This investment will focus on our existing infrastructure of federally-funded programs such as Early Head Start, and the Child Care and Development Fund to expand services and boost their quality.

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Early studies suggest that the quality of Sure Start child care is variable.

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Clinton also wants to apportion the settlement to provide child health care, extend Medicare to early retirees, build school classrooms and hire more teachers.

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Those problems can be caught in early stages if a child has access to regular medical care, and can be managed before they become difficult or chronic.

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Kerrthana, 14, interviewed a school friend and a teacher about the pros and cons of children attending child-care provisions from a very early age, so their parents could continue working.

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Carl Bildt, who was the Moderate Party prime minister during the recession of the early 1990s, notes that the government now crows about how the huge expansion of privately provided child care has helped to keep up female participation in the workforce.

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