it wrong when it focused on putting money into the hands of parents via, for instance, tax credits rather than investing in the supply side and ensuring the stability and sustainability of providers while working to improve the qualifications of the childcare workforce. She advocates a universal free childcare offer for every child aged one to five. The [Guardian’s] Observer supports her view.

The UK announcement is reminiscent of the political history of the childcare debate in Canada. A national childcare program was proposed by the Liberals in 1993 but was not implemented. When the topic came up again in the first half of the last decade as a renewed Liberal promise to create a new entitlement program, the Tories offered up their “Choice in Childcare” program in their platform instead, allowing a $100 payment to parents per month for each child under age 6.