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Advocates make a hard-hitting case for child care at a U.S. Senate hearing

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, COVID-19, Early educators, Federal, Funding, NAEYC, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged , , on March 31, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Ever feel like you would enjoy having inspiring, high-powered friends who believe fiercely in high-quality early education and care?

Look no further than U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) and the advocates and leaders from the field who testified last week at a special hearing on child care held by the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP).

The video and testimony transcripts are posted here.

Murray opened the proceedings with a smart, sweeping, we-have-got-to-do-better speech.

The economy, she said, “isn’t just about numbers on a page and whether they go up or down. It’s about people across the country and whether they can get what they need, whether they can take care of their loved ones, and whether things are working for them and their families.”

And one thing families – and the economy – need is child care.

“So in short,” Murray added, “we’ve got an affordability problem, child care shouldn’t be an extra mortgage; a wages problem, child care workers are leaving the field for higher paying work; and an options problem, there just aren’t enough providers… This is not just terrible for parents and kids, but for our economy as a whole.”

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In quotes: State of the Union

Posted in Child care, Cost and affordability, Federal, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, tagged , on March 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“Let’s provide investments and tax credits to… cut the cost of child care. Many families pay up to $14,000 a year for child care per child.

“Middle-class and working families shouldn’t have to pay more than 7% of their income for care of young children.

“My plan will cut the cost in half for most families and help parents, including millions of women, who left the workforce during the pandemic because they couldn’t afford child care, to be able to get back to work. 

“My plan doesn’t stop there. It also includes home and long-term care. More affordable housing. And Pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-old.”

— “Remarks of President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address As Prepared for Delivery,” The White House, March 1, 2022

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Racial inequities among child care providers can and must be addressed

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, COVID-19, Diversity equity and inclusion, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged on March 3, 2022| 1 Comment »

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Photo: report screenshot

Both before the pandemic and now, child care providers of color have faced troubling and persistent racial inequities.

A new report – “Equity in Child Care is Everyone’s Business” — explores this challenge and proposes solutions. An accompanying policy brief is posted here.

Released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and The Education Trust, a national nonprofit, the report is a chronicle of unfair economic realities.

“Amid the COVID-19 crisis, child care providers, many of whom are women of color, face funding challenges, safety and health concerns, and talent acquisition/professional development barriers,” the report says. “Several providers reported that racial and gender bias has posed challenges within their local business community, including feeling less supported than other businesses due to their race.”

Specific findings include:

• “In 2015, more than 1 in 6 female child care workers lived below the poverty line (that’s twice the poverty rate of female workers overall), and Black and Latina child care workers with children of their own were more than twice as likely to live below the poverty line”

• “59% of all home-based child care workers have household incomes below the national median, and this number is 75% for Black home-based child care workers,” and

• “Black early educators earn an average of 78 cents less per hour than their White counterparts, even when controlling for education level” (more…)

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An NAEYC survey prompts a call for action

Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Early educators, Family child care, Federal, Funding, NAEYC, National, Pre-kindergarten, Strategies for Children, tagged , , , on March 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Photo: Yan Krukov from Pexels

How are early childhood providers doing?

In January, NAEYC (the National Association for the Education of Young Children) conducted a survey of 5,000 early childhood educators to find out.

The good news: “emergency federal and state relief funds have provided critical support for stabilizing child care programs and prevented more widespread permanent program closures,” according to the survey brief, Saved But Not Solved: America’s Economy Needs Congress to Fund Child Care.

The bad news: “severe challenges remain.” That’s because federal relief funds were not meant “to resolve the systemic challenges that have plagued the child care market.”

The informative news: We’ll hear more about the survey from Lauren Hogan, NAEYC’s managing director of Policy and Professional Advancement on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, during our Strategies for Children 9:30 Call.

The survey, which includes the responses of early educators “working across all states and settings—including faith-based programs, family child care homes, and small and large centers,” produced a number of findings, including:

(more…)

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In quotes: dividends of investing in child care

Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, tagged on February 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Screenshot: Center for American Progress website

“As the country enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, parents, employers, and early education professionals are desperate to see the U.S. Congress pass comprehensive, long-term child care and pre-K legislation.”

“Over a longer period, these investments can provide the social and educational support to prepare young children for a more globalized and competitive economy. Fortunately, the child care and universal pre-K policies that passed the U.S. House of Representatives in the Build Back Better Act are still on the table, and reports of ongoing negotiations seem to suggest that these investments will be integral to the next version of comprehensive legislation.”

“Investing in the child care industry requires increasing workers’ wages. Raising pay for child care workers will not only help with recruitment and retention but, critically, also promote employees’ health and well-being, empowering them to provide nurturing early experiences to the children in their care.”

“Congressional leaders can pass family-friendly legislation that expands and strengthens an enriching, culturally responsive, and equitable child care sector. They must not pass up this vital opportunity.”

— “Child Care Spending Generates Massive Dividends” by Hailey Gibbs and Rasheed Malik, Center for American Progress, February 24, 2022

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Calling for a new child care business model

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, COVID-19, National, tagged on February 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Child care needs a new business model, according to the national nonprofit First Children’s Finance (FCF).

The current models – center-based care and family child care – are fine. 

But in a policy brief, FCF is supporting the addition of what it calls “mixed-age, small group care in nonresidential spaces.”

One example is a program run by the Chambliss Center for Children in Chattanooga, Tenn. This small group program operates in “single-classroom child care facilities within 13 public schools, which primarily serve the children of teachers,” the brief says, adding:

“Schools and workplaces are both common sites for co-located small group care. Spaces within existing facilities such as community centers, libraries, health centers, town halls, and churches are also attractive possibilities.”

“Another option is a ‘pod model’ which clusters multiple small group providers together in one building. The building may be rented, donated, or partially subsidized by an employer or local nonprofit.”

One program in Minneapolis is a multicultural center that “houses multiple providers’ programs each operating in their own home language.”

(more…)

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In quotes: early education and African-American history

Posted in Diversity equity and inclusion, International, National, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, tagged , on February 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“Too often neglected in the history of early childhood education are the stories of women teachers and especially African American women teachers. Find out more about Betsey Stockton, a pioneer early childhood teacher and an African American freedwoman living in the 19th century. Stockton traveled extensively, establishing schools for Hawaiian children and adults on Maui, preschools for African American children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and preschools for Aboriginal children in Canada. After settling in Princeton, New Jersey, she organized and taught in schools for African American children for 30 years, until her death in 1865. Her story shows how one teacher engaged with new approaches to teaching young children and positively impacted the lives of hundreds of children and their families over several generations.”

— “Black History and Early Childhood Education: Five Resources to Explore for Black History Month,” NAEYC, February 3, 2022

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In quotes: when children wear masks, child care programs are less likely to close — a Yale study finds

Posted in Child care, COVID-19, Health, National, Pre-kindergarten, Quotes, Research, tagged on February 4, 2022| Leave a Comment »

“A new Yale study found that child care programs in the United States that practiced child masking early in the COVID-19 pandemic (May-June 2020) experienced a 13% reduction in program closure within the following year, and continued child masking throughout the one-year study period was associated with a 14% reduction in program closure.

“The first-of-its-kind study of child masking, published today in JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Medical Association, followed the experiences of 6,654 center-based and home-based child care professionals from all 50 states during a one-year period (May/June 2020 through May/June 2021).”

“ ‘We have been seeing increased numbers of children, especially young children not yet able to be vaccinated against COVID-19, admitted to our children’s hospital,’ said Thomas Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and the study’s lead author. ‘It is heartening to know that following child masking recommendations for children two years and older may be an effective means for keeping young children in child care programs and potentially lowering their risk for COVID-19.’ ”

“ ‘It’s the disruptions in learning opportunities and care routines that harm children, not the masks,’ said Walter Gilliam, a professor of child psychiatry and psychology at the Yale Child Study Center and the study’s senior author.

“Research has shown that children two years and older can safely wear masks in child care settings. ‘It is our responsibility to protect our young children by providing them with safe learning environments,’ Gilliam said. ‘But we also need to remember that young children are incredibly observant. If they cannot see us smile with our mouths, they still will see us smile with our eyes or in the way in which we talk with them. Young children are incredible that way.’ ”

— “For child care programs, masking helped minimize closures, study shows,” Yale News, January 27, 2022

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The city of Washington, D.C., raises early educators’ salaries by $10,000

Posted in COVID-19, Early educators, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged , , on February 3, 2022| 1 Comment »

Early educators’ salaries are going up in Washington, D.C.

As we blogged last month, the work of advocates led the D.C. Council to create a tax increase for individuals whose annual earnings exceed $250,000. Some $75 million of these new funds will support early educators’ salary increases.

The D.C. Council also created an Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Force that was charged with how best to accomplish this goal.

As the D.C. Council explains on its website:

“We all know that educating our youngest children isn’t child’s play. Yet the professionals who tackle this challenging and essential work have long been profoundly under-compensated for what they do. At its most recent meeting, the Council took a significant first step towards addressing this long-time injustice, queuing up payments of $10,000 or more this year.”

(more…)

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“Vanishing” child care workers

Posted in Business and economy, Child care, COVID-19, Early educators, Federal, Funding, National, Pre-kindergarten, tagged , , on February 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Photo: Micaela Bedell for Strategies for Children

“Child care workers are vanishing and it’s hurting the entire economy,” CNN warns in this headline of one of its business news stories, which reports:

“Since losing one-third of its workforce at the outset of the pandemic, the child care industry has seen a jobs recovery that’s been slow and incomplete.

“And now it’s starting to backslide.

“After shedding 4,500 jobs from September through November, preliminary estimates from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the child day care services industry lost another 3,700 jobs in December.”

And, of course, these workers aren’t actually “vanishing.” They’re being driven out of their jobs by low wages and tough working conditions.

Without enough child care workers, there aren’t enough child care spots, which means many parents will struggle to be able to work, and without enough workers the economy can’t thrive.

“Now that we’re seeing a decrease [in employment], that should be worrying for many folks who are relying on these services,” Caitlin McLean, director of multi-state and international programs at the University of California Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, tells CNN.

“This is absolutely a contributor to the wider worker shortage that we’re seeing.”

(more…)

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