Lundberg Strikes Again: Pedophile Day Care, Anyone?

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by: Colorado Pols

Sen. Kevin Lundberg (R).

The Denver Post's Christopher Osher reports on the latest bill up for debate from hard-right Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg–and it's a doozy:

"We are licensing child care out of existence in far too many corners of the state," said Lundberg, who also is chairman of the Senate's Health and Human Services Committee, which will consider the legislation. "My alternative says there is an elegant solution to this bureaucratic problem, and it recognizes that smaller facilities are much better served when we stay out of the way and stop driving people out of business."

But child welfare advocates say Colorado's licensing program isn't driving providers out of business. They say costs for providers are minimal — between $63.50 to $154.50 for an initial application and criminal background checks per home. They also fear Lundberg's move could run afoul of recent federal legislation and jeopardize federal aid the state receives for child care vouchers that go to low-income parents who are working or enrolled in job training or school.

They believe the state's licensing program saves lives by setting uniform safety standards and requiring criminal background checks for providers and those living in their homes. [Pols emphasis] They also point out that licensed providers must take 16.5 hours of training before opening and must take an additional 15 hours annually to keep licenses current. Child care operators say the cost of all the courses is less than $150.

Given the low cost of compliance with the licensing requirements as they exist today, it's tough to argue that this is a major contributor to the high cost of child care in Colorado. On the other hand, the peace of mind of leaving one's children with a care provider who has passed a criminal background check in order to receive a child care license has a very high value indeed.

Once you accept that a $150 license and a modest bit of education is not meaningfully driving up the cost of child care, there really is no good reason for this proposal at all. To be honest, the reason to push this bill completely escapes us, because its stated justification is so easily disproven it calls the true motives for the bill into question. Is the point really to make it easier for criminals to run child care centers?

As silly as that sounds, Sen. Lundberg's response to the question honestly makes you wonder:

"Parents are the ones that need to know that they're the actual stopgap that protects children when they drop them off anywhere," Lundberg said. "They better make sure just who they are leaving their children with." [Pols emphasis]

And how are parents supposed to do that? Maybe with–wait for it–a background check? Like the one you have to pass to get a child care license? Even when you disagree with a legislative proposal, it's usually possible to see how the rationale behind said proposal could make some kind of sense to a reasonable person–maybe not you, but some number of people depending on their point of view.

But not this time. This is just an irredeemably bad idea–and for a Republican caucus that grandstanded mandatory sentences for sex offenders, and constantly represents itself as "tough on crime" at the expense of Democrats, the introduction of such a counterproductive bill makes no sense.

14 thoughts on “Lundberg Strikes Again: Pedophile Day Care, Anyone?”

davebarnes says:

January 28, 2015 at 11:42 am

Wasn't it Mittens who said: Pedophiles are people, my friend?

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Zappatero says:

January 28, 2015 at 11:54 am

Red state Rodeo pedophiles are people, too. And he's surely proud of the fact that he doesn't read that Librul Denver Post.

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BlueCat says:

January 28, 2015 at 12:01 pm

Leave it to the self styled Family Values Party.

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1. FrankUnderwood says:
  
  January 28, 2015 at 1:36 pm
  
  Of course we can leave it to them. Remember the creepy and predatory Mark Foley (R-Florida) serving as Chair or the Missing and Abuse Children Caucus by day and sexcting to children by night?
  
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Diogenesdemar says:

January 28, 2015 at 12:12 pm

Come on, who's not for "elegant" solutions?? . . .

Some day I'm gonna' have to get me that "Nutter Thesaurus," . . . so I can some clue what they think their words mean.

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Republican 36 says:

January 28, 2015 at 12:43 pm

There is no excuse for this bill, none.

Sen. Lundberg's bill would terminate government oversight of about 2,300 of the approximately 2,500 licensed child care centers in Colorado. His rationale is twofold. First, Colorado child care centers are some of the most expensive in the United States and cutting out regulation will make them affordable. Second, parents should be responsible for who they leave their kids with.

Let's dispose of the second reason first. Parents should be responsible, in part, for who they leave their kids with, but how in the world are they going to know if a child care center or its employees has a record of child abuse. They don't have access to a comprehensive database to run a background check. Lundberg wants to knowingly expose kids to absolutely certain abuse.

His first reason is complete and total nonsense. As one can imagine, he didn't let the following facts get in his way. On average it costs a child care center about $150 each year to maintain their state license. According to Lundberg, such expensive over regulation is driving child care centers out of business in Colorado. Now let's get down to the nitty-gritty. On average it costs a parent $905 per month to have their child in child care in Colorado. Assume a child care center has ten children for a year. Assume the cost of the annual license is incorporated in the monthly fee charged to each of the ten children. That means that each of the parents of each of the ten children is paying $15.00 of the annual $150.00 licensing fee or, put another way, each parent(s) is paying $1.25 per month of the cost of the license. So, extending Lundberg's logic to its inevitable conclusion, if the state child care regulatory scheme is eliminated and therefore, the monthly average cost is reduced from $905 to $903.75, child care centers will no longer be run out of business because of the excessive cost of government regulation. Who is kidding who?! And to think, Lundberg, who is such a good Christian, and yet, for the sake of his anti-government ideology, he wants to knowingly expose kids to pedophiles and ruin their lives.

This isn't legislation and it certainly isn't conservative. Its an act of immorality.

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1. BlueCat says:
  
  January 28, 2015 at 1:55 pm
  
  Not to mention the idea that the modest fees involved are putting people out of business is laughable.
  
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  1. Republican 36 says:
    
    January 28, 2015 at 2:01 pm
    
    Precisely.
    
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    1. bullshit! says:
      
      January 28, 2015 at 3:55 pm
      
      So why do it? I'm with the Pols, it makes no sense.
      
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      1. Windsor_scott says:
        
        January 28, 2015 at 4:21 pm
        
        You have to use their logic. "Government is bad" if the government is involved in anyway that is the problem. The military, abortion, and gay rights are excluded from this logic.
        
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      2. Republican 36 says:
        
        January 28, 2015 at 4:22 pm
        
        Because in Sen. Lundberg's world deregulation is always good no matter what harm it will cause. The government is always evil in his mind and always illegitimate.
        
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mamajama55 says:

January 28, 2015 at 4:46 pm
Finding affordable childcare is a freaking nightmare. It has kept me, and millions of others, from being gainfully employed. It has caused me countless hours of stress and loss of productivity at work, worrying about the care my children were receiving.

I have left my kids with grandparents (yay!), licensed in home child care providers, university day care centers (yay!) and with sleazy neighbors who smoked (cigarettes and pot) and drank around my kids, or slept with my ex. (yuck) I have left my children with people whose teenage sons or unemployed ex-hubbies lounged around on the couch all day scowling at the soaps or playing video games.(double yuck.)

Let's face it, I was desperate. There are millions of moms and dads across America who leave their kids in similar situations or worse. There are not enough child care openings in the world for all of the kids who need it. For lower income and working class families, the cost of day care is easily 1/3 to 1/2 of one wage earner's net salary.

I'm guessing that Kevin Lundberg has never faced this dilemma:
- Should I quit my job because the only day care I can afford is endangering my kids?
- Should the spouse and I go on separate shifts and never see each other so that we don't have to pay day care costs?
- Should I make my kid(s) stay at home alone and hope for the best?
- Should I impose on my frail and aging parent(s)?
All Lundberg's bill would do is siphon funds away from the good day by allowing more of the bad day care to flourish.
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BlueCat says:

January 29, 2015 at 10:06 am

It' a day later and I see even Modster and AC haven't shown up to defend this bill.

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badidea says:

January 29, 2015 at 12:12 pm

He – and anyone who would vote for this bill – are setting themselves up to be in a pretty terrible situation politically the first time something bad happens. I'd be very worried about this if I were in his own caucus. Bad times over in Republican land.

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