Legislators killed a bill Wednesday evening that would have exempted home child care providers from state certification, reports Equality State Policy Center director Dan Neal. In this blog post, Neal also details legislative action regarding the taxation of wind energy.
Mike McGrady, a Cheyenne attorney, said he had access to investigatory tools as he considered child care providers. “But I didn’t know what questions to ask,” he said. Home care providers are “still a business,” he said, and it makes sense to require them to meet basic standards.
Committee member Rep. Frank Peasley (R-HD3, Douglas) asked several opponents if there is any statistical proof that regulation has reduced problems surrounding child care.
“Did abuse go down?” he asked. It seems, he said, that “the more we regulate, the more problems we have.”
He noted his wife put him through school by “baby sitting” and she did so before the state licensed care.
When Cheyenne police detective Joe Hickerson said background checks would keep people clearly unsuited because of a record of violence against children out of the child care business, Rep. Peasley asked him, “Do you want the state more involved in parenting?”
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