Good morning. Thank you for joining me on CTS News. I'm Cary Chuo.

First in politics,

Child care policy has been among the hot topics of this election season, and most candidates from both parties tend to solve the issue through subsidies, which many civil groups recently criticized as "a waste of public resources." These groups urge politicians to set up comprehensive child care networks to address the real needs of working parents.

Every year, Ms. Wen struggles to pay for her preschool children's daycare fees.

It becomes a financial burden as the bill racks up to 10,000 NT dollars, which is a third of her total income.

In fact, many women face similar difficulties as Ms. Wen, and believe that the number of public child care facilities are insufficient.

Sending children off to expensive daycare centers is no guarantee that the children are receiving quality care and education either.

This is another reason many young adults are afraid to have children.

In response to this situation, candidates of the five municipal elections are all promoting their child care policies, hoping to attract more women voters.

However, civil groups have discovered that while the Taipei and Xinbei City candidates are suggesting policies that will publicize child care, candidate Taichung candidate Jason Hu, Tainan candidate Lai Ching-te, and Kaohsiung candidate Chen Ju are all suggesting using financial subsidies to replace public child care facilities.

The candidates have drawn criticsim from civil groups who believe that money spending is not an effective policy.

In addition, the national finance department is struggling and various administration units are wasting funds.

Civil groups are suggesting instead to establish more comprehensive child care community networks that will better meet the needs of the general public and increase birth rates.