What Every Parent Needs to Know
About Early Care and Education
Why is it so expensive? Why are teachers leaving?
- Good quality child care is expensive. Child care is the fourth largest expense for many families, after housing, food and taxes. In Southeastern Pennsylvania, the top tenth of programs in terms of quality charge between $8,000 and $10,000 for pre-school child care. Full-time quality infant care can reach over $15,000.
- Early education gets minimal public funding. Parents fees average 60% of the cost of early childhood programs, but less than 40% of college costs. Yet a quality program for a four year old can cost more than public higher education. We need more public investment to help parents pay for child care.
- Well-trained early childhood educators are the heart of quality programs. Good quality care for children depends on well-trained staff, who receive better than average wages and have favorable working conditions. In Pennsylvania, early childhood workers are better educated than the general population - 82% of center teachers and 62% of group home providers have post high school degrees - yet they cannot command competitive salaries. On average the child care workforce earns less than parking lot attendants, dog walkers, and food servers.
- Low salaries and lack of benefits drive good teachers from the field. Teacher salaries have declined approximately 25% since the mid 1970’s. Many early childhood workers earn below poverty level wages. A recent legislative survey found that degreed child care teachers earn $16,556, leaving 59% below federal poverty level. Aides average $11,427. The average net income of family child care providers in Philadelphia is only $9,337, for a work week averaging over 60 hours.
- Without adequate financial resources, quality suffers. Six out of seven child care facilities offer mediocre to poor care. Not surprisingly, low salaries are linked to higher rates of staff turnover. Statewide turnover rates average 31% for teachers, 34% for assistants, 51% for aides, and 32% for group child care homes. This makes it difficult for the field to attract and retain early childhood teachers and caregivers who have the education and experience needed to provide the loving, learning environment for children that parents are looking for.
- Our children experience turnover as loss. According to the National Child Care Staffing Study, children attending programs with more staff turnover are less competent in language and social development.
Parent dollars, and the sacrifices of child care workers who subsidize this nation’s child care system, are not enough. The goal of QUEST (Quality Early Education through Salaries and Training), is to secure greater public investment to improve quality, compensation and affordability in early education.
You can play a role by sharing this information with parents, co-workers and others in your community and by learning more about your program’s budget, salary ranges and benefits. Support improvement efforts and ask your employer to provide child care benefits. Also, tell your state legislators and the local news media about the importance of public retention/compensation efforts to improve quality while retaining affordability.