On March 13, the Alliance for Early Success and the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment (CSCCE) hosted a webinar to showcase how the messages and findings from CSCCE’s latest Early Childhood Workforce Index can be used to drive policy change that centers the experience of early childhood educators in states. The panelists were:
- Arabella Bloom, Associate Director of Technical Assistance at CSCCE (moderator)
- Sophia Jaggi,Research Manager, Early Childhood Policy, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment;
- Caitlin McLean, Director of Multi-State and International Programs, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment;
- Kacy Panteah, early childhood educator and advocate, New Mexico; and
- Jacob Vigil, Deputy Policy Director, New Mexico Voices for Children
The webinar provided an overview of the Early Childhood Workforce Index, including its major findings and messages and tools and data the advocates can use to make the case for improving funding and policies.
It also highlighted how New Mexico advocates used the Index’s data, along with the voices and leadership from early childhood educators, to advance greater supports for the workforce.
You can access the slides, watch the webinar recording, or read on for details about what the webinar covered.
While many states have made progress in investing in the early care and education (ECE) workforce in recent years, across the country, these professionals continue to work under poor conditions. Given the fact that 98 percent of center-based teaching staff are female and women of color make up between 40-56 percent of educators, depending on setting, improving their working conditions is a matter of racial and gender equity—as well as ensuring young children receive high-quality ECE. Inadequate support for the ECE workforce is not inevitable, but a product of policy choices. With or without new federal funding, state leaders have the power and authority to advance policies to support early childhood educators.
Overview of the 2024 Early Childhood Workforce Index
The Early Childhood Workforce Index is a state-of-the-states report entirely focused on the ECE workforce. The Index includes national and state data on early childhood educators, their working conditions, and policies that affect them.The 2024 Index is the latest edition in a series of reports since 2016. This edition has several new elements:
- A national data snapshot of the early childhood workforce (including self-employed educators like family child care providers);
- State-by-state data on early educator pay and how it compares to K-8 teachers, as well as other indicators of economic security such as poverty rates and the use of public assistance programs like food stamps;
- New analysis of how states used federal relief funding for innovative solutions to support the early childhood workforce; and
- Updated policy recommendations on what states can do to support this workforce.
Key Findings from the Index
Despite their skills, education, and commitment to their field, and the complex and important work they do, early childhood educators remain undervalued in our economy and our society.
- Nationally, early childhood educators are paid just over $13 per hour;
- The average early educator is not earning a living wage even for just a single adult alone, in ANY state;
- 97 percent of other occupations are paid more than early educators; and
- Due to their insufficient pay, nearly half (43 percent) of childcare workers’ families survive on public assistance like Medicaid and food stamps.
Early educator pay has increased in recent years, but this wage growth has lagged behind other low wage occupations in fast food and retail.
American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds provided a lifeline during COVID-19 but were not designed to transform the system.
- The majority of states used pandemic relief funds for workforce initiatives: increased wages, wage supplements, expanded scholarships, personal protective equipment and mental health supports.
- Stabilization grants demonstrated the power of direct investment in ECE programs.
States used ARPA as a springboard to try new initiatives.
- Utah offered ECE programs additional funding tied to their stabilization grants, but only if programs paid at least half of their staff a minimum of $15 per hour.
- Minnesota required that 70 percent of each grant to ECE programs be used for compensation.
Now, states have the chance to step up and continue funding these initiatives with state dollars.
- Maine’s Early Childhood Workforce Salary Supplement System provides funding to ECE programs to supplement educators’ pay on a monthly basis.
- Minnesota transitioned ARPA grants to a permanent program with state funding to continue to support increased pay for early educators.
Using Tools and Data from the Index to Take Action
Key policy recommendations included:
- Investing in direct, foundational public funding for ECE programs;
- Prioritizing appropriate compensation standards across all settings to address wage inequity and improve pay; and
- Adopting workplace standards for paid time off, paid planning and professional development time, mental health and teaching supports.
Use the Policy Toolkit to channel research into policy action. The toolkit includes detailed policy recommendations, talking points, and examples of states in action.
Use the Index interactive map and state profile to learn more about your state and compare your data to peer states.
Review Chapter 3 of the Index for more examples of state action.
Review the appendix tables to better understand how states are funding their workforce initiatives.
Takeaways from New Mexico
Attendees also heard from Jacob Vigil, Deputy Policy Director at New Mexico Voices for Children; Kacy Panteah, a lead Pre-K teacher and member of OLÉ; and Arabella Bloom, Associate Director of Technical Assistance at CSCCE.
Educators and advocates have elevated the importance of ECE and the crucial role of the workforce by:
- Helping policymakers and the public understand that early educators have dedicated their time and energy to teaching young children and are laying the foundation for future learning and development;
- Inviting policymakers to shadow early educators for a day to learn more about what ECE really looks like and why it matters;
- Using social media to connect with families and educators and get the message to legislators; and
- Coordinating with state partners to ensure one aligned message across groups.
Vigil shared that New Mexico has a fiscal surplus and made the choice to dedicate significant and sustainable funding for ECE, but that doesn’t mean funding is automatically going towards educator compensation.
Advocates are exploring ways to make connections between the strength of the workforce and child outcomes.
- The fact that the workforce is still paid poverty wages and depends on public benefits is a shame at a time where the state has made historic investments in the system.
- New Mexico has seen wins on access and eligibility, but they still need that stable, well-compensated workforce—it’s part of a quality system.
- New Mexico has historically and persistently high child poverty rates—the fact that they have historically not invested in ECE is both a symptom and a cause of that. Advocates hope to bring more of this messaging to policymakers. The Index has been a good source of data and research that makes that connection.
- Advocates are being strategic about timing. There has been lots of conversation among policymakers about creating a wage floor or career ladder, but not a lot of urgency. In response, Jacob wrote an editorial when the Index came out. He spoke about how the Index provided data backing up what advocates had been saying: there’s enough research—we don’t need to do another pilot program, we can do a more robust investment in compensation.
Vigil and Panteah both spoke to the value of combining data like the Index with personal stories.
- New Mexico Voices for Children held an advocacy day in January that brought educators and families to speak to lawmakers about the importance and urgency of this problem.
- Advocates wanted lawmakers to understand that it’s not just about getting the funding. Lawmakers need to work with educators and experts on the implementation side to make sure any policies are well-designed and benefit educators.
Educators and advocates can work together: Educators can bring and share their stories; state advocacy organizations can bring in more data and research. Seeing the teamwork and collaboration is also impactful for lawmakers.
Questions from Participants
What data do we have about the impact of increasing compensation?
- As the Index shows—there are consequences and costs when we don’t pay educators a living wage (i.e., educators reliance on public benefit programs).
- Initial studies of programs like D.C.’s Pay Equity Fund suggest higher compensation increases the number of ECE teachers, enhances recruitment and retention efforts, and yields a high return on investment, with benefits to educators, child care programs, and families.
- We need to continue conversations about how we can measure the impact of a better paid, supported workforce on child development and outcomes.
Research has confirmed a link between less economic worry and better well-being of early educators and higher-quality interactions between teacher and child.
In CSCCE’s SEQUAL study of early educators in Alameda County, California, teaching staff who expressed significantly less economic worry and overall higher levels of adult well-being worked in programs rated higher on the CLASS Instructional Support domain. When CLASS Instructional Support ratings are higher, teaching staff are more likely to promote children’s higher-order thinking skills, provide feedback, and use advanced language, which stimulates conversation and expands understanding and learning.
How are you responding to the current federal landscape? What gives you hope?
- Vigil suggests quantifying the impact of changes to programs like Medicaid, Head Start (i.e., how many people in your state will be impacted?) and tying early childhood to issues that matter to policymakers, such as crime rates and cost of living.
- Vigil also discussed the importance of building broad, diverse coalitions with unconventional allies. In New Mexico, child care has been an issue for everyone, across rural, urban, tribal communities. Building and unifying power across groups and communities has been a source of power and hope.
- McLean talked about how important it is to connect with others doing this work across the country and see that we’re not working alone. She also talked about the importance of seeing educators like Kacy—and educators in D.C. and Maine responding to proposed program cuts—out there advocating, telling state and local leaders that we need investments in compensation, and holding policymakers accountable.
Does the Index track linguistic diversity data for the workforce?
- The Index provides national and state-by-state data on the linguistic diversity of the ECE workforce, see About the Early Childhood Workforce.
Are there examples of compensation strategies that support family child care providers with no staff?
Are there examples of compensation strategies that benefit providers that may not enroll a lot of (or any) subsidized children? How might raising wages through the subsidy system leave programs out?
- Not all ECE programs receive child care subsidies or they may serve too few children for those subsidies to cover the cost of increased wages. Programs like Illinois’, Minnesota’s and Maine’s provide additional funding to ECE programs that is not tied to child care subsidies and is targeted toward increasing compensation.
What strategies can address benefits cliffs that may occur when providers do get increased compensation?
- The 2024 Index shows that many early educators and their families rely on supports like food stamps and Medicaid to get by. If wages are not increased to sufficiently high levels, educators could lose access to these benefits and be worse off financially than if their wages were not increased (this is what’s called the “benefits cliff”). State leaders can pursue changes to income eligibility rules to help educators keep access to their benefits. For example, early educators in Kentucky can access child care subsidies regardless of their income.
Resources
Early Childhood Workforce Index 2024
Beyond ARPA: Tracking ECE Compensation Policies Nationwide
New Mexico Voices for Children
Organizers in the Land of Enchantment (OLÉ) and their early childhood education campaign
Real-world examples of using the Index:
- Las Cruces Sun News | “Let’s Use Childcare Assistance to Lift the Workers Out of Poverty, Too“
- Think Tennessee | “The Early Years: Investing in Childcare Will Help Families and Our Economy“
