Childcare has become a hot button issue from all angles. Parents with young children have discovered the relative connection between their little darlin’ needing someone to keep them out of the liquor cabinet and how that damn kid keeps them from doing what they want, like going to work. What to do? Childcare, because don’t parents have a right to feel accomplished and fulfilled, and locking this little brat in a closet under the stairs is frowned upon?
But childcare is too expensive. But the people who work at childcare who have neither education nor specialized skills are underpaid. But the people who work at childcare should be able to make junior the best toddler he can be so mom and dad don’t feel guilty for not being sure which kid is theirs when the arrive for pickup. In Washington, D.C., these conflicted desires came together in a local rule requiring childcare workers to have, at minimum, an associates degree. And the D.C. Circuit, Judge Sri Srinivasan, held the law constitutional.
Sound good, having the people employed by your childcare provider better educated? As a general notion, sure, why not? But as a condition of employment, the more salient question is why?
As described by the court, the DC regulation requires childcare workers in “child development homes” – defined as “private residences where two or more caregivers are responsible for up to twelve children” to have “at least an associate’s degree ‘with a major in early childhood education, early childhood development, child and family studies or a closely related field.'” Teachers in “childcare facilities serving more than twelve children outside the operator’s home” are required to either get an associate’s degree of the type described above or – if they already have a college degree in another field – they may instead “complete at least twenty-four credit hours [of higher education] in subjects related to early-childhood education.”
See the problem yet? Initially, the connection between having a degree and a contribution to the performance of one’s position caring for children is there, but rather tenuous.
The DC Circuit concluded that the DC child care regulation passes the test because getting a degree in early childhood education pretty clearly facilitates provision of childcare. Even if some of the courses workers could take under the requirement do not relate to child care, “OSSE [the agency issuing the regulation]could [still] rationally issue the challenged regulations without needing to parse the curriculum of any particular school.” Indeed, “Even if all associate’s degree programs contain at least some irrelevant content, still could have rationally concluded that requiring childcare workers to complete a predominantly relevant course of study will improve the quality of care young children receive.” Furthermore, even course content irrelevant to child care, as such, could rationally be required “A variety of courses outside the early-childhood major, from math and English to art and history, could be beneficial to someone tasked with the educational development of toddlers—as any adult who has been flummoxed by a two-year-old repeatedly asking ‘why’ can attest.”
It’s weak, but adequate to survive rational basis scrutiny which requires little more than passing the laugh test no matter how many excuses needed to be made to connect the dots. Remember, the efficacy of the choice is left to the body making the rules, and the court’s concern is not whether it’s a good idea, but whether it’s unlawful. So you see the problem yet?
This reasoning is utterly ridiculous. Any adult with experience in caring for small children knows that it’s perfectly possible to do the job well without having a college degree of any kind. When I was in middle school and high school, I spent hundreds of hours working as a babysitter for toddlers, all without ever feeling the need to for any information that could only be learned in college (indeed, I didn’t even have a high school diploma at the time). Rare is the parent who, in choosing daycare facilities, cares whether the employees have college degrees or not.
Now? Oh come on. Does Ilya Somin have to spell it out for you? Fine.
The court’s rationale for the regulation also errs in conflating two different services: childcare and education. Even if higher education credentials are valuable for the latter, they are not necessary for the former. The DC regulation applies even to facilities that just provide care, without claiming to educate.
Childcare isn’t teaching. Sure, there is always some element of teaching involved whenever one is dealing with children, but that’s not the job. The job is returning the child to the parent at the end of the day fed, clean and with nothing broken. It’s babysitting. It’s a grownup watching a child while the parents are doing something else. If grandma doesn’t have a college degree, does that mean she can’t watch the kids? Or Sally from down the street when you want to go out to dinner?
What’s curious here is that regulations limiting who may be employed in occupations has come under fire as harmful to marginalized communities. Gatekeepers refuse to allow a person to braid eyebrows without 1000 hours of school, so why not childcare? Of course, the better question is why require 1000 hours of eyebrow braiders, but I digress.
Adding a college degree, even an associates’, will necessarily preclude a significant number of people from being employed in childcare, which was already paying too little according to those who believe that wages should be set at the amount necessary for a person to live a decent life rather than the amount dictated by the employment marketplace.
Those who possess this degree will, reasonably, demand higher pay than those without it. And that means the cost of childcare, which is largely wages, will increase, even as marginalized people are no longer able to get the job. And that means the cost of childcare to parents who may be force to work to feed their children or want to work to feel self-actualization will go up, and it’s already prohibitively expensive.
Whoever is going to pay for this morass? Sit down. I have something to tell you and it’s going to make you sad.
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