Regulate It, Make It Unaffordable, Subsidize It
Luxury daycare… great if you can afford it. Image credit: Bing Image Creator
This piece by Jim Bacon really hit home. Like him, I struggled to find daycare when my kids were very young. Like him, I found an in-home provider who loved children and kept mine safe and happy while I worked. I doubt her ranch house could pass state regs for licensing today. Horrid incidents in some subpar childcare situations led to stringent requirements for all. And this is where we are today…
by James A. Bacon
“If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” So said former President Ronald Reagan in one of his pithier takedowns of government intervention in the economy.
I don’t believe that daycare providers were ever singled out for taxation, but here in Virginia, they certainly have been regulated. Now the cost of daycare is burdensome to many parents of young children. Unsurprisingly, the General Assembly wants to subsidize it.
The legislature passed a bill setting aside $25 million for a pilot project to reimburse businesses that contribute to the childcare costs of their employees, reports WRIC. The bill, supported by groups as diverse as the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, awaits action by Governer Glenn Youngkin.
Let us posit for the moment that the cost of daycare is a very real social problem. I know because I hear about it from my daughter and son-in-law, both working professionals, who pay burdensome sums for their two children. I can’t imagine how difficult life is for households that lack their means. So, let me be clear, I do not minimize the dimensions of the challenge facing young parents today.
But I’ve lived long enough to see how programs like this proposed $25 million subsidy evolves. The program starts small, as a pilot project. Then it becomes institutionalized. Once the principle has been established that daycare is a “right,” subsidized childcare expands incrementally to encompass more and more families until a $25 million pilot project becomes an entrenched $250 million entitlement.
Something in the DNA of do-gooders and politicians triggers a reflexive response: (1) Every social problem requires government intervention, and (2) every government intervention requires regulation or subsidy. Deregulation is never an option. No one pauses to ask if previous efforts to address a social ill had unintended consequences — such as making daycare unaffordable.
Once upon a time, American mothers provided the daycare. Times changed. Women came to have more options in life. And that’s all to the good. When mom worked, families often could rely upon extended family for help — aunts, cousins, and grandmothers mostly but even the occasional male caregiver. But society changed some more. Families became more atomized. Young parents moved to different cities. If mom wanted to keep working, families had no choice but to outsource the care of their children to others.
In the mid-20th century, Virginia began licensing childcare facilities with eye to maintaining basic health and safety standards. People decided it was a good idea, for instance, to make sure the daycare providers didn’t have a history of criminality or child abuse. But the urge to heap on more regulations never stopped. Over time, the state began setting standards for staff qualifications, child-to-staff-ratios, physical-facility requirements, and the like.
Today the standards for licensed daycare centers cover:
Paperwork regarding the keeping of employee records, child records, attendance reports, parental agreements, “written procedures for injury prevention,” and written “playground safety procedures.” Records on children and staff must be maintained for two years after termination of services.
Staff training; CPR training; staff-to-child ratios.
Facilities, equipment and materials, including cribs, cots, rest mats, beds and linens;
Medications, over-the-counter skin products, first-aid supplies;
Nutrition and food services;
Transportation and field trips;
Animals and pets.
Program directors must have a college-level degree in child-related fields supplemented by a minimum number of years of “programmatic” experience depending upon the degree. Similarly, program “leaders” must have a minimum level of education/job experience.
Additionally, program directors and staff must attend 16 hours annually of staff-development activities related to child safety and development.
Buildings and facilities are tightly regulated. Indoor temperatures must be maintained at no lower than 68 degrees and no higher than 80 degrees. “Drinking fountains or individual disposable cups with safe drinking water shall be accessible at all times.”
Facilities must have a minimum of 35 square feet of indoor wall-to-wall space per child. (Infants require only 25 square feet each.) Daycare centers must maintain at least one toilet and one sink per 20 preschool children. The “toilet and sink ratio” for older children may vary.
Playground areas must have at least 25 square feet of unpaved surface per infant or toddler. The regulations detail the requirements for “resilient” playground surfaces, swing sets, sandboxes, and “fall zones” around a “climbing apparatus.”
I could go on and on. The Standards for Licensed Child Care Centers runs almost 100 pages.
State regulations preclude many daycare settings, particularly in homes, and exclude many potential providers from the daycare marketplace. Some 25 years ago, my wife and I sent our toddler son to a home daycare provider whom I cannot imagine would be licensed today. The woman kept the children in her home. I don’t recall her having any “resilient” playground surface outside. She was rough around the edges — probably never saw a day of college in her life — but she loved little children and took great care of them. Thousands of women like her have been purged from the daycare market.
It’s an old story. Urban upper-middle class professionals write regulations and set standards that they would like for their children. The standards are mandated statewide, regardless of local variations in living standards and cultural values. Everyone gets the BMW daycare experience… even if they can afford only the Nissan Versa model. Daycare becomes unaffordable to many. Therefore, it must be subsidized.
Daycare is already subsidized in Virginia, by the way. Families earning less than 85% of the state median income are eligible for state subsidies. Daycare providers can even apply to become “subsidy vendors.”
But for some people, that’s not enough. The General Assembly wants to extend the subsidies. The iron rule of the welfare state is that no entitlement is ever enough. It expands incrementally and relentlessly and it will continue to do so… until we all go broke.
