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School as Daycare
Matt Yglesias provoked a conversation on Twitter just before Thanksgiving 2021
- There are all these small, parent-hostile aspects of how schools work -- no school the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, no aftercare the Tuesday before Thanksgiving -- that were invisible to me before I had a kid.
Readers had thoughts:
- public service providers need to adjust to the needs of the public
- unaware of this service
- where find a babysitter for these odd hours
- just stop doing it, let the market react to the need
- not all jobs can be adjusted (eg. airline pilot)
- elsewhere (eg Italy) kids don't get holidays parents don't get
- unions seek benefits rather than pay
- babysitters are paid better (per hour per child)
- taxes and house valuation spiral
- school board sets calendar early in year, lots of warning
- everybody in neighborhood chip in
Some well phrased:
- Not to mention teachers are doing more than just watching the children and keeping them from harm. They're imparting knowledge and molding these kids into functional members of society.Its not that I don't believe teachers are entitled to good wages, but the comparison between teachers and babysitters must stop. Its two different things, although public school does perform a childcare function in that parents rely on it to be open when it says it is."Just get your family/community to help out with the kids" is equivalent to "just use your inheritance to buy [upper/middle class thing]."
tags: daycare childcare gsblog
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