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High-quality early education leads to lifelong success for children and their communities, and it cannot happen without professionals cultivating and facilitating these important learning experiences. We know well the critical importance of the child care field, yet low pay 鈥� averaging $13.31 per hour, according to the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment鈥檚 鈥� remains the norm throughout most of the country, and early childhood educators endure poverty rates that are 7.7 times higher than elementary school teachers.

To infuse the landscape with greater equity, funds innovations in financial systems that support long-term increases of compensation for the early care workforce. A recent round of grants supports systemic change in Colorado, D.C. and Louisiana.

鈥淔ocusing on compensation requires innovating on financing systems,鈥� said Ola J. Friday, director of the Collaborative. 鈥淵ou need someone from the fiscal and budget office at the table.鈥� The Collaborative designed the request for proposals to incentivize these partnerships, and many applicants, even those that didn鈥檛 receive funding, noted that the process of applying spurred collaborations that needed to happen anyway.

Friday introduced leaders from the three new grantees to Early Learning Nation magazine.

Colorado

An educator quoted in the reflected, 鈥淲hen I think about the vulnerability of young children under six years old . . . how impressionable they are . . . how important a caring relationship with an adult provider is . . . and how much time providers spend with young children, I can鈥檛 get over the fact that the compensation is not equitable. It鈥檚 not even a living wage. I would love to see greater compensation.鈥�

The Collaborative鈥檚 $3.8 million investment will advance this vision through an expansion of the Teacher and Family Child Care Home Salary Increase and Compensation Pilot, among other initiatives. According to Rebecca Vlasin, Early Childhood Workforce division director of the state鈥檚 recently formed Department of Early Childhood, early findings from the pilot鈥檚 randomized control trial have shown a 92% retention rate for the providers receiving hourly increases of $3-8, compared to a rate of around 82% for those not receiving the boost.

Friday hopes that the Collaborative鈥檚 investment helps them demonstrate the effectiveness. 鈥淲e鈥檙e playing a part in supporting their advocacy so they can get the funding they need to sustain the pilot,鈥� she says.

鈥淎s we designed the pilot, we wanted to be sure that we were considering any unintended consequences of salary increases for teachers as well as for providers across Colorado communities,” Vlasin Said. “For example, we know that one-third of our workforce qualifies for public benefits due to the compressed wages, and we want to understand how a wage increase might make them ineligible 鈥� essentially, pushing them off a benefits cliff without a systemwide commitment toward a sustainable, livable wage.鈥�

The Collaborative previously to help University of Colorado at 聽Denver facilitate a consortium of institutions of higher education to explore credentialing and access to postsecondary degrees 鈥� efforts that relate directly to the continued quest for equitable compensation. The recent grant will build upon this work by helping the various agencies to create the structures needed to facilitate greater inter-agency coordination, capacity-building and action.

According to Vlasin, Colorado鈥檚 long and unwavering commitment to supporting children and families results from collaboration between state and local entities across private and public domains.聽鈥淔amilies, professionals, advocates and policymakers have worked together to build coordinated systems that support local areas to be responsive to the needs of their communities,鈥� she says. This spirit of collaboration permeates the state鈥檚 .

The District of Columbia

Comparable to a state department of education in any other state, functions as D.C.鈥檚 education agency as well as its lead agency for the federal . Since 2021, the has increased compensation for early childhood educators, bringing it within range of what K-12 teachers earn.

Initially, OSSE partnered with an intermediary to issue payments directly to educators, but according to Sara Mead, OSSE鈥檚 deputy superintendent for Early Learning, the long-term vision was always that providers would see an increase in the paychecks they receive from their employers, and this shift is currently under way. 鈥淭his is the first time any jurisdiction has tried to do what we鈥檙e doing at this scale,鈥� she said.

A new mom herself, Mead said, 鈥淧arents just cannot afford to pay what it costs to really compensate our early childhood educators at the level they deserve. So, the only way to untangle that situation and really address the pay they deserve is by having a revenue source that comes from someplace other than the traditional early learning revenue sources. In our case, we are blessed with a rich ecosystem with so many supportive elected officials. The resulting tax measure enables us to do some of the most exciting work in the country.”

, a partnership with the District鈥檚 health benefits exchange, is making health care coverage affordable for child care employees. About a thousand individuals have enrolled so far, 40% of whom were previously uninsured. And deductibles are lower this year, thanks to an upgrade from the silver plan to the gold plan.

The Collaborative鈥檚 $2.4 million grant will also support an initiative called the D.C. Business Collaboratory, an OSSE collaboration with:

• Hurley & Associates

The Collaboratory will support child care programs聽with business administration, operational and management issues.

鈥淲e are excited to support D.C.鈥檚 success,鈥� Friday said. 鈥淎nd to help OSSE bolster its data and information technology systems to more effectively implement the Pay Equity Fund and health care benefits.鈥�

聽鈥淥ne of the challenges when you are standing up programs really quickly is that you are doing a lot of innovation really fast and don鈥檛 have as much time to reflect on what you鈥檙e learning and really document it,” Mead said. “That鈥檚 why this investment is so important.鈥�

Louisiana

For Friday, one of the things that stood out about Louisiana鈥檚 plans for increasing provider compensation was the local-to-state implementation approach. 鈥淥rleans Parish has an existing compensation pilot,鈥� she says, 鈥淲e鈥檙e looking to support Louisiana to scale up that model to additional parishes around the state.鈥�

Another distinguishing feature of this investment is that the grantee, the , is a nonprofit and not a governmental agency. Executive director Libbie Sonnier recalls, 鈥淲e took this opportunity to the state department of education and asked if we could apply for the grant, since it aligned with our work, which is about systems improvement. And they were like, 鈥楢bsolutely,鈥� since we are all working together so closely anyway.鈥�

Candace Weber, partnerships director at the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children, notes that the timing of the project was perfect for their organization because it followed on the heels of their cross-sectional 鈥淭iger Team鈥� project (a term popularized by NASA) that resulted in their report. The team, which comprised experts from academia as well as educators with lived experience, found, 鈥淐ompetitive pay can boost employee retention and recruitment, which will encourage long-term quality improvements and directly benefit the young children in their care.鈥�

鈥淟ouisiana isn鈥檛 the only state that鈥檚 grappling with compensation,鈥� Weber said. 鈥淲e know the economic benefits associated with child care and understand what鈥檚 at risk if we don鈥檛 address workforce compensation.聽 We get contacted by other states to learn what we鈥檙e doing, especially around our , which tracks the cost of child care breakdowns.鈥澛� ( found that parental absences cost Louisiana businesses $762 million annually from missed work, turnover and other related costs.)

Louisiana just inaugurated Jeff Landry as governor, and Sonnier anticipates continued growth in state investments in early childhood, building upon $87 million of recurring state funding over the last four years. 鈥淲e have buy-in from the business community and the legislature,鈥� she says.

The system building funded by the Collaborative will help early childhood educators by reflecting the true value of their professional work. Friday adds that the Collaborative is actively seeking aligned funding to support additional states.

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.