Bright Horizons is for-profit, publicly traded? Was anyone else aware of this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not for profit is just a tax related term. It does not mean the organization is all about the public good, staffed by kind low wage do gooders. They can pay very high salaries especially at the top. A good center is a good center regardless of their tax status. The reverse is true as well.

Just to be clear- most of the nonprofit daycare centers in the VA-MD-DC region do NOT pay high salaries at the top (you can google their 990s). Most of the nonprofits also operate on nearly a 0% net income margin. At most maybe 2-3% in a good year. Investors expect at least a 7-8% return on equity at a bare minimum and those thin margins generally will not provide anywhere near that even if you start selling off assets and firing people. So yeah the for-profits have to cut corners somewhere. While I don't have the data, my guess would be fewer well-trained and experienced teachers, more part-time temp rotating teachers who may have not been properly vetted and will accept minimum wage with no benefits

[Anonymous]

How about having the government provide daycare as a non profit, get back to us on how that goes

[Anonymous]

We are at a BH (leaving soon). You cannot engage with the director or the regional manager there without getting 100% corporate boilerplate in return. It’s like you’re talking to a robot and really, really frustrating. And my kid and several others are currently stuck in a room they’ve outgrown because the center closed one of the older rooms to cut corners. The corporate, for-profit nature definitely shines through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not for profit is just a tax related term. It does not mean the organization is all about the public good, staffed by kind low wage do gooders. They can pay very high salaries especially at the top. A good center is a good center regardless of their tax status. The reverse is true as well.

Just to be clear- most of the nonprofit daycare centers in the VA-MD-DC region do NOT pay high salaries at the top (you can google their 990s). Most of the nonprofits also operate on nearly a 0% net income margin. At most maybe 2-3% in a good year. Investors expect at least a 7-8% return on equity at a bare minimum and those thin margins generally will not provide anywhere near that even if you start selling off assets and firing people. So yeah the for-profits have to cut corners somewhere. While I don't have the data, my guess would be fewer well-trained and experienced teachers, more part-time temp rotating teachers who may have not been properly vetted and will accept minimum wage with no benefits

+1 and/or they charge very high tuitions, use federal government facilities, etc.

From a public policy perspective there is very, very good reason to give preference to non profits and LOCAL for profits.

But for consumers you just have to choose the best daycare that works for you and that you can afford.

[Anonymous]

I thought this was an interesting article about the role of private equity in childcare and the political implications.

https://newrepublic.com/article/168322/child-care-daycare-private-equity-for-profit

[Anonymous]

We are at a Bright Horizons center. It's fine - it's in a super convenient location and at least I know there are minimum standards.

I think the analogy most commonly used is that Bright Horizons is like the Starbucks of daycare. It's not cheap or stellar, but you know what you're getting pretty consistently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are at a Bright Horizons center. It's fine - it's in a super convenient location and at least I know there are minimum standards.

I think the analogy most commonly used is that Bright Horizons is like the Starbucks of daycare. It's not cheap or stellar, but you know what you're getting pretty consistently.

All licensed daycares have minimum standards. Many BH facilities also have NAECY accreditation which goes beyond the minimum. But those things can't guarantee the most important thing when choosing daycare - warm and consistent caregivers.

I have no beef with Bright Horizons. If it works for you, great. But I really disagree with the notion that choosing daycare is like buying a frapuccino.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not for profit is just a tax related term. It does not mean the organization is all about the public good, staffed by kind low wage do gooders. They can pay very high salaries especially at the top. A good center is a good center regardless of their tax status. The reverse is true as well.

Just to be clear- most of the nonprofit daycare centers in the VA-MD-DC region do NOT pay high salaries at the top (you can google their 990s). Most of the nonprofits also operate on nearly a 0% net income margin. At most maybe 2-3% in a good year. Investors expect at least a 7-8% return on equity at a bare minimum and those thin margins generally will not provide anywhere near that even if you start selling off assets and firing people. So yeah the for-profits have to cut corners somewhere. While I don't have the data, my guess would be fewer well-trained and experienced teachers, more part-time temp rotating teachers who may have not been properly vetted and will accept minimum wage with no benefits

Not implying there are not wonderful non profits out there but I think the term is misleading. I used to work for a non profit (not child care). It was so luxurious compared to my life as a fed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I have no beef with Bright Horizons. If it works for you, great. But I really disagree with the notion that choosing daycare is like buying a frapuccino.

PP here - obviously, warm caretakers who love your child are we all want, but WHO THE HECK CAN TELL from a 30-minute tour or a 30-minute nanny interview? At the end of the day, it's a commodity that you are buying, and you don't really know the quality of the end product since (as the parent) you are by definition not there to observe all the daily interactions.

The Starbucks analogy still stands. There's NAEYC accreditation, so you know there's a floor to the quality of the product you are getting. And corporate lawyers so you know that the brand as a whole will put a huge premium on standardized safety regs and risk mitigation. For some of us, that's the best we expect from a daycare: a safe place for our child to go when we can't be there to take care of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have no beef with Bright Horizons. If it works for you, great. But I really disagree with the notion that choosing daycare is like buying a frapuccino.

PP here - obviously, warm caretakers who love your child are we all want, but WHO THE HECK CAN TELL from a 30-minute tour or a 30-minute nanny interview? At the end of the day, it's a commodity that you are buying, and you don't really know the quality of the end product since (as the parent) you are by definition not there to observe all the daily interactions.

The Starbucks analogy still stands. There's NAEYC accreditation, so you know there's a floor to the quality of the product you are getting. And corporate lawyers so you know that the brand as a whole will put a huge premium on standardized safety regs and risk mitigation. For some of us, that's the best we expect from a daycare: a safe place for our child to go when we can't be there to take care of them.

You can look up on state websites the licensing violation history of any daycare. If there has been a complaint against that daycare you can see it. I've seen troubling violations listed for some BH facilities and I gotta say I really don't buy the notion that BH's lawyers are there to protect the children or that they are some kind of safeguard. You as the parent need to put some effort into vetting any daycare, including a BH daycare. I visited a bunch of daycares and yes I could tell in a 15 minute visit that teachers at some of the facilities I visited (including a BH one) were miserable. They do not pay their teachers enough to put on a show.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Their duty is to shareholders, not kids.

[Anonymous]

So you want someone to watch your kids for cheap and also not make any money doing it.

[Anonymous]

They employ people to work specifically on grants and fundraising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a daycare chain. Did you think it was non-profit?

There are non-profit daycares.

Sure, in churches. And the Y.

Kindercare is for profit, too. So are Primrose, Beantree, Kiddie Academy, and Chesterbrook, etc. My neighbor runs one at home. Also for profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Their duty is to shareholders, not kids.

This.