Reply to Preschools and daycares are never going back to pre-COVID hours, right?

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Reply to "Preschools and daycares are never going back to pre-COVID hours, right?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am the first PP that said our center is back to normal hours. We are located in Maryland.

I think universal pre-k put a particular strain on DC child care providers. 3 and 4 year olds don't require such low ratios. Providers typically lose money on infants and toddlers and make it up with their 3 and 4 year olds. Now so many of those children are in pre-k programs in public schools.

"The program had some unintended consequences. For instance, it squeezed DC’s private child care providers. Infant and toddler care is expensive — each adult can only care for a few young children at a time — so private child care centers generally make the bulk of their profits on older children. Now that DC serves most 3- and 4-year-olds in public pre-K classrooms, its child care costs are among the country’s highest."
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/8/5/20748833/washington-dc-pre-k-free-public-universal[/quote]

Thank you for pointing this out. I didn’t really consider this before, but it makes a lot of sense.[/quote]

YES, and WHEN Maryland does the same thing, Maryland centers will have very few 3s and 4s enrolled, too.  And this IS happening - it will start with 4s (PreK) and then in a few years they will add 3s (preschool) classrooms.  And the centers will be screwed.  And, yes, a center relies on the preschool/prek classes to make their budget (kind of) work.

Also, the most expensive line item on the budget is:  salaries and the 2nd is rent, 3rd is insurance.  And the ONLY income is parent tuition. What really needs to happen to make a livable wage for all ECE teachers in all childcare centers is to double the tuition for every child.  Yup, double!  But of course parents can't afford that, so we are stuck with this horrible system. [/quote]

Actually what needs to happen is for the government to subsidize child care (in addition to subsidized pre-k). Many women simply don't WOH because what they can earn early in their career is not enough to cover child care expenses. If you double tuition more parents drop out of the workforce and more daycares go out of business.[/quote]

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