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Existing-Papaya-8643 OP t1_j6el18f wrote

Reply to comment by Dredly in Universal Childcare for Pennsylvanians— and everyone in the US by Existing-Papaya-8643

Thank you for this question— I’d agree with what people are writing below about the income limits being out of touch, and argue that PA childcare is not heavily subsidized. I meet a lot of people barely scraping by who do not qualify. I’m one of those families (two adults in FT jobs, constant employment since a teen, no major medical emergencies… and childcare is unaffordable. We aren’t living the highlife).

There’s also the question of room at quality centers. The waiting lists are incredibly long in my area. Additionally, high staff turnover is detrimental to young children’s development and higher wages and better conditions could prevent the turnover, but it’s not going to happen without a concerted effort to improve and budgets being strategically used.

I’m not going to say there aren’t a lot of things to work out, but I will say other countries (and even at the state level!) do this and it’s worth the investment on many levels (fiscal, personal).

Thanks for your q!

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Dredly t1_j6elfc6 wrote

I'm sorry, I don't think you answered my question, are the issues the income guidelines and everything else is good?

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Existing-Papaya-8643 OP t1_j6enepy wrote

No, the issues are it needs to be affordable, accessible, and quality. That is what we want to organize to address. PA’s currently isn’t affordable or very accessible and there’s a wide spectrum of quality— your guess as to who can afford quality centers.

I want to be clear: we do not have an entire campaign and specific demands planned out yet. If you would like to be a part of that effort, Wednesday’s meeting would be a great place to start!

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Dredly t1_j6eq7dy wrote

so you want it to be cheaper, despite the vast majority being privately owned and setting their own prices, (which are typically way above what the gov't would pay)

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Accessible but nobody wants to do the job for the same reason nobody wants to be a teacher (but for less money, more stress, less time off, limited benefits, and worse parents),

and you want it to be better quality, which means higher standards, which means more costs, which means less places offering the service

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I'm curious how much do you believe 8+ hours of child care per day should cost?

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my wife was a preschool teacher at 3 different locations, nanny, and public school teacher and we looked into opening our own. We absolutely need to address this issue, I'm just really curious what the solution is other then "Make it better, free, and everywhere"

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Existing-Papaya-8643 OP t1_j6esdzq wrote

I want to make sure these questions are in good faith, and respond to the ones that are. Are you interested in organizing with others for, yes, affordable, accessible, and quality care? If so, you have the information you need from my original post and other answers.

I’m a full time working parent with limited time. I’m organizing in some of my spare time with hundreds of other people. I think childcare should be free to all. We pay taxes, significant taxes, and I’d like to see those taxes work for us.

Cheers! Hope to see you in an organizing call. It takes vision and optimism to work towards something new— come aboard if that’s you.

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Dredly t1_j6et0iv wrote

they are in good faith as I've witnessed the industry first hand, we also got out of the industry specifically because the parents (almost always mothers) were terrible to deal with because they wanted exactly what you are demanding without any idea or plan or knowledge on how anything works.

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Good luck, the industry needs to evolve, I look forward to your solutions!

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