An op-ed article in the San Francisco Chronicle this weekend talked about the extremely high cost of San Francisco preschools: a price tag of somewhere between $12,000 and $20,000 a year is normal these days. The writer of the article is outraged and wants to start a group to campaign against this. The precise actions this group could take are unclear to me, but I fully agree with the author's sentiment. I wouldn't be thrilled to pay college tuition-level costs for my child to go somewhere for finger-painting, juice and cookies and nap time. I know that some of the better preschools offer much more than these simple activities, but whatever they offer, $20,000 or even $15,000 is too much.
The high cost of preschools, combined with this city's absurd lottery system for K-through-12 education, as well as the lack of adequate play and recreation areas for children, signals the deeper, overarching problem: this city does not really look out for kids, in spite of whatever song-and-dance the local politicians are giving us. And because of this, a high percentage of parents--even, the majority, I'm willing to bet--decide to move their families to the suburbs by the time their kids reach the age of four or five. It's definitely something this family is considering.
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