As many parents in the country drop off their children for childcare each day, many thoughts run through their heads regarding the safety, education, and care for their child. However, there are not many thoughts given by parents about the educator’s wellbeing.
The early childhood industry is an industry that is not receiving the respect for professionalism as in other fields of education. While there are several implemented federal and state guidelines, there is a lack in addressing compensation and respect for professionalism in these guidelines. Salaries, wages, and recognition of credentials of early childhood educators vary significantly between private and public sector. For example, salaries of teachers in public K-12 education range between $31K and $56K while this number can be as low as $12K for teachers in the private sector.
This problem of low compensation and lack of respect for professionalism in early childhood education has become a lose-lose scenario. Directors of child-care centers want to pay more to their teachers and parents would like their teachers to be paid more, but where would the money come from? A disturbing fact that nearly half of early childhood educators are dependent on public assistance and living in poverty and families with young children are paying more for childcare than their home mortgage. Childcare facilities are falling under stricter credential requirements and cannot afford an increase in salary. Ultimately, there is a standoff of how to increase professionalism in the industry so these educators can receive a livable wage. The industry will suffer because of the low interest in employment of an occupation where someone can make more money in fast food service than with education credentials in the early childhood industry. As many women are back in the workforce as early as six weeks after giving birth, and where the greatest brain development in a human happens in early childhood, this is an industry that we cannot afford to loose qualified educators due to loss of wages.
Looking forward, with state minimum teacher-to-child ratios, there is not a way to make the early childhood industry affordable and profitable without government assistance. However, implementing a structure of different levels of educators such as a level 1, 2 or 3 in early childhood based on their credentials associated with an equitably compensated salary that is statewide could alleviate the lack of respect of degree credentials. Having these different levels of educators would also need to align with college degree plans for the new early childhood level workforce.
Lastly, there will be a need for government financial assistance. Creating an awareness is important for families to look at local government officials and policies that affect early childhood industry and vote in favor for the quality of care given to children.
Raising awareness in over 40 million families with children in early childhood has the potential to lead parents to be involved in early childhood education in terms of quality of care children receive, and daily challenges encountered by educators on a daily basis.
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