The first article analyzes current funding for child care; identifies problems in the child care system; and discusses alternative financing strategies, with recommended principles for reform. This is followed by an article that reviews the past 60 years of Federal funding for child care, emphasizing cultural and historical trends. A third article provides an overview of current child care arrangements and use patterns of families, discussed in the context of long-term trends. An examination of child care operating costs and the quality of child care, as well as the relationships between these, is conducted in another article. A fifth paper describes current child care financing from all sources and analyzes underlying policy tensions that remain to be resolved. Two articles propose plans for alternative ways of financing child care services and child rearing by families, followed by commentaries from the perspectives of education policy, tax policy reform, and State child care administration; counter-responses are provided by the two authors. A 25-item selected bibliography and appended material on child care resource and referral agencies, financing early childhood facilities, and statewide initiatives for financing early childhood care and education