Year of High Hopes for Child Care Comes and Goes

By Linda Jacobson

This year was supposed to be the big one for child care.

But instead, Faith Wohl, the executive director of the New York City-based Child Care Action Campaign, is reminded of a saying made popular by fans of the old Brooklyn Dodgers: Wait till next year.

"We really did have a great sense of exhilaration," Ms. Wohl said, referring to the high hopes that advocates had for new federal spending on child care. "It's almost impossible to believe where we are at the...