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QualiTcare 07:38 PM 04-19-2010
Originally Posted by Vesta:
Okay so I'll quote the whole thing this time, incase someone missed it the other times it was quoted.

NO ONE in my area, center, home provider (okay, maybe some nannies do, but that's different) charges more than $30 a day.
The most popular (number wise) centers in my area are mostly propped up by state aid children.
There are no chain daycares in the area, they are all privately owned and operated. At least two that I know of have directors/owners with their Masters in ECE and both of them are active on a state level. Both of their facilities cater to lower income families and state reimbursement for this area is $22 a day.
Also to be a lead teacher at the centers a person must have 60 hours of college six of which being ECE (which is crap when they turn around and pay them all of $8 an hour). But it is what it is.
The most expensive center here has a nice name attached to it that parents look to as a status symbol. That's why they continue to take their children there, pay $150 a week, and have their children herded together in clumps of 30.

So.
I'm happy that you can charge parents the unheard of rate of $175, even though it's cheaper than the chain you worked for charging $186.
For the $2.50 an hour I make before expenses, a parent, paying me that $2.50 an hour (tons of money), will get their child's dirty underwear in a double sealed plastic bag. No formed feces, but I'm not rinsing the underwear. I will clean the child up and change them into fresh clothes, but I'm not doing their laundry.
I do like Nannyde's idea of $5 a swirl (but of course the parent's wouldn't pony up that type of money).
we'll have to agree to disagree, but in my opinion, you simply supported my point.

the educated providers who don't charge more than $30 a day are supported by state funds and large numbers of children - from what you said.

so, i don't find anything outlandish about an educated person with an "unheard of rate" along with an "unheard of ratio" charging $35 per day.

if it were up to me, considering that the first five years of a child's life are the most important - EVERYONE caring for children from birth - age 5 would have to be educated. afterall, you have to be educated to teach children in kindergarten and beyond (age 5 and UP) so why the standards are so low for the most important part of a child's life makes no sense to me, but that's just MY opinion. if kindergarten or 10th grade teachers simply needed a HS diploma - people would be up in arms, but for childcare, it's different - regardless of the FACTS that the first years of a child's life are the most important.

i think of it this way - i would pay $5 extra (probably a LOT more) for a licensed dentist or doctor who is educated in the field to perform work on me vs. someone who graduated high school, but claims to love dentistry or medicine.

why would it be any different for the person caring for/educating your child? i would pay $5 more for a licensed professional to care for my child vs. a high school graduate who can give me their word, but i guess that's a crazy way of thinking. consider me (and at least four other people in town) officially nuts.
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