Early Childhood Education Should be Universal
Childcare Workers Are More Essential Than Cops
Essential workers. What comes to mind first for most folks are the EMT’s, police, nurses, and firefighters. These are the guys with big budgets, discounts at your retailer of choice, walk in parades, and are afforded a lot of deserved (except for the police) deference and decorum. Then, if they think a bit more, I’ll hear about postal workers, logistics personnel like truckers and train conductors, waste management workers, and utility workers. If you badger folks again, they will mention food service workers, grocery store shelf stockers and clerks, and maybe some of the folks specific to their industry or lifestyle. You really gotta dig down a lot of times to get to folks like teachers, home health care workers, or retirement home staff. However, there is actually a profession that I think is more crucial than many of these listed because without it these others wouldn’t be essential, they’d become non starters.
I’m talking about child care workers, in particular, early childhood education workers and day care providers.
For every heroic tale of the firefighter who got into work, or postal worker who got that package delivered in the last mile, there is someone taking care of the kids. They could be at home, a spouse, a sibling, a relative, but childcare is the bare minimum so many of us need to be a functional member of society. Yet, somehow, its relegated to a “its important but-“response or mocked as somehow a low effort, less than important, something that others (often women) are supposed to do as a matter of course. This is a ridiculous response to such an important profession and a necessary thing for our economies both in the Midwest and world wide.
Think about how important it is that young people have supervision and care so that the rest of us can do our jobs. Think about how much more difficult it would be for an ER doctor to get to the office if they can’t find childcare for their 7 year old? Would we just expect them to bring the kid in to work with them? What about those brave police officers that show up during tough weather events or during a pandemic? 5 years should be in the back with an Ipad while dad dashes out to a disturbance? This is not a trivial matter and to anyone reading this who has been responsible for young children knows just how much of a devastating event it is to lose reliable and trustworthy childcare. This can have cascading effects too, especially when it comes to the workplace. Folks responsible for young children without reliable childcare have less promotion opportunities, less educational opportunities, and can be restricted from fully participating in workplace culture. So many employers have the view that childcare is Not Their Problem so folks that have childcare stability issues can just straight lose out on opportunities.
Child care workers are essential.
Let us not get this twisted though, child care workers aren’t there to just facilitate other folks going out of the home to earn money. Early childhood education and socialization is extremely important for its own sake as well. Data show again and again that the best way to set up a successful citizenry is to have an educated, emotionally regulated, and healthy citizenry, and this starts as early as a year old. There are no negative trend outcomes from providing young children with a more stable and educational environment from a young age, the data all points to it being better in every way. Furthermore, the lower the income, socio-economic status, and opportunities for a household, the better at turning that around early childhood education is.
Children that get an education earlier read at a higher level when entering school, tend to drop out less, and have a more successful academic career than those that don’t. Breaking a generation of poverty often starts before a child can walk, and its often due directly to access to quality childcare that can provide that bedrock of stability and safety. Children are more acclimated to different cultures and ideas and retain knowledge better than starting that cold turkey at age 5 or 6 in Kindergarten. I cannot stress enough just how important and beneficial early childhood education is alongside stable and high-quality childcare for the health and safety of not only the children, but for the functioning of our society.
Yet, childcare workers are some of the most underpaid and underappreciated workers in our society. The topmost earners for a childcare worker in Iowa is about $45,000 a year, and the average hovers around $30,000. This is for a job that has exponential returns for all of us in nearly every metric, including fiscally! Children that grow up with good early educations go on to become higher earners, pay more taxes, commit less crimes, use less emergency services, and so on and so on. It is a bedrock good thing to have childcare and early childhood education, yet as a society, we let these folks qualify for SNAP benefits while taking care of the SNAP benefit workers’ kids. Because of the low reimbursement rates from the state programs, workers are consistently underpaid and undervalued economically while being a crucial backbone to the well being and sustainability of our economy.
How can we claim to care about the future of our children when we economically relegate the providers of such crucial care to economic vulnerability.
How can we claim to care about the future when we lower the certification standards for educators and create barriers to the certifications that exist?
How can we claim to care about the future of our children when we make it harder for low income families to get that good education and childcare with layers of red tape and multiple methods to disqualify families from programs?
On this, I think actions speak louder than words and platitudes.
Iowa and many other states need to do more to increase the status and viability of early childhood education. Opening slots and making fanfare about programs or looking at raw dollars being spent isn’t going to cut it. The education and wellbeing of our children ought to be viewed with the same seriousness as all the other workers mentioned at the top of this piece. Without these workers, our economy literally doesn’t get off the ground. Without them, we will have generations of children that are more likely to academically struggle. Without them, our communities will become more fragile, more disconnected as our children are kept isolated from one another and one another’s culture.
So, why doesn’t this come to mind when we think of essential workers? Why is this profession not respected culturally, economically, or politically when it is so obviously and demonstrably important to the well-being of all of us? Think about this when you next drop off or pick up the kiddos from day care or that pre-K class. Think about this when you see a coworker or family member struggling with making an appointment during a tough snow day. Think about this when you get that food from a restaurant, have that tech come out to fix the internet, or enjoy a quick turn around on that car maintenance, there is a team of child care workers that are just as responsible for the services being done.
Most importantly, think about this when you vote. Ask your political leaders to prioritize early childhood education, not just ensuring high quality education, but making sure those folks that are providing that service are taken care of as well. When we build community and look at childcare, it is about the kids and it’s about the families, but its also about the people who make it all happen as well. Even if you do not have children yourself, a childcare worker has improved your life and made all our lives better.
Childcare workers are essential workers and it is time we started treating them with the respect – and pay- they deserve.
Totally agree.