--- title: Why Child Care in America Is Broken description: What's wrong with America's child care system, how a slum can actually be a small business accelerator, and more. canonical: https://time.com/4527802/why-child-care-in-america-is-broken/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-12T16:00:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:59:25.931Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Child Care In America Is Broken og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/4527802/why-child-care-in-america-is-broken/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Child Care In America Is Broken twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Why Child Care in America Is Broken > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 12, 2016 4:00 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Oct 12, 2016 4:00 PM UTC **1\.** [**This is why the child care system is broken and how to fix it.**](http://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/edcentral/why-child-care-system-broken-and-how-fix-it/) By David Loewenberg at New America **2\.** [**How a slum can actually be a small business accelerator (with a billion dollar economy).**](http://www.thisisplace.org/i/?id=7f6614e4-b139-4db2-9dd7-e0cf4f38f2d3) By Rina Chandran in Place **3\.** [**No, Europe does not need its own army.**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2016/10/11/the-last-thing-europe-needs-right-now-is-an-army/?utm%5Fterm=.6962cd35ce52) By Judy Dempsey in the Washington Post **4\.** [**Need medicine in a rural or remote place? Just add water.**](http://qz.com/801839/instant-drugs-just-add-water/) By Ananya Bhattacharya in Quartz **5\.** [**Are the Nobels good for science?**](https://www.statnews.com/2016/10/07/nobel-prize-science/) By Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus in STAT  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4527802/why-child-care-in-america-is-broken/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4527802/why-child-care-in-america-is-broken/"},"headline":"Why Child Care in America Is Broken","datePublished":"2016-10-12T16:00:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:59:25.931Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/4527802/why-child-care-in-america-is-broken/","keywords":["Innovation","medicine","Economy","europe","nobel prize","child care"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4527802/why-child-care-in-america-is-broken/","name":"Why Child Care in America Is Broken"}}]}] ```