Running a child care or preschool business is never easy. Profit margins are low. Staff turnover can be high. Caring for children is rewarding – but exhausting.
Add a new setback for an already embattled industry: Tariffs.
Trump administration tariffs on goods made in China are hitting child care providers hard. Many school supplies – desks, cubbies, bookshelves, toys, playground equipment – are made in China.
Tariffs as high as 30 percent are squeezing preschools and daycares whose budgets already have no room for error.
“It’s already a miracle to make the budget work,” one founder of a Pacific Beach preschool for children with disabilities told Voice of San Diego contributor Walker Armstrong. “Add in tariffs and it starts to unravel.”
Some fear they will have to close. That would leave parents already scrambling to find care for their children with even fewer options.
“When I tell you every dollar is vital to us, I really mean it,” one child care provider said. “We’re scared of tariffs. We’re very afraid.”
No, You Can’t Avoid the Trash Fee
A new waste bin in front of a garbage truck in Grant Hill on Jan. 18, 2023. / Photo by Ariana Drehsler
It’s official: We’re merely one bill cycle away from the implementation of San Diego’s new trash fee.
If you live in a single-family home or small apartment complex, that’s $32 to $43 a month that you won’t be able to spend on, say, two sandwiches? Dark times, indeed.
We wanted to know: Is there any way around this? Maybe you want to hire a private hauler instead, or perhaps you’re prepared to take on the Herculean task of hauling your own trash.
That answer to that, simply, is no. But if you’re a nerd for nuance like us, you can learn more about how it all works here.
Sacramento Report: The Bills Moving Forward
Women walk out of Albertson’s grocery store with bottles of water in Alpine, Calif on Aug. 18, 2023. / Photo by Ariana Drehsler
Sacramento reporter Deborah Brennan has been keeping a close eye on the bills San Diego’s legislators are hoping to pass.
This week, after a key deadline, we learned which bills are moving forward, and which ones didn’t make the cut in their own houses.
The bills that survived include one that bans surveillance pricing, another that would fund border sewage cleanup and one more that would regulate the placement of sexually violent predators.
What comes next? State Senate and Assembly Committees will reconvene on Aug. 18 after their summer recess.Then, it’s crunch time for members to get bills passed in the opposite houses before Sept. 12.
Read more in the Sacramento Report here.
VOSD Podcast: Budget Ping Pong
On the latest episode, our hosts explain what’s next for the city of San Diego’s budget ping pong match. Will the City Council override Mayor Todd Gloria’s vetoes? Or will they accept his changes? Listen to the full episode here.
In Other News
- Next month, the San Diego City Council will consider allowing cannabis businesses to stay open longer. Officials hope the new hours will bring in more cannabis and sales tax revenue.(Union-Tribune)
- The U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on whether the nuclear waste from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station can be stored at a yet-to-be built facility in Texas. (Union-Tribune)
- Fifty years ago, “Jaws” redefined how people thought about sharks. Yes, some began to fear them, but many were fueled with questions about the mysterious creatures. That curiosity has led to decades of research. (NBC 7)
- The county’s two Democratic supervisors are warning that President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” could devastate the county’s budget – and they’ve got a proposal to prepare for that possibility. (Union-Tribune)
- Sorry, yogis: The city is appealing a court ruling that brought back previously banned beach yoga. (10 News)
The Morning Report was written by Jim Hinch, Bella Ross, Lisa Halverstadt and Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña. It was edited by Andrea Sanchez-Villafaña.