When I was in college studying to become a teacher, I worked part time at a child care center, supporting staff who cared for children from infancy through age 5. The summer camp was always the best part, with our students setting off on adventures to the neighborhood pool, having picnics in the park and learning lessons about animals. I remember Molly from the preschool group, who gained a new love for reptiles after petting a giant lizard. Her family couldn’t believe her excitement at pickup time when I shared pictures of that reptile visit.
The summer after I graduated, my child care center director offered me a full-time teacher position in one of the preschool classes. I was ecstatic to be in a room full of children like Molly. Then the director told me my hourly pay: $13. I was making $10 an hour as a college student, and now I was a professional with a degree. I had to decline my dream job. Instead, I found a job in a public school district, making double the salary with better benefits.
Child care center staff work tirelessly to ensure all children are safe, healthy, learning and developing in all areas. However, low pay and expensive co-payments for child care translate into dangerously low retention rates. Only 59% of lead teachers and 30.9% of assistant teachers in child care centers stay in their jobs each year, compared to 90% of teachers in the public school system. The average Illinois early childhood educator salary is $34,320 per year compared with $73,916 per year for K-12 teachers. A low wage is the top reason teachers like me leave.
Our families and communities need high-quality early childhood education staff. It is time we structure the profession so that professionals like me can afford to stay in our roles. Here is what we can do:
First, the state must follow through with the Smart Start Workforce Grant initiative by increasing its budget. According to the Early Childhood Funding Commission, early childhood educator pay should be $25.75 to $29.25 an hour, and teacher assistants should be paid $18.75 to $22 an hour. When child care staff makes a livable wage and receives benefits, it translates into stability at home and at the child care center.
We also need to make child care costs affordable for working staff. In Illinois, the average yearly cost for an infant is $10,600. Gov. JB Pritzker has proposed the expansion of the Child Care Assistance Program,, offering more subsidized child care spots to low-income families so that they can remain in the workforce. If our families can no longer afford child care because they can’t access it through that program, we can’t build a community with quality child care centers and the professionals who staff them. I have had many conversations with previous child care staff who, like me, either couldn’t afford to take a job or left their position due to pay, benefits and issues with the Child Care Assistance Program.
The expansion of the program is now a distinct possibility. A bill that allows for the collection of workforce data and new strategies to promote workforce retention, including more child care professionals, has passed both chambers in the Illinois General Assembly and is awaiting the governor’s signature. This legislation will help in many ways. Investing in child care can be a critical counterinflation measure to help economic recovery.
It has been eight years since I was offered a child care center preschool lead teaching position and had to turn it down. Every early childhood education teacher in a child care center deserves to have a long career without financial worries, so that they can help our youngest learners thrive now and in the future.
Lori Pluchrat Cole is a prekindergarten instructional specialist in Berwyn North School District 98. She is a Teach Plus Illinois Early Childhood Educator Policy Fellowship alumna.
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