PRE-SCHOOLING - Struggling Educators

"Why are early childhood educators struggling to make ends meet?" PBS NewsHour 8/16/2016

IMHO because we are not willing to pay them what they deserve.  Money is more important than child education in our greed-addicted culture.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Science tells us that critical brain development in children begins well before kindergarten, so their care and education prior to starting school matter.  But the very foundation of effective early education -- child care providers -- often struggle to earn a living wage.  In fact, nearly half of these teachers require some sort of federal support to make ends meet.  Hari Sreenivasan reports.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Now a look at how pre-K teachers and early child care workers struggle to make ends meet, earning little better than subsistence wages, even as parents and the Obama administration say they increasingly value what they do.

It's part of our weekly education series 'Making the Grade,' produced this week in collaboration with The Hechinger Report.

CHANEE WILSON, Teacher, Booth Memorial Child Development Center:  OK.  What color is this?

CHILDREN:  Yellow.

CHANEE WILSON:  Yellow and white.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  Chanee Wilson teaches at the Salvation Army's Child Development Center in Oakland, California.  This year, the center received a top quality rating from the state.

CHERYL MURRAY, Program Director, Booth Memorial Child Development Center:  Our teachers are doing a really good job.  They're not just baby-sitting.  They're actually teaching.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  But program director Cheryl Murray says, despite the high rating, she is not able to pay her teachers a livable wage.

CHERYL MURRAY:  We're unable.  If we pay them more, then we wouldn't be able to serve the families, and the families really need the service.  I wish I could hit the lottery and pay more for them.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  The center serves low-income families and gets 80 percent of its funding from state subsidies.  Families pay on a sliding scale based on their income, and teachers are paid minimum wage or slightly higher.

One issue is staffing.  Because they have younger children, child care classes require more teachers than kindergarten.  Chanee Wilson lives in Section 8 subsidized housing with her two children and receives a small amount of money in food stamps.  She makes $13.25 an hour.

CHANEE WILSON:  It's a struggle every month paycheck to paycheck.  You have kids and you have bills.  We more focus on the needs, which is like providing the roof over their heads, the clothes, then the food, and things like that.

THE EARLY YEARS - Too Little Playtime?

"Are young kids losing the brain-boosting benefits of playtime?" PBS NewsHour 7/5/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As kindergarten and pre-K have become more academically rigorous, some worry that the very youngest students may be missing out on crucial development through abundant playtime.  But other educators believe setting high expectations for achievement helps kids, especially low-income students, excel.  Special correspondent Cat Wise reports.

CHILD (NewsHour):  Let’s go, Liam.  Let’s go, Karen.

CAT WISE:  At ages 3, 4, and 5, most children want to play pretend.

CHILD:  This is our babies.

CAT WISE:  But in today’s world of high-stakes academic testing, some preschool teachers feel pressure to put away the baby dolls and pick up the school books.

GERALYN BYWATER MCLAUGHLIN, Teacher, Mission Hill School:  I have been teaching for 25 years, and I have seen a big change.

So you’re pretending to be the sister?  And you’re pretending to go on a walk?

CAT WISE:  Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin teaches prekindergarten at Mission Hill, a public school in Boston.

CHILD:  I’m the momma.

GERALYN BYWATER MCLAUGHLIN:  So you’re the momma?

CAT WISE:  She and other educators have started a campaign they call Defending the Early Years.

GERALYN BYWATER MCLAUGHLIN:  The goal of Defending the Early Years is to really help rally early childhood educators to push back against this push-down of academics into the early years.  The standardized tests, the disappearance of play, teachers are feeling it, and we’re helping to bring voice to their frustrations and their concerns.