We are trying to do this -- teaming up with another family & hiring a full-time teacher for all 4 kids. We went with "Elementary Teacher for At-Home Learning" in our job ad & got a dozen applications right away. Here are some thoughts on our experience so far (thread): https://twitter.com/AlecMacGillis/status/1282766128062902282

The cost calculus: Day care for infants/toddlers runs ~$1K/mo. Working parents who had 2 children close in age have already spent many years spending $2K/mo on childcare. Two families going in together gets you to $4K/mo -- which is more than many public school teachers make

All of that to say, I don't think it's just going to be wealthy families. I think LOTS of working families are used to paying through the nose for childcare for 0-5 and this just feels like an extension of that.

We got more applicants than I expected quicker than I expected, and many had similar stories:
--I am older and I don't want to get sick
--I have a health condition and I don't want to get sick
--The private school/daycare I was working at shut down

The extent to which this is going to be inequality exacerbating is STAGGERING. We are putting our considerable financial and cultural resources to bear siphoning off labor from public schools to the benefit of our own children. But what is the alternative?

The alternatives are to educate them ourselves while also trying to keep our jobs going, which we know from the last few months is not a tenable situation for anyone's well-being. Or, to take up space in public school when we have the resources to keep them home?

This is just another example about how the American rhetoric of "choice" and "freedom" can actually lead to profound unfreedom. We are not free when all of our choices are garbage.

This is also an example of how the lack of any real leadership during this crisis has resulted in everyone having to do their own agonizing moral calculus about how probable bad outcomes are X how bad those outcomes are X for whom will they be bad....

... and then judging everyone else for calculating things differently. Meanwhile, our leaders are, I dunno, tweeting lies about black beans and doing fuck all to actually deal with this pandemic.

So: if you are weighing what to do with your kids & want to see an example of a job ad or have other questions about our thought process, DM me. Maybe our at-home pod can Zoom with yours :)