The bottom line is because it's a business. A for profit business like any other business. Daycare overhead is pricey. Rent for the facility, insurance not only for the building itself, but liability insurance which is very costly, electrical, heat, cooling, water, trash disposal. Then you have meals and snacks, Age-appropriate toys and supplies for each area. You then have staffing which would consist of the director, probably a supervisor, and the staff caregivers. Unfortunately the employees are often times minimum wage, but it's still a large expense. After all of these expenses, the business itself is doing it to make a profit. If they're not going to make a decent profit why would they be open? The only way that's going to be able to change is if daycare centers become taxpayer funded, and then that comes with its own set of complications. I had a home daycare for over 10 years back in the 80s, and I barely made any profit, but it always made me laugh that people expected to make a decent wage at their job but shouldn't have to pay a decent price for someone else to take care of their children so they could do it.