How did [insert anything here] become so expensive?

It’s pretty much the same answer for everything.

Why wouldn’t it be expensive?

You’ve got people working to take care of kids. Like anyone else, they gotta pay their bills.

So, nobody worth a damn is going to take the job once the past fails to do that for them.

The facilities themselves have to pay bills too.

So, even though you’ve got less people providing care than are bringing their children, the profit margin is low. Because you can’t charge more than what people that need daycare can afford. The people that can afford to pay through the nose aren’t going to be using a daycare, they’ll hire caregivers directly.

In other words, capitalism.

If you remove the necessity of profit from it, the only problem is finding enough people that want to do the job and are also qualified to do the job. Which, that’s harder than you think because daycare does require some training, and there are legal obligations as well.