The Impact of the Ryan Budget on Early Learning Programs

Tomorrow the House of Representatives is slated to vote on the Ryan Budget. This budget would have a drastic, negative impact on funding for Early Learning programs by forcing cuts to all domestic discretionary spending.  The cuts would be across the board and not made based on effectiveness so Early Learning programs would be cut despite a record of both accountability and success.

Economists note that the benefits of quality Early Education range from increased success in school to less need for remediation and special education services to reduced incarcerations to increased life-long earnings.  Economists estimate that for every dollar invested in Early Education, 7 to 15 dollars are saved.  Early Education is a smart investment.

Please take a few moments today to call or write your legislators to urge them to vote no on the Ryan Budget and to tell them your story of how Early Education funding has benefited you, your program, and the families and children you serve.  These benefits may come from:

• Having the opportunity to attend a college course that you could not have otherwise afforded and therefore improve your practice:
• Being able to purchase materials for your program; 
• Having access to a Mental Health Consultant or Quality Improvement coach; 
• Being able to serve children from at-risk families through funding such as the Child Care Assistance Program; or
• Receiving subsidies through the Child and Adult Care Food Program. 

In most cases, all of these programs rely on federal dollars and for them to continue a federal contribution is needed.  The gains that Early Education has made in recent years in increased funding only meet the tip of the iceberg in terms of need for these services.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children has an easy link to writing to your legislators: NAEYC'S Take Action Page.  Remember your stories of success are one of the most effective advocacy tools we have so tell yours today!

Some Thoughts on the Comparing the Costs of College and ECE

Approximately, twenty years ago I joined the Worthy Wage Campaign to help bring attention to the fact that Early Childhood Educators were among the lowest paid workers in the United States.  Unfortunately, while wages for Early Childhood Educators have increased several recent reports still show that Early Learning is one of the lowest paid fields in the US and this is despite parents often paying a significant portion of their income on tuition.

This leads many to compare the tuition costs of Early Education and the cost of a college education, but the differences between the two are difficult to compare as they have different structures.  One such difference is student to teacher (or faculty) ratio.  The ratios in Early Learning programs are often much lower than at a college or university.  For example, U.S. News found that "among the 1,311 institutions that provided data to U.S. News, the average student-faculty ratio is 14.8. "  However, these numbers may be misleading as the reported college ratios do not reflect actual class size which may be as high as 500.  The highest legal ratio for infants in Colorado is 5 to 1, 10 to 1 for preschool, and 12 to 1 for prekindergarten. Colleges have a choice of where to set their ratios, regulations (justifiably so) limit a Early Learning program's ability to do so and best practice demands even lower ratios in order to meet children's needs.  

The Cost, Quality, and Outcomes study (Suzanne Helburn, et al; 1995) found that Early Learning programs spend, on average, 70% of their operating budgets on salaries, whereas according to Trends in College Spending:  Where Does the Money Come From?  Where Does it Go? (Wellman et al, 2009) colleges spend between 53% and 64% on instruction. In general, the recommended percent a business should pay for labor is around 35 percent.  Again, the numbers are not comparing identical markers, but it does provide some insight into the cost of operating each type of program as both industries are labor intensive.  The highly labor intensive nature of a college education is one reason why colleges have been able raise capitol to cover expenses.

However, one of the biggest differences is that colleges are not asked (though there are exceptions to this) to pay their employees poverty level wages. Nor are they demanded to accept 30-50% of their tuition in order to receive a subsidy for low-income students.  They are subsidized at 100% of the cost of tuition, or they provide a scholarship from other funding sources.  Let us start to demand this for Early Education professionals as a start to paying Early Learning professionals a decent wage.

Pay: A Key Factor in Quality Improvement

The research for developing a system to improve the quality of Early Learning programs often sites a well-prepared, professional workforce, but rarely are the salaries of those who care for our youngest members of society mentioned.  Many people seem to feel that improving teacher performance, education, and training can be done while still offering Early Learning professionals near poverty wages.  Somehow paying a skilled workforce a professional wage does not enter the equation even while many other fields fight to keep wages high in the name of attracting the best and brightest. 

 According to a report by the Government Accountability Office entitled  HSS and Education Are Taking Steps to Improve Workforce Data and Enhance Worker Quality  "average yearly income ranged from $11,500 for a child care worker working in a child's home to $18,000 for a preschool teacher."  The poverty rate for a family of 4 in 2009 was $22,050 (Department of Health and Human Services) which means that many Early Learning providers do not earn enough to support themselves or their families.  This is in spite of the research that shows that the brain will develop more than at any other point in life, and the foundational skills needed to be successful in life are built during this critical point in development. 

There are many reasons for the low pay in Early Education, but the biggest reason it stays low is that few people are talking about it or are willing to address it as an issue related to quality.  Money is tight, particularly in these times,  and the evidence for how quality is improved by how much and what type of education is inconclusive so there is little incentive for policy makers to address this issue.  However, if Early Childhood Care and Education is ever to be a respected and well-paid field that attracts the best than pay is central, and shouldn't the field that lies the foundation for a person's future be encouraged to attract the best and the brightest like any other business?

What We Want for Our Kids

'What we want for our kids' is the phrase that finds its way, in one form or another, into almost every speech politicians make, and this year, like every election year, is no different.  But does our nation really have a vision for what it wants for our children?  On the recommendation of a friend, I am reading The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society by Frans DeWaal.  It is an intriguing read for anyone who is interested in social issues and creating a society that supports children and families.

DeWaal takes on assumptions that are perpetuated within our nation's myths and legends about the selfishness of humans, and the ability of humans to succeed entirely independent of society.  These assumptions are reflected in concepts such as 'pulled himself up by his boot straps,'  survival of the fittest, and that greed is good.  These ideas, also, make it one way or another into many political stump speeches, but they do not reflect the reality of young children's lives nor what happens in the average early childhood classroom.

Young children thrive, not when they are told to pull themselves up by their boot straps, but when they have loving, responsive relationships surrounding them.  As DeWaal affirms "The point is that we are mammals, which are animals with obligatory maternal care. . . This bond provides the evolutionary template for all other attachments, including those among adults." (DeWaal, page 11) There are few policies in the United States that support the bond between parents and their children so it is up to Early Childhood professionals to advocate for those policies in the long run, but also for practices within the field that support the relationship between parents and children. 

Practices that support the parent-child bond include daily sharing of information, continuity of care, the teacher and parent knowing one another as people, regular conferences, and flexible child care days and hours are practices that most Early Learning facilities can be implemented with relative ease. But policies, such as job sharing, flexible work schedules, and paid parental leave will be a longer battle.  However, such policies must be implemented if we are to truly promote the welfare of children and families, and should be considered a critical part of any comprehensive Early Childhood system.

There has been much written about what it means to be an advocate, as well as about the skills that are needed for effective advocacy.  Most of these skills focus on activities, such as being informed, well-organized, and communication skills, however, as I have reflected on this, I feel that something more basic is missing. I know of people who have all the above skills, and yet, they still do not advocate, and what they are missing is the passion that comes from having to tell a story.  I touched briefly on this in my last blog, but all advocates see a problem and feel that they must tell their story in order to make change.  This passion and a sense that something must change underlies their work, and creates their motivation to advocate. 

The work of advocates in any field is to promote change in order to address a problem that they see or to promote an activity or policy that will benefit those who are impacted by their issue. In Early Learning, this problem, activity, or policy can be anything from asking manufacturers to make a soap that doesn't say "Keep Out of Reach of Children" to parents understanding why play is important to rules and regulations governing Early Childhood Education to Child Care Assistance Program reimbursement rates.  All of these things promote a better, more efficient system for caring for and educating young children.

The trick then to being an advocate is finding your passion- big or small.  What is the thing that you want to change about Early Childhood Education , and how would this thing make Early Childhood Education better for children and families? What story do you want to tell?  We all have one and we all love hearing stories. The news eats them up- so start telling yours. You will find that you will have a ready audience, and you will have become an advocate!

Some Thoughts On What It Means to Be An Advocate

I entered the field of Early Education some 30 odd years ago as a summer job while in high school, and then again in college to help support myself. As someone who did not see it as a career, I was not worried about the pay or the quality or really even the respect- it was a job that paid my bills which were meager. However, somewhere along the line it became my career and then everything changed. I don't remember exactly when it was that I decided this was my Profession, but I did, and then I cared about the pay, the quality, and the respect. I cared because I knew that I would never be able to support a family without the help of a spouse, I knew that the children in my care received quality but I worried that other children did not and what that would cost us all down the line, and I resented the lack of respect for doing something that I viewed as the most important job in the world. And while that point may be arguable, because after all, all jobs are important, Early Learning professionals (and I would add parents of young children) play a vital role in ensuring the future of our cultures, nation, and world. And without someone performing that role, it would all go. . . well, let's just say downhill.

However, many Early Learning professionals did not choose this field, but rather it was something that they dropped into and when you do not see something as a choice or a career, you are less likely to fight for it. The workers in the factories of the past saw their jobs as something that should support their families, but many Early Learning professionals do not. But this does not make what Early Learning professionals do any less important, and so the job for advocating for a better paid, higher quality, and better respected field falls on those who see Early Learning as their career and a profession. And as more Early Learning professionals advocate for themselves and the field, others in the field will see themselves as professionals and slowly (so slow it may not feel like we are moving at all, but we are) more and more of those who work with young children will see themselves as professionals. While this may seem like a burden for those who are willing to speak up (that's advocating in a nutshell), there are very simple things that anyone can do to make one an advocate and will have a tremendous impact on Early Care and Education.

Nancy Amidel in her article "Policy Advocacy: The Ten Minute Version" gives some easy tips for advocating. She gives 3 steps to being an advocate. The first of which is to be informed so that you can present information in a coherent, understandable manner to those who may not know the facts about Early Education. The second step is to be involved so that you are taking an active role in providing solutions to the problems that have been identified. The final step is to be an advocate which means speaking up, in big or little ways, for the issues that you find important. As she says in her article this is often the most difficult for people, and I think, especially for Early Learning professionals who may not have been given the message that their voice matters. But, of course, it does since those in field who work with children everyday know the problems first hand. A common phrase in most (probably all) Early Learning classrooms is "use your words." It's time to start to model this for the young children we teach by speaking up for practices, such as adequate funding, that support the quality we know young children need and deserve to thrive.

The Impact of the Child Care Assistance Program on Quality

Many families drop their child off at an Early Learning program where they trust their child's needs will be met, but few of these families realize how Early Learning funding impacts the quality of the early care and education that their child receives.  However, as with most things in life, funding does impact quality which has real consequences for the children in Early Learning programs.

These consequences, such as children not having care from a consistent teacher, have social and emotional impacts that society will pay for in the long-term. For example, we know that children who do not have consistent, trusting relationships are more likely to develop emotional problems that may lead to the need for special education services and remedial education, failure to graduate from high school, not attending college, and becoming incarcerated.  Unfortunately, as the country continues to struggle with a long recession, states are cutting Child Care Assistance Programs (CCAP) that allow many families whose incomes are at or near the poverty level to work and their child(ren) to be in a quality Early Learning program.

The National Women's Law Center recently published a report titled State Child Care Assistance Policies 2011: Reduced Support For Families In Challenging Times which details how many low-income families are receiving less support towards the cost of child care than they were a year ago. The report, also, looks at reimbursement rates for Early Learning programs and notes that most states set their reimbursement rates below the 75% of market rate that is recommended by the federal government. As states have struggled financially, reimbursement rates for Early Learning programs have fallen from 23 states reimbursing at least 75% of the market rate in 2001 to 3 states reimbursing at least 75% of the market rate in 2011.  The economic impact on already underfunded Early Childhood Education programs is enormous and has led to many programs struggling to maintain high quality practices, such as retaining consistent staff.

While it would be easy to point fingers at policy makers for cutting programs, such as CCAP, the decisions to make cuts to these programs reflects a lack of understanding about the value of Early Care and Education on the part of the general public. Unfortunately, as Early Learning advocates, we have not always let the story of why there is value to programs like CCAP.  I urge those of you who have a story to tell about the impact CCAP has had on your program, as well as the families and children you serve to share it with everyone you know, but especially the media and policy makers. As we begin to tell the story of Early Care and Education, the respect and funding our field needs and deserves will follow.