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.

Yes, I knew that.

I find it shocking that you would have assumed it was a non-profit? What is your interaction with Bright Horizons? I remember looking at them when we were looking at daycares and they are pretty expensive, though do tend to have nice facilities. I wanted a smaller environment for my kid. However, we did actually wind up using a Bright Horizons for a few weeks because my work offered it as an emergency childcare backup and we needed emergency childcare at one point. It was fine -- I was not awed by it, nor did I worry my child was unsafe.

Most childcare facilities are for profit. Did you know nannies are for-profit enterprises?

The US offers very little in the way of subsidized or non-profit care. The only ones I know of are stuff like the Communikids facilities run through OSSE in DC, or maybe some of the church daycares? I bet some of the church daycares are revenue generators though.

Where on earth would you get the idea that one of the biggest daycare chains in the country was some kind of not-for-profit exercise? And if you have been to one, did you pick up on it when you saw what it cost? It's non cheap!

I thought it was pretty widely known that BH is a for-profit chain. They don't try to hide it.

There actually is evidence that being a nation for profit chain is associated with lower quality compared with nonprofits or local for profit daycares. That being said a Bright Horizons might be the best option available to you,.you just have to look at each option individually because any kind of daycare can be good or bad.


"That profit motive is the heart of the matter. While the owner of a family child care business obviously wants to make a living, they are responsible only to themselves. Although we can draw some generalized conclusions about different program types, as one researcher has put it, “not all for-profit entrepreneurs are profit maximizers and not all nonprofit centers are trustworthy.”

A publicly traded company, on the other hand, is responsible to its shareholders—has legal fiduciary duties to those shareholders—and lives or dies by a stock price that is attuned to its profit. Similarly, a private equity-backed enterprise is structured to make money for its investors. That is, by and large, its raison d’etre.

You see the problem, of course. Making money is not always synonymous with what is best for children, families and staff. A caveat: I think plenty of people who work for the big chains want to do right by children, families and staff. There are big chain programs that participate in state quality rating systems and are assessed to be excellent. These programs are, however, inherently part of corporations that by their very nature must serve multiple masters.

We don’t have great U.S. data comparing chains to other programs, but what does exist paints the picture you might expect. A 2007 analysis found that, “Nonprofit centers evidenced higher caregiver wages and education at most ages and better quality, child/staff ratios, turnover, caregiver professionalism and positive caregiving for toddlers and preschoolers,” with for-profit chain programs broadly showing the worst outcomes. This has been the international experience as well."

https://earlylearningnation.com/2022/04/against-for-profit-child-care-chains/

Yes, most daycares are for profit, unless a local non profit organization, church or local government runs them.

I think they have college admissions counseling too.

Yes and it’s owned (or was owned for a time) by private equity, either KKR or Bain.

Anonymous wrote:Why does that matter?

I don’t want my child’s daycare constantly cutting corners to turn a profit.

Why does that matter?

Anonymous wrote:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230216005725/en/Bright-Horizons-Family-Solutions-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2022-Financial-Results

Almost barfed reading that. Eww.

Why? It's a company.

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

There are non-profit daycares.

Yep. Some might provide decent care but a chunk of the tuition goes to making rich people richer

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

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230216005725/en/Bright-Horizons-Family-Solutions-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2022-Financial-Results

Almost barfed reading that. Eww.