DC and a few other states now require daycare workers to get degrees. The research doesn’t show this improves outcomes for children below grade school level. But the requirement is there, citing it professionalizes the sector and improves quality of childcare.

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The media almost never runs good-news stories about low-wage work. The one time they did was celebrating a policy that pushed people out of jobs they loved.

I think the Washington Post staff mean well but it comes off as tone-deaf to workers. Government grants cover the costs of the two-year degree. But the hurdle is often that you’re asking them to do coursework in a language they’re still learning. Many daycare workers, like my mom and my best friend’s mom, struggle with English skills. This makes it hard to navigate paperwork and grant applications. A degree takes a lot of time away from other paid or unpaid work they already do.

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Formal daycare is already out of reach for many American families. Informal childcare is the most common non-parental childcare. One third to one half of employed parents of kids under five rely on friends, family, and neighbors.

Requiring daycare workers to have degrees makes what looks like a luxury good, formal daycare, even more of a luxury good. It effectively outlaws cheaper versions of daycare.

Daycare workers see this. They also see how regulations put them in impossible positions daily. If a child falls and has a bad nosebleed, rules require washing hands and putting on gloves before applying pressure. That’s minutes of a child bleeding while you grab gloves that must be stored out of reach of kids.