By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Child care pay lags at bottom of pay scale, as advocates urge higher standards and better training
0524b43c39f157136be943671ba92c61edc178a599b3882cff29d9624682bf8f
If closing the achievement gap hinges on the first few years of life, you wouldn't know it from looking at the profession. - photo by Eric Schulzke
There is an emerging scientific and policy consensus that closing the school achievement gap between rich and poor will require educators and policy makers to focus on the first five years of life. Neuroscience is increasingly demonstrating this has an outsized impact on a childs prospects as an adult.

This is a sizeable challenge. The 2011 U.S. Census Bureau survey reports that over 23 percent of children under five are cared for by organized day care facilities, as opposed to in home care by friends or relatives. And child development experts are increasingly concerned about the quality of care this rising generation receives.

"We know that the greatest period of brain development is in the first three years of life," said Lea Austin, a coauthor of the study, in an interview. "And if we consider the reality that the majority of kids across the country are in child care settings during those years, what happens there is incredibly important."

In pay, training and quality, the study argues, America's child care and early education teachers lag well behind nearly all other professions, argues a new Early Childhood Workforce Index, compiled by the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.

Austin points to a 2015 report by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, which she says argues that "working with young children from birth through five years of age is just as important and complex as working with older children, but it requires different, specialized knowledge.

The Berkeley study thus provides more fodder for advocates who argue that training and wages for the early child care and preschool professions should be adjusted upward, given the new consensus on the importance of this phase.

Zero to three

By targeting birth through five," however, the Berkeley study plays into a frustration expressed by many advocates of improved early child care, namely that conflating zero to five in a single group overlooks the emerging urgency of zero to three.

The most critical phase is the first three years, not years four and five, says Katherine Stevens, a research fellow in education policy at the American Enterprise Institute. Grouping the first five years into a single category leads to sloppy thinking and policies, she argues.

"We start by saying that the first three years are critical," Stevens said, "and the next thing you know they are explaining why that means we have to send all 4-year-olds to school."

Stevens points to a recent poll that shows the American public agreeing that birth to five are critical years, and the headline on the poll was that "the American public supports preschool.

"Four is really too late," agrees Katie Hamm, senior director of Child Care Policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for American Progress, "but that doesn't mean that four isn't important."

Scale problems

The Early Childhood Workforce Index notes that Kindergarten teachers, who are already at the low end of education pay, average nearly $25 an hour, compared to under $14 an hour for preschool teachers and under $10 an hour for child care workers.

As Katherine Stevens notes, there are "millions of children spending 30 to 50 hours a week in out-of-home care, and we are shooting ourselves in the foot if we leave them in an inadequate environment during their most crucial development phase."

"We are talking about a group of people who are paid less than a parking attendant, and we are asking them to do a pretty big job," said Katie Hamm.

Its not just a big job. Its a massive job, in scale as well as importance. Scaling child care for those millions is an enormous problem, given that early childhood work requires very high teacher to student ratios.

At the earliest ages, child care is five to 10 times more labor intensive that most K-12 teaching. Hamm pegs the appropriate ratio for children under 1 year old at one teacher to three babies.

"And I think anyone who has cared for a baby understands that even that is a lot for one person to handle," she adds.

For most of human history early child development has been accomplished by full-time maternal care, Stevens noted. And very small infants can only see about seven inches, which happens to be exactly the distance from the face of a mother while nursing.

Human reproduction patterns, she notes, typically have meant that one mother would be caring for no more than three small children at a time, and early childcare done properly is very labor intensive.

To pay those workers properly, Hamm acknowledges, is a daunting proposition. One teacher for three babies at $15,000 a year per family works out to $45,000 a year to pay all overhead plus the teacher's salary. "That doesn't leave a lot for the provider's wage," Hamm notes.

You cannot scale early child development, Stevens said.

The problem of scale and cost, Hamm argues, means that the only answer is to treat early childcare as a public good, as we do K-12. We dont expect parents to pay for their fourth graders schooling out of pocket, she argues.

"There is a consensus that education is a public responsibility," Hamm said, "but we're still working on helping people understand that education begins before kindergarten. I don't think we've broken through that barrier."

The home option?

Some argue it would be cheaper for poor mothers with low economic skills to step out of the workforce and care for their children, to have the government subsidize mothers to stay home. This dilemma would be especially difficult if child care wages were significantly increased, as many mothers would be earning less than those who care for their children.

The Center for American Progress, Hamm said, answers that question with a wage calculator that unveils the "hidden cost of leaving the workforce." In short, CAP argues, when a woman leaves the workforce for several years, the cost is much higher than just the direct lost wages.

"When you look at it over the course of the worker's lifetime, you see lost earnings potential and social security," Hamm said.

More to the point, Hamm and other child care advocates emphasize that children of poorly educated parents will often benefit from a high-quality early learning environment that will often outstrip what they may have gotten at home, even with a parent at home.

Would some at-risk children actually be often be better off in a child care program than in the home? Both Hamm and Stevens agree that this is the case. There are two sides to the problem, Stevens said.

First, many at-risk kids would not get the stimulation they needed if they were to be cared for at home. "It's a knowledge and a capacity issue," Stevens said.

A high-quality child care setting, Hamm says, will include nutrition, books, art supplies and other forms of engagement that are often not found in a low-income home.
Sign up for our E-Newsletters
How to avoid 'sharenting' and other paparazzi parenting habits
ce406c66b9871a104ac24256a687e4821d75680dcfc89d9e5398939543f7f88f
A recent study revealed parents often spend up to two hours staging a single photo of his or her child to post online. - photo by Amy Iverson
Before having kids, some people just dont appreciate their friends baby posts. But after having a child of their own, three fourths of new parents jump right on the parental social media bandwagon. If you have become a member of this group, there are some rules to follow for posting responsibly.

Much of a parents worry is how to teach their children to use social media responsibly. We talk with our kids about privacy, oversharing, and setting restrictions on their devices to keep them safe. But parents themselves need to look in the digital mirror once in a while. Before having children, it doesnt take as much effort to think about what to post online. Its up to us to decide what we share about our own lives. But once you become a parent, there are many questions to think about regarding what is appropriate to post about your kids on social media.

In a recent survey, kids clothing subscription company Mac and Mia surveyed 2000 new parents to find out how they are documenting their kids lives on social media, and what concerns they may have.

First of all, people without children seem to feel a bit differently about the onslaught of baby pictures online than those who are parents. 18 percent of people say before they had kids, they were annoyed by their friends baby posts. But after having children of their own, 73 percent admit they post progress pictures of their little ones every single month.

Not only are new parents letting the world know each time their baby is a month older, but they are posting about their kids every few days or so. Men and women report they post 6-7 times per month about their baby.

And while 70 percent of new parents say the benefit of using social media is how easy it is to help family and friends feel involved, there are some downsides. Here are a few tips to avoid the pitfall of becoming paparazzi parents.

Dont miss the moment

In the Mac and Mia survey, some parents admitted to spending up to two hours to get the perfect shot of their baby. That seems a little extreme. New and old parents alike should be careful about spending so much time taking pictures and videos that they dont enjoy the moment. Years ago, I decided to never live an experience through my phone. A study by Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University in Connecticut, found that when people took pictures of objects in an art museum, they didnt remember the objects as well as if they simply observed them.

This photo-taking impairment effect can happen to parents as well. If we are so consumed by getting the perfect photo, we can miss out on the moment all together, and our memory of it will suffer.

Dont forget about privacy

60 percent of couples say they have discussed rules and boundaries for posting their babys photos, according to the Mac and Mia survey. Even so, men are 34 percent more likely to publish baby posts on public accounts. If parents are concerned about their childrens privacy, keeping photos off of public accounts is a given.

In the Washington Post, Stacey Steinberg, a legal skills professor at the University of Florida, and Bahareh Keith, a Portland pediatrician, wrote that sharing too much information about kids online puts them at risk. They write that all that sharenting can make it easier for data thieves to target out kids for identity theft. Check that your privacy settings are where they should be and never share identifying information like full names and birth dates.

Dont be paparazzi parents

36 percent of parents say they take issue when their childs photo is posted online by someone else. Responsible social media users will always ask permission before posting a photo of another child. But parents should also think about whether their own children will take issue with their own posted photos a few years down the road.

When parents are constantly snapping pictures and throwing them on social media, it can be easy to forget to pause and make sure the post is appropriate. I always use the billboard example with my kids. I ask them to picture whatever they are posting going up on a billboard in our neighborhood. If they are okay with that, then their post is probably fine. Parents should ask themselves this same question when posting about their children. But they should also ask themselves if their child would be OK with this post on a billboard in 15 years. If it would cause embarrassment or humiliation, it might be best to keep it private.

Once children reach an appropriate age, parents should include them in the process of deciding what pictures are OK to post. Researchers at the University of Michigan surveyed 10- to 17-year-olds and found children believe their parents should ask permission more than parents think they should. The kids in the survey said sharing happy family moments, or accomplishments in sports, school and hobbies is fine. But when the post is negative (like when a child is disciplined) or embarrassing (think naked baby pictures or messy hair), kids say to keep it off social media.
Latest Obituaries