When I read last week that, in 33 states, the annual cost of daycare now exceeds that of the average annual cost of college, I was surprised but not shocked. Over time, I’ve made my share of such daycare payments.
At our peak, my family was spending over $500 per week on childcare – $200 for an infant, $170 for a toddler and the remainder for before and after school care for my three elementary-schoolers. The numbers were big – often too large to rationalize both of us working full-time.
In typical Good-Bad Dad form, as sure as I’d hand my check to the center’s Director each Friday, so too would I complain about high costs of attending.
I constantly have thought: Why is childcare so expensive?
I’ve heard many answers with one, core issue causing the bloat: the demands of us parents.
In trying to find solutions, I can quickly see five ways to cut costs at daycare:
- Reduce overhead staff. At many centers there is a Director, Assistant Director, Training Coordinator and other staff that run the back office. While I agree that some administrative wherewithal is needed to run a business, if costs are a concern then non-student staff would have to shrink.
- Provide fewer amenities. Facilities are often very nice and amenities rich – equipped with multiple areas of play based on age, media centers, libraries, multiple rooms per age group with kid-friendly bathrooms in each. If kids were provided less, costs should go down.
- Do not expect a curriculum. To reduce daycare tuition, expectations of teachers would need to be tempered. The facility would run less like a school and more like an institutional babysitter – no curriculum, no parent-teacher conferences and no extracurricular activities. Kids would be safe and cared for while leaving the book-schooling to V.P.K. and above.
- Parents have to chip in. If the daycare’s van breaks down, then there better be a mechanic in the parental ecosystem that will fix the vehicle in-kind. Or, when a newsletter is required, the resident blogger should volunteer his services to print and publish one. This would work for grounds keeping and cleaning as well if all of us over-committed parents help out.
- Understand the costs/benefit of accreditation. In full disclosure, I understand nothing about what a center is required to do if they are accredited. I do, however, know that the push-down of state accreditation standards is a common scapegoat for the rising tuition dollars needed to fund early childcare. If a center adhered to only minimal standards, the costs of attendance should go marginally down.
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I can quickly make two arguments against every cost-savings initiative on my list above. That means that I am, indeed, part of the cause of rising costs. Parents, like me, will pay a premium to have a school-like experience early-on.
Signing up to pay that premium, for me, is 50% based on being the best parent I can be, and 50% based on fear of my kids being left behind in a substandard, cheaper alternative.
Dads like me are why centers provide shiny toys, multiple playgrounds and kiddie yoga on Wednesdays. My line of thinking drives facilities previously called whimsical names like “Eager Elves” to now change to pretentious titles ending in “Learning Academy.”
Daycare centers are profiting from my Good-Bad Dad mentality – calling my bluff between upholding my budget and providing access to the best for my kids.
This is the same reason that my swim trunks are ten years old while my son has $50 Speedo “jammers” with a three-month useful life. Or, why my running shoes are due for a tune-up while my son dashes down the pitch in new “Reynaldo” cleats.
When I have to, I err on the side of providing for my kids.
In ten years, when my daycare checks morph into college tuition payments, I’ll still wonder about the relative value of the money we’ve spent over time. I hope that our spending has garnered more good than bad and more value than waste – but I won’t be sure.
There is only one certainty – I’ll be thinking about the money spent while wearing my, now twenty year-old, swimming trunks in dire need of replacement.
