Anonymous wrote:A lot of the preschool teachers are my kids preschool are white though - and I doubt they make more than daycare workers. I think it's considered "higher skilled" though and I get the impression that at least some of the teachers just love the job and don't need the money. So low pay doesn't fully explain what is going on here.

This is true of real preschools with half-day or part-day classes (as opposed to daycare centers); many of the teachers are moms who work part-time while their own kids are in school (which is my situation). Their income is just a (small) supplement to their husband's wages, certainly not what they are trying to support a family on. Many preschool teachers would not work at a daycare center because it would require more hours than they want to work; if they wanted to work full-time, many would a different job, where they could earn more money.

To address the OP's question about diversity among childcare workers (and without having read all four pages of comments), I'd say look to the average salary. It's extremely low and attracts people with fewer options. The reality that this reflects is that black people (but I'm guessing they are mostly women) have fewer employment options.

Even among NAEYC accredited daycare centers, a college degree isn't required (yet...not until 2014, I think, when they become mandatory), so there's that as well.

Anonymous wrote:You all understand that "diversity" has little to do with skin tone and just about everything to do with socioeconomics?

I laugh when rich people pat themselves on the back that their schools and neighborhood are soooo diverse with the rainbow of nationalities. True diversity is interacting with people from different economic and educational backgrounds-which really does not mean much in this area, unless you sit down to talk with your housecleaner while she scrubs your floors.

And I find it funny that all of a sudden nobody cares about racial diversity. It's not about skin color, yada yada... And I agree! But whenever the population of interest is predominantly white everyone forgets it and it becomes a problem to be solved.