When you tour a private daycare center, rarely are you told much about who owns the center or franchise, what their background is, or what drives them to run a business for children and families. Unfortunately, the answers may be disappointing.
The reason you see private daycares popping up all over the place is that more and more entrepreneurs are realizing how lucrative childcare can be. Sometimes, these people do not have backgrounds in early childhood education; they come from the business world and may or may not know anything about children and child development. They are less concerned about the education component of their business than they are the aesthetics.
I once worked for a man who owned several daycares around Chicago. He hired me to oversee the education component of his programs (as he had zero ECE experience). I ran up against a lot of brick walls trying to improve his programs because things he felt were a waste of money, I felt were essential. It was disappointing but also eye-opening.
I have found that franchise owners tend to prioritize making money over supporting children and teachers, which means they pay for what they believe will bring in new families but cut corners when it comes to the actual quality of their programming. For example, having extra teachers or “floaters” available day-to-day takes a lot of pressure off regular classroom teachers and enhances programming, but many centers do not have this support staff. Many owners only want to hire the legal minimum of teachers. This results in constant staff turnover due to burn out, inadequate supervision, and inconsistent care. The money saved may be put toward marketing or gifts for the staff to "boost morale," but guess what? The owner is marketing a sub-par program and the real morale boost would come from hiring a floater!
Another thing to note is that many private centers boast that they are accredited by an organization like NAEYC or ExceleRate. Achieving these accreditations does not always mean they are then maintained; many owners push for the status just to say they have it and then don’t hold their centers to those standards.
Is every private daycare owner like this? No. Many are both the owner and director, in the trenches every day working alongside teachers. Some are less present but understand the needs of teachers, children, and families, and put money toward what truly matters. However, I am always skeptical of a franchise because it means the owner's focus is split between several centers; that tells me they probably don't care all that much about what is actually happening in their centers, just how it all looks from the outside.
And beware any center with a name that includes word like “Academy” or “Genius” or any other lofty term implying academic excellence. This is always a ruse. These programs are usually focused on the wrong aspects of ECE. The name is the owner’s attempt to fool you.
Next time you tour, ask about the owner. It will tell you a lot about the quality of care your child would get and who your money would go to.
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