cabinetsnotnow t1_j6f81un wrote on January 29, 2023 at 10:37 PM

I'm not at all trying to be an ass here, because I 100% believe charging parents thousands per month for childcare is predatory. But why can't the government force childcare businesses to put a reasonable cap on what they charge?

Dredly t1_j6fb3ms wrote on January 29, 2023 at 10:55 PM

The average cost per child in pre-k daycare is about 750 - 850 a month - lets round it up to 1k a month https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/child-care-cost-15080-a-year-pennsylvania-heres-the-breakdown/

which breaks down to about 1k a month (12k / year) per child.

There must be (according to the law) no more then a 1:4 ratio of staff to children for infants, this increases to 1:5 for toddlers, and 1:6 for older toddlers... which means AT MOST, each staff person is bringing in 48k, 60k for toddlers, and 72k for Older toddlers in revenue a year caring for the very young. That is total income, assume that there needs to be a boss (who can fill in to cover days off / sick days etc), rent etc... the total income potential is terrible.

so what would you consider a "reasonable cap"? the "several thousand a month" is either very premier "private school" level, multiple kids, or in a very high COL like NYC or Seattle/San Fran

http://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/055/chapter3270/s3270.51.html&d=reduce

[deleted] t1_j6kjinn wrote on January 30, 2023 at 11:48 PM

[removed]

Zenith2017 t1_j6i6114 wrote on January 30, 2023 at 2:41 PM

It's not that they're charging a ton in an attempt to price gouge. It's really expensive to provide this care and difficult to retain trained staff

cabinetsnotnow t1_j6kmuv9 wrote on January 31, 2023 at 12:12 AM

Really? I always thought maybe insurance to have a childcare facility is just insanely expensive so that's why they charge so much. I've heard staff don't even get paid very much either.

Zenith2017 t1_j6krniv wrote on January 31, 2023 at 12:47 AM

(my MIL owns a daycare small business)

The insurance $$$$, the pay for experienced staff so you can scale up a little, licensing of all sorts, not to mention plenty of food, diapers, toys, equipment, spaces, education content, you name it. There's of course a ton that goes into the full scope of managing a brick and mortar business, and the daycare is no exception. It's a whole operation, y'know?

There are home daycares too which seems fine to a relative outsider. That's what she did before; but scaling up to have like 10 skilled employees and a few different classes across an age range was key for growth.