The average cost per child in pre-k daycare is about 750 - 850 a month - lets round it up to 1k a month https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/child-care-cost-15080-a-year-pennsylvania-heres-the-breakdown/

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which breaks down to about 1k a month (12k / year) per child.

There must be (according to the law) no more then a 1:4 ratio of staff to children for infants, this increases to 1:5 for toddlers, and 1:6 for older toddlers... which means AT MOST, each staff person is bringing in 48k, 60k for toddlers, and 72k for Older toddlers in revenue a year caring for the very young. That is total income, assume that there needs to be a boss (who can fill in to cover days off / sick days etc), rent etc... the total income potential is terrible.

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so what would you consider a "reasonable cap"? the "several thousand a month" is either very premier "private school" level, multiple kids, or in a very high COL like NYC or Seattle/San Fran

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http://www.pacodeandbulletin.gov/Display/pacode?file=/secure/pacode/data/055/chapter3270/s3270.51.html&d=reduce