One of the most important, yet lowest paid careers in this country is that of early childhood educators and childcare professionals. Yet, for both, we still go to school for 4 years, receive extensive training, and become experts in our field, just like many other careers, and we work just as hard, if not harder, than most.
I was attracted to the Child Development major because I have a strong passion for young children. I love watching each individual grow, develop, and learn. I love their innocent view of the world around us: They help me to see it in new and wonderful ways every day. I almost didn't follow my dream of caring for children, however, because my family was VERY poor, and college is VERY expensive. I did it, but now I have massive student loans. I really don't know how I'm going to pay them along with my husbands... he makes okay money at what he does, but it's not the best, and of course, I barely make anything. It's above minimum wage, but if I would have taken a job at a factory instead of going to college, I'd be making about $5-6 more per hour than I do now.
How is this good for our children? How can a teacher living paycheck-to-paycheck and worrying about how the next meal is going to be put on her own table adequately care for our nations young children? And yet, we do it every day. A coworker of mine was talking about making her next paycheck stretch. She said, "I have enough food in my house to make 14 meals. If I'm frugal and eat lunch here at school, I should be okay for two weeks."
How many times have we been there? And, this is a woman with a MASTER'S degree. What about those of us with mere bachelor degrees?
The people who care for and educate our nations children often see the child more than the parents do. We have one little boy that comes right when the center opens at 6:45 every day, and stays until the center closes at 5:30 every night. This makes the role of the teacher VASTLY important to the children.
So, maybe since I am a daycare teacher, I'm a bit biased, but I think the nation owes a debt of gratitude to it's teachers. We have a chance to do that. I got an email today from the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Part of it reads:
On June 20th, the Senate Subcommittee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, marked up the reauthorization bill of the Higher Education Act (S. 1642). NAEYC developed several provisions that were included in the bill:
* Grants to states to create early childhood educator professional development and career systems that will address teacher's competencies and credentials, better compensation to attract and keep teachers, quality assurances for training and professional development, and articulation agreements so that teachers can move to the next level of degrees more easily. This provision is based on S. 1431, a bill sponsored by Senators Brown and Voinovich, both of Ohio;
* An allowable use of Title II partnership grants to improve compensation of early childhood educators who attain an Associate's or Baccalaureate degree. This provision is based on the PREP bill by Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island; and
* An expansion of higher education loan forgiveness for early childhood educators and reauthorization of the CAMPIS program. Both of these provisions are based on legislation sponsored by Senator Dodd.
The House Committee on Education & Labor has taken up separately the reconciliation provisions for student loans. The bill includes loan forgiveness for early childhood educators in child care, Head Start and other early childhood education programs. The House committee will take up the remainder of the Higher Education Act later this summer.
Call or email the members of this committee today. Urge them to push student loan forgiveness for early childhood educators and care providers through. Urge them to include elementary, junior high, and high school teachers in this legislation, because I believe they deserve it, too.
List of education and labor committee members
George Miller (chairman)
Washington office phone: (202)225-2095
Rubén Hinojosa (EE-no-HO-suh) (Chairman of the subcommittee on higher education)
Washington office phone: (202)225-2531