Childcare Regulation and Quality

David Boaz blogged today on theWashington Post story about a lawsuit regarding DC childcare regulations. DC is set to require directors of child-care facilities to obtain a bachelor ’s degree in early childhood development, and assistant teachers and home-care providers to have Child Development Associate (CDA) certificates in the same subject.The WaPo write-up follows the usual boilerplate for these discussions: on the one hand, providers say complying with the regulations will be burdensome and increase costs; on the other hand, the government talks up the educational benefits of the new regulations. This all implies there is a trade-off between quality and cost.But is there? Actually, this is a classic example of the government ’s argument not considering the market for childcare as a whole.Yes, requiring child-care workers to achieve higher qualification levels could result in more highly trainedformal caregivers, who can help children to develop from an educational perspective. Such a regulation might also provide a “quality assurance” effect for some particularly conscientious parents.But the effect on the quality of care faced by the whole population of children is ambiguous. By restraining the supply of formal care via regulation, the price of formal care will rise. If the price of formal childcare rises, then some parents will decide to substitute to more informal forms of care or even have to stay home to care for their own children. According to the governm...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs