I just wanted to comment about the previous post in reference to childcare companies not being able to find qualified teachers becuase they don't "PAY" for such. It's not a matter of us "wanting" to pay, but a matter of us being "able" to pay. Not only has the cost of real estate, food, insurance, minimum wage, gas, transportation, but every other line item has increased as well. We (providers) have not been able to pass all of these increases along to our customers becuase they can't afford to bare them all. This has left the providers with a bulk of the losses. THe profit margins in this industry are decreasing significantly. Furthermore, with the increased enrollment in the public pre-k programs, we are loosing one of our most profitable age groups - thereby - decreasing the overall marging even more. I am a concerned provider and fear that if something is not done to boost our industry, it is going to vanish. Thus, parents of all infants - 3 years are going to be stranded with no place for thier children.

It appears that it is the economy that is the cause of less clients in our company. We are just starting to experience the effect of parents losing jobs. In some cases, parents are choosing child care homes because of the price and cost saving rules - like only paying for days used, not days scheduled.

ECE one of the best kept secret in the world. Workers are struggling to maintain a regular lifestyle because of the low pay. Expectations are high pay is low.

Corporations, such as Kindercare, have a problem Finding qualified teachers because they don't want to PAY for qualified teachers.