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  3. Children are a delight. They are our future. But sadly, hiring someone to ta

Children are a delight. They are our future. But sadly, hiring someone to ta

游客2024-01-28  57
问题     Children are a delight. They are our future. But sadly, hiring someone to take care of them while you go to work is getting more expensive by the year.
    Earlier this month, it was reported that the cost of enrolling an infant or small kid at a childcare center rose 3% in 2012, faster than the overall cost of living. There are now large strips of the country where daycare for an infant costs more than a tenth of the average married couple’s income.
    This is not necessarily a new trend, but it is a somewhat puzzling one. The price of professional childcare has been rising since the 1980s. Yet during that time, pay for professional childcare workers has stood still. Actually caregivers make less today, in real terms, than they did in 1990. Considering that labor costs are responsible for up to 80% of a daycare center’s expenses, one would expect flat wages to have meant flat prices.
    So who’s to blame for higher childcare costs?
    Childcare is a carefully regulated industry.States lay down rules about how many children each employee is allowed to watch over, the space care centers need per child, and other minute details. And the stricter the regulations, the higher the costs.If it has to hire a caregiver for every two children, it can’t really achieve any economies of scale on labor to save money when other expenses go up. In Massachusetts, where childcare centers must hire one teacher for every three infants, the price of care averaged more than $16,000 per year. In Mississippi, where centers must hire one teacher for every five infants, the price of care averaged less than $5,000.
Unfortunately, I don’t have all the daycare-center regulations handy. But I wouldn’t be surprised if as the rules have become more elaborate, prices have risen. The tradeoff (交换)might be worth it in some cases; after all, the health and safety of children should probably come before cheap service. But certainly, it doesn’t seem to be an accident that some of the cheapest daycare available is in the least regulated South. [br] Why is the average cost of childcare in Mississippi much lower than in Massachusetts?
选项 A、The overall quality of service is not as good.
B、Payments for caregivers there are not as high.
C、Living expenses there are comparatively low.
D、Each teacher is allowed to care for more kids.
答案 D
解析 第五段阐释了保育价格上涨的原因，指出保育法规越严格，保育价格越高。最后两句以两个州为例，马萨诸塞州规定一名老师只能照看三个孩子，这样每年的平均保育费用超过16,000美元。密西西比州允许一名老师照看五个孩子，平均保育费用则低于5,000美元。两个州的保育费用差别巨大，原因就在于法律规定的教师与学生的比例不同，密西西比州允许一名老师照看的孩子数量多，所以保育费用低，故答案为D。
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