> Many explanations have been offered for rising child care costs. The Institute for Family Studies, for example, shows that prices rise with regulations like “group sizes, child-to-staff ratios, required annual training hours, and minimum educational requirements for teachers and center directors.” I don’t deny that regulation raises prices—places with more regulation have higher costs—but I don’t think that explains the slow, steady price increase over time. As with health care and education, the better explanation is the Baumol effect, as I argued in my book (with Helland) Why Are the Prices So Damn High?
While I agree regulation probably doesn't explain the whole price increase, I wonder if governments can do a better job preventing regulation from causing price increases without cutting corners on the regulation itself. Subsidize training for example. Make the child-staff ratios and group sizes a more dynamic factor based on age and needs. Maybe set aside funds to subsidize targeted special needs child care so the kids with fewer needs can be cared for more cheaply(I imagine this is controversial just like schools having separate special needs classes was).
Of course there's the catch all approach of adding childcare to the public schools budget and rolling the cost into taxes.
The article makes very clear that costs are rising for "pet day care" just as quickly as for real day care for children. This can not be explained by regulation, as pet day care is far far less regulated compared to daycare for children.
> Subsidize training for example
This just spreads the cost across all taxpayers, instead of just the people consuming the service. Not to say that's a bad thing, just saying that it's not really "reducing the cost of regulation".
> Make the child-staff ratios and group sizes a more dynamic factor based on age and needs.
At least in my state, this is already the case. for infants, 1 adult per 6 children; increasing the ratio as they get older, up to 1 adult for 18 children when they're 4.
I don't think you're wrong that there are ways to reduce the burden of regulation, but I think we overestimate how much "low hanging fruit" there really is here. The common-sense, obvious, uncontroversial solutions are usually already in place
> This just spreads the cost across all taxpayers, instead of just the people consuming the service.
Yes—and then we can (in theory—obviously not going to happen in the current political climate) shift the bulk of that cost onto the taxpayers who can most afford to subsidize it, and away from the people who are just getting by. Who are, not entirely coincidentally, also the people most likely to be in need of childcare services.
1 adult per 18 4-year old children seems... hectic.