Editor’s note: This commentary is by Janet McLaughlin, who is executive director of Vermont Birth to Five and co-chair of the Building Bright Futures Early Learning and Development Committee.
[I]n a Sept. 18 press release, Gov. Phil Scott announced that he would “[join] the White House in its initiative to support America’s workers through workforce development and training opportunities.” As the executive director of Vermont Birth to Five and the co-chair of the Building Bright Futures Early Learning and Development committee, my colleagues and I applaud the governor’s commitment to the state’s workers — and we ask that he not forget a foundational sector of the workforce that has been chronically overlooked and under-supported: Vermont’s early care and education professionals.
Early care and education is a bellwether industry in Vermont. Without access to high-quality child care, working parents can’t work; businesses lose employees or experience high absenteeism; and children miss out on high-quality early learning and development opportunities during the most crucial developmental period of their lives.
Currently, we face a critical shortage of high-quality child care in Vermont, with 77 percent of infants and toddlers likely to need care unable to access high-quality programs — and those families who can find care largely unable to afford it. This situation is not conducive to Vermont attracting and retaining employees — across all industries — who have or plan to have children.
We cannot solve Vermont’s shortage of high-quality child care without addressing the need for a skilled early care and education workforce. Currently, the field is experiencing high numbers of vacant positions and programs are struggling to find and retain qualified staff. In a recent survey of prekindergarten programs, 86 percent described finding licensed early childhood teachers as “difficult,” and, within the first six weeks of the launch of the new earlychildhoodjobsvt.org job board this summer, over 100 early education jobs in Vermont were posted.
The reasons for this staffing crisis are multifaceted. Perhaps the most obvious deterrent to working in the field is that early educators make significantly less than similarly-qualified professionals (according to the Vermont Department of Labor, preschool teachers earn a median annual salary of $30,310, while kindergarten teachers with comparable qualifications earn a median annual salary of $54,930). Early childhood professionals are literally subsidizing our state’s current early care and learning system at their own expense.
Secondly, in an effort to ensure staff have the level of training and education needed to ensure the wellbeing of children, child care regulations now require additional qualifications for some positions. These regulations are necessary and research-based: the National Association for the Education of Young Children affirms “teachers who have specific preparation and ongoing professional support in child development and learning are more likely to have effective, positive interactions with children and their families … and create more high-quality learning environments.” But, given the low wages in the field, affected workers need financial support to access the training and higher education required.
Finally, the implementation of Act 166 (universal pre-kindergarten) in Vermont has been a beneficial development in expanding child care capacity but has increased the need for staff.
The Building Bright Futures Early Learning and Development committee has identified two immediate opportunities to support workforce development and training opportunities for early educators — both of which are proven strategies for workforce development and require state-level policy change:
Funding for and expansion of the Teacher Education and Compensation Helps program, or T.E.A.C.H.
A mechanism and funding to support early educators with student debt
For child care professionals who need and/or desire to increase their qualifications, T.E.A.C.H. is a comprehensive scholarship program that covers educational costs and expenses as a partnership between the employer and the staff member. The T.E.A.C.H. model was piloted over the last four years and shown to be successful in Vermont at the associate degree level, and it should be expanded to more fully meet the needs of the early care and education workforce.
For those who have already accrued related educational expenses, paying back their student loans is a barrier to employment in the field with wages at their current levels. While a mechanism for supporting student debt exists for licensed teachers in public school settings, an equitable option needs to exist for all staff working in any early care and education program setting (such as home-based or private/nonprofit center-based).
As we look ahead to the upcoming legislative session and the development of the 2020 budget, we emphasize the need for immediate action to ensure an educated and stable early care and education workforce exists to meet the needs of Vermont’s kids, families and employers. The availability of scholarships and student debt repayment could serve as powerful tools for recruiting staff into this important and rewarding field — helping to improve access to high-quality child care and making a significant contribution to a thriving Vermont.
