Childcare Is in Chaos. Private Equity and For-Profit Chains Are Swooping In.


0

There is also a very serious political question here. While childcare educators have seen a recent uptick in their power, especially as more home childcare providers unionize, the chains have
outsize influence as the only large corporations in the field. Many were
outwardly supportive of the childcare provisions in the Build Back Better Act—after
all, they would stand to benefit somewhat from increased subsidies. But since
their priority is making money, not making childcare affordable or
compensating educators well, they’ve been less supportive of efforts to have
the government boost minimum wages or directly engage in providing childcare. That
does not bode well for policy battles to come: When push comes to shove, it is
unclear whether these companies will trade lower profits for a better system.

The chains make few pretenses about their positions. Bright
Horizons said in its SEC filing last year, “our
continued profitability depends on our ability to pass on our increased costs,
such as labor and related costs, to our customers,” and changes to the system
that create lower-cost options “could place downward pressure on the tuition
and fees we charge, which could adversely affect our revenues.” Nor are chains
focused on ensuring broad access for families. While schools and fire
departments are in every community, these chains’ geographic decisions have
little to do with need. As the Learning Experience’s CEO Richard Weissman said in an interview, that is instead “an economic question …
can we afford the cost of real estate in comparison to the tuitions we can
charge?”

While U.S. lawmakers have largely ignored the growth of
these chains—accepting a marriage of convenience given the precious few slots
for children in the country’s weak system—other nations have begun reckoning
with these questions. Canada is a prime
example. As its new “$10
a Day
” universal childcare system comes online, funded by a permanent
increase of billions in federal funding, provinces have taken different
approaches to the for-profit question. British Columbia is prioritizing
nonprofit and public programs when giving out the funds, while Nova Scotia is
requiring for-profit programs to convert to nonprofit status if they want to
participate (programs are welcome to forgo the public funding and remain
for-profit).


Like it? Share with your friends!

0

What's Your Reaction?

hate hate
0
hate
confused confused
0
confused
fail fail
0
fail
fun fun
0
fun
geeky geeky
0
geeky
love love
0
love
lol lol
0
lol
omg omg
0
omg
win win
0
win
adminadmin

0 Comments

Leave a Reply