LOS ALTOS, Calif.--The United States will not be able to match the support other advanced countries give to young children unless the public is willing to commit lots more money.

One can envy the quality care young children in such countries as France, Great Britain or Denmark receive, but it comes about because of a partnership between families and public services. To get that kind of care for young children in this country, according to a report from the Future of Children project, would require a national investment of almost $120 billion annually. Universal, quality child care ought to cost about $6,000 per child, more than the per pupil average for students in grades K-12. The costs are higher because of the lower child-adult ratios.

The report about financing quality child care is one of a series of journals devoted to issues that impact on the well-being of children. The Center for the Future of Children is funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

The message of this latest report is that the financing of child care needs reform as well as a substantial increase. The current expenditure on child care from all sources--parents, the private sector and all levels of government--amounts to about $40 billion a year, only one third of the funding needed for optimum care for very young children. In 1993, parents paid an average of $64 a week for child care, only half of what experts believe necessary for stable child care. Over 12 million children under five (half of them infants) spend some time regularly in the care of those other than parents.

The recommendations of the journal report include:

• Additional funding is needed to change and improve the child care system.
• Families, busines, and the government all benefit from child care services and should therefore supportr them, but the role of government in financing child care should be expanded.
• The primary goal of government support for child care should be to enhance the healthy development of all children; efforts to extend child care benefits to more families should not detract from the quality of care for all.
• Economic modeling of the consequences of any proposal for financing reform is needed, including mechanisms for raising necessary funds.
• Short-term actions should include unifying the tax and subsidy financing systems across existing sectors (e.g. Head Start and state pre-kindergarten programs); existing dollars for child care should be protected and expanded; and new dollars should be allocated first for low-income families.

For the executive summary or complete journal on "Financing Child Care," contact the Center for the Future of Children, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, 300 Second St., Suite 102, Los Altos, CA 94022.