 Good morning everybody. Thank you all so much for coming out on this very very cold day in November. I'm Lisa Guernsey I'm the director of our early education initiative here in the Ed policy program at New America and Really thrilled to be able to host this conversation today. It is an Incredibly timely moment to be talking about the teachers in our early care and education workforce Particularly because of what happened last night So many of you in the room already know this and have been applauding it, but last night the Senate passed the child development Childcare development block grant bill So it's on its way to the president's desk. It is definitely a step in the right direction It's something we've been writing about here at New America and many others In different groups around Washington DC have also been doing a lot of good research and and work on that But I think it's important that we all recognize That that bill did not really do it when it came to the issues we're going to be talking about today So I'm I think this is more timely than ever to be having this conversation. So I'm going to Start by introducing our president here at New America Ann Marie Slaughter. We are thrilled to have her she came on board last September It's been a fantastic year and she's been doing a lot of research in the world of Caregiving in addition to her foreign policy work as well So I just want to say a big thanks to Ann Marie and welcome her to the podium. Thank you Honestly when people ask me Some what's best about your job? One of the things I always say is being able to support Lisa Guernsey and Laura Bornfreund and all their fantastic work It just makes me hugely proud And I would be here for that reason alone Because this is some of the most important work that New America does but as Lisa said I now have a very direct and personal Connection to this work. I as many of you know I wrote this article a couple years ago Why women still can't have it all where I was trying to say look We've got a long way to go yet in terms of institutional changes before we can get to real equality Over the past two years. I've talked to I don't know three to four hundred audiences On these subjects and I've come out in a different place I mean a place that's consistent with what I wrote But it's not something I expected to write and the book that will be coming out in the spring argues that care is Every bit as important as competition in all of our worlds that we are human beings who have two basic drives We compete we advance our individual goals. That's what the women's movement was about was to allow women to be defined Not just as mother daughter sister and wife But that equally we all have the impulse to care for others to empower others rather than to ourselves and in our society We systematically devalue care and the way you revalue care is to understand what it is It isn't just the physical care although that is very important which we know But care if you think about Philosophers how they've written about it how human beings how anthropologists how policy makers Sociologists write about it care is in huge part Education right care is the enabling of others to flourish Whether that is your children or whether that is your parents or extended family members or people who are not Biologically related to you at all it is that impulse that we have that we take Equal pride in seeing those we love flourish and this Work the which is now deeply in the middle chapter of my book is Essential because I understand from a political point of view we want to call it early education I get that completely and I argue for that But what's really important is to understand that when we are caring for very little children? We are laying down these circuits the the the habits the curiosity The the the ways of mind that enable them to flourish throughout their lives There is no greater investment. You cannot tell me that managing money Matters more than managing children not the children can be managed in fact at least in my experience But let's say then empowering enabling educating children. So as a mother as A an activist for what I think of as real equality a world in which men and women are Equally able to care and that caring is equally valued as what we do for paid work And as the head of new America which is devoted to renewing America's America's Prosperity politics and purpose this work is Absolutely at the heart of it and it will change the way we value each other the way when somebody says what do you do at a party? And you say I work in early education Somebody will say wow Somebody will assume you've had education yourself somebody will assume that you have unbelievable amounts of patience and skill and the ability to manage very complex situations someone will look at you and say You know as they do in other countries you are somebody who is investing in the next generation of this country You are somebody we should value you are somebody we should pay so with that I really want to sit down and listen But as I said, I really don't think we do and I speak from the world of foreign policy in Syria and cybersecurity and terrorism I'm no stranger to too many many important threats. This is the most important work. We do. Thank you It's a great way to get started. So thank you very much and Marie Okay, we have a jam-packed day for you or morning for you with a lot of Incredibly interesting material very timely and some some data points that you've never seen before because some of the material That's coming out of this report Will really I think open the eyes of many who have perhaps not been in this conversation as much in the past Haven't been kind of clued into what it really means to teach young children What it really means to ensure that the teachers of our young children are Compensated well and what it means to our society in terms of public costs if we're not doing what we can for those Who are teaching our kids so I want to just take a minute to introduce our two presenters today who are the authors of the report that is coming out this morning or the work still Unlivable wages the early childhood workforce 20 years after the National Child Care Staffing Study and this was This report that we're gonna be talking about today was written by Marcy Whitebook Debra Phillips and Carolee how's all three of them are here today, which is a real thrill These are names that I have been reading about since I was a student of this work and To have them here and to be able to introduce them as an incredible honor so Marcy and Debra will be speaking and I just wanted to do a quick little introduction most of their Bio is in the materials that you received as you walked in Marcy Whitebook as many of you know is the director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of Berkeley And Debra Phillips is professor of psychology and associated faculty in the Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University And it is really a thrill to have them here. So thank you both and take it away So wonderful to see all of you here many long time dear friends and wonderful new faces in this field So thank you very much. Thank you Ann Marie and Lisa and Laura and others at New America Carolee and other co-authors of this report the Center staff who were just Herculean work to get this report ready for today Also the funders of the report the Heising Simons Foundation in the W. Clement and Jesse V. Stone Foundation Thank you also to so many in the room and those who are listening in who have shared this journey with us over the last 25 years to make high quality child care a right for all children and families in the United States Rather than only a fortunate experience for the few. It really is a public good and should not be left to chance 25 years ago Marcy Carolee and I set out to conduct a two generation study of child care Examining both the quality of care for children and the quality of the work environment for adults who were Responsible for their early development when not at home I entered into this study as a card-carrying developmental psychologist deeply worried about the vast variation in child care quality that children experience day in and day out in this country and passionate about Identifying the active ingredients that really quality was all about the policy could affect Little did I imagine the teacher wages would be one of the most powerful of these ingredients I came away from the staffing study honestly shocked by the working conditions of child care teachers salaries lower than parking lot attendance really and deeply touched by their commitment to the children in their care As well as by the economic precariousness of their own lives I was absolutely convinced by the firm link we found between a adult working conditions and what children Experienced in care of the urgency of addressing early childhood teachers compensation and well-being. I Haven't changed my mind in fact all that we've learned in the intervening years about the exquisite sensitivity of the developing brain to the responsiveness Stimulation and protection that young children receive from the adults in their lives and how quickly stress and depression can undermine adults capacity to provide the supportive and stimulating Educational care has me more convinced than ever that taking care of children means taking care of their teachers About a year ago. Marcy Caroly and I began to discuss the possibility of taking stock of the state of the early care and education Workforce to mark the 25th anniversary of the national child care staffing study We couldn't begin to redo the staffing study and we knew it would be a huge challenge to knit together a Coherent story comparing the workforce in 1989 to today's workforce Fortunately the Office of Planning Research and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services has updated the 1990 profile of child care setting studies with the 2012 national survey of early care and Education giving us a 22-year window to examine and they very Generously let us dig into that data set with the help of the staff at NORC To begin to take a first look at that 22-year window Head start has long collected data on its workforce as has the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau Continue to collect annual data on child care workers and preschool teachers, which as you know is a story in its own right I'm going to share with you what this collection of evidence reveals about the early care and education workforce then and now Marcy will then tell you about new data regarding economic worries among early care and education teachers and their reliance on public Benefits due to their poor wages. She will also share our perceptions of the current policy landscape Which in a very important way just changed last night So my personal congratulations about that and our thoughts about creating a pathway on this landscape Toward a different future for early care and education teachers and therefore for young children Let's see. Where do I? This is our quote from the staffing study Still true Okay According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics as was true in 1989 child care workers continue to land at the bottom of the US Wage Scale we actually pay there those who care for and educate our youngest children on a par With those who walk our dogs flip our burgers park our cars and mix our drinks Child care worker wages have barely kept pace with the cost of living increasing by only 1% in real dollars since 1997 a smaller increase than that earned by fast-food cooks Preschool teachers in the Census Bureau linger those who instruct preschool children in activities needed for primary school Have fared better their wages have increased by 15 percent since 1997 But they still have a long ways to go to catch up with their colleagues who do teach primary school and there is a very Unsettling contrast with what has happened to what families pay for early care and education during this same period Census Bureau data have recently revealed that parent fees for early care and education have increased by 90 percent effectively doubling since 1997 1% 15% 90% we have no idea where that money is going but clearly not to their children's teachers The take-home message from this figure based on 2012 data from the Census Bureau and from the National Survey of early care and Education is the exceedingly low premium that is placed on higher education within the early care and education field Among teachers with bachelors or higher degrees those who teach kindergarten earn over 23% over 20% more actually 23% more than their colleagues who teach pre kindergarten alongside them in school sponsored settings and 60% more than those who teach pre-k in other settings including Head Start programs The same exact stair step pattern characterized teacher wages at the time of the National Child Care Staffing Study Degraded teachers working with infants and toddlers still learn less than those who work with preschoolers and Comparisons to the other end of the spectrum show that early childhood teachers earn Half the wages of women and one-third the wages of Comparably educated men in the civilian labor force respectively How can we possibly expect to attract the best and the brightest to this field? Even among those who want to teach young children Equally striking and disturbing was the variation we saw in wages and qualifications across different sectors Within our siloed early care and education market rely on on different funding streams and operating under different auspices and sponsors moreover Sectors of the market that were characterized by improvements in qualifications Did not coincide with sectors characterized by improvements in wages Head Start for example has made remarkable progress in filling its classrooms with well-trained and well-educated teachers The majority of Head Start teachers now have a bachelor's degree in early education or a related field and wages in Head Start did improve between 1997 and 2007 but since then they have completely stagnated despite ongoing dramatic increases in teacher Qualifications, this is why we use terms like illogical Irrational and inequitable to describe the compensation structure in early care and education Turnover fueled in part by low wages Continues also to produce lost investments in professional development Over the past 25 years our knowledge about the vital importance of the first five years of life has exploded Our expectations of early care and education's role in closing the achievement gap have risen dramatically and Vast numbers of early education teachers have worked very hard to improve their educational credentials And yet we have failed to assure them wages that correspond and reward their educational levels That will free them from economic worry and that will enable them to support their families without relying on public benefits And it is to these latter two stories that Marcy will now turn Thanks, Deborah. Thanks new America and thank all of you are here and listening in and I just want to call out a special Appreciation to the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment staff Fran Kipnis and Leah Austin who are here today and for Hina Basi, Megan Delahoy and Laura Sakai who are listening in More than four decades ago as a recent college graduate, I chose a career as a nursery school teacher My experience as a Head Start volunteer in high school first drew me to the child to child development and how early childhood programs could help to address poverty and Inequality and as a young feminist working for good care for good childcare for Families seemed just an appropriate fit. I was enthralled by witnessing child development and helping to facilitate children's learning But it quickly became apparent that there was something amiss many parents could not find or afford good services Only some teachers had access to training and education Only a handful of programs paid decent wages and I watched one skilled teacher after another leave for other types of work Repeatedly I was told that I could do something more with my college degree But I could and I clearly I could have made more money teaching any other age children Or almost in any other field, but then is now I knew that teaching young children was essential Service for our country so along with a handful of my colleagues some of whom are here today Or are listening in very early in California We set out to expand and improve child care and to secure the rights raises and respect For early childhood teachers that it would allow them to provide what children and families deserve But as the title of our report makes clear and our findings that Deborah just presented underscore our efforts And those of many others some of you in this room have joined in over the years have not panned out as we'd hoped It pains me that today recent college graduates still rightly perceive early childhood teaching as a pathway to poverty Personally for me working one with young children was the most intellectually and physically challenging thing I ever did in my life. It is a it's very complex work, and it takes a lot of skill Early childhood teachers need to know about typical and atypical development They need to understand play and the role that play Is the role of play and children's learning across multiple domains even things like building mathematical at understanding and literacy They also must help children children build skills that are important in terms of their own ability to Persist the tasks and do other things that will help them succeed through life these skills must be applied in the context of working with adults and With children and other adults who come from a variety of cultures and economic backgrounds and Increasing children who are dual language learners and children who have special developmental needs At the same time many of these teachers are also attending school while working full time To meet the higher expectations we have for them in the classroom and undoubtedly with the hope of improving their economic status They're trying to and many do Meet our expectations for 21st century teachers, but they're still receiving 20th century pay And if you can't see these from back in the room a lot of these The slides are actually in the executive summary One of the things we wanted to understand more about were the consequences of low pay against the For in terms of economic insecurity because as Debra said we know that stress and depression among adults Particularly from studies of mothers affects Their interactions with young children. I think what we fail to recognize too often is that so many early childhood teachers Are also parents whose children face the very risks associated with being poor that many of our early childhood programs seek to ameliorate We surveyed 600 center-based teaching staff in one state and they express worry about their family's economic well-being And that's what this slide really speaks to as well about as Worry about workplace policies that they feel I influenced their earnings Importantly these staff nearly one half of whom had an associates or higher degree were employed in a relatively high-quality Sample of centers that included for-profit non-profit head start and public pre-k programs in This slide what you can see or maybe not see so you just have to hear what I'm saying We see we we learn that those who earned less than 1250 per hour And those with dependent children expressed more worry about having enough food For their families than their colleagues earning higher wages and those without dependent children Even teachers with associate or higher degrees reported economic worries about their families But also are related to program policies such as being sent home without pay due to an unexpected Closure of their program or low attendance and one really important thing I think in the new CCDB deauthorization is it addresses some of these issues about reimbursement for routine absences Significantly lower overall worry scores were found among teaching staff Employed in higher quality programs and those that were publicly funded Overall worry expressed by teaching staff was significantly higher among those working in for-profit compared to non-profit programs It's very troubling to imagine the stress that is induced from such worry while Simultaneously being responsible for a classroom of children Low pay not only fuels worry, but it leads many in the early childhood workforce to augment their earnings earnings with public support using census data, we were able to look at Participation in public support programs for those who identify themselves as child care workers and our sample For this analysis includes both home-based and family and center-based child care teachers 46 percent of child care workers compared to 25 percent of the US workforce resided in families enrolled in at least one public support program between 2000 and a 2000 and annually between 2007 and 2011 our analysis focused on four programs earned income tax credit Medicaid and children's health insurance SNAP or food stamps and Temporary assistance to needy needy families, but in terms of TANF's participation for the workforce as a whole it was only 2% Participation rates in public support programs varied little by whether child care workers were employed full or part-time But child care workers who earn less than the proposed 10 10 federal minimum wage Were one and a half times more likely to reside in families participating in public support Then were those who earned more than that Participation rates in public support were highest among single-parent child care workers and among workers With at least one child under five years old at every level of worker Education participation in public support programs was higher for child care worker families than for the families of all other US workers with comparable education again under you know under Revealing the low premium placed on Education for our workforce the estimated cost of reliance on public benefits by child care workers and their families is Approximately 2.4 billion per year So what to do? We know that there have been a lot of initiatives over the last number of years focused on the workforce and most of these have really been focused on training and education Which is a really good thing But there seems to have been almost an implicit assumption that the professional salaries will follow this education and You know as our data suggests this is not true The task of creating intentional Sustainable policies for improving the compensation and the work environments of the workforce as a whole Despite recommendations by the National Academy of Science which you can't probably can't read up there But they did make that recommendation has gone largely unaddressed With the notable exception of the Department of Defense child care system that requires compensation at rates equivalent That out of other military employees with comparable training seniority and experience for their teachers and select public pre-program pre-k programs that pay teachers Comparably to their counterparts in case K through 12 Improving compensation has been left to discretionary and sporadic initiatives such as stipends That have been characterized by insufficient funding these initiatives What they have important impacts and they're important to the many in the workforce who receive them But they mostly don't reach people in the workforce only a few are Beneficiaries they tend to be limited in scope they compete for quality improvement funds with professional development and other pressing Priorities and they rely on short-term funding So I think as Lisa Debra and I all were all very happy about CCDBG path being reauthorized at last and Also really recognize that there's some very important protections for children In the new legislation But we remain we continue to think that we we need a focused and comprehensive reassessment of the nation's early care and Education system and we really need to address the financing of the system We need a strategy that allows us to address the way teacher wages aligned with their educational levels Across all settings from birth to five while also relieving the tremendous cost burden that so many working families face and we need everybody in this room listening in policy makers at all levels of Government in concert with state other stakeholders from business and finance leaders parents and child care teachers themselves To really change the political will on this question So we can identify a sustainable source of funding for Improving early childhood jobs that doesn't try to get parents to do it They can't and also that creates a rational and equitable set of guidelines for determining Regionally based entry-level wages and salary increases and workplace standards necessary for teachers to get engaged in professional practice We do have something we can do right now And there are some immediate opportunities that we think provide fertile ground for making some inroads into improving early childhood employment and services First we think that workplace and compensation policies have to become essential features of our state's quality rating and improvement systems They're not in there for the most part now And they should become a benchmark of pre-k quality which the preschool development grants We were really thrilled to see an expansion grants made salaries a criteria Salaries comparable to pre-k for pre-k and K through 12 teachers But that should be where we're working towards that all the time when head start is next reauthorized increased and earmarked funding for aligning teaching staff salaries with their dramatically increased Qualifications should be at the center We're really happy that the quality set aside and CCDBG has been expanded But we feel that there needs to be some clarification around policies so that Compensation initiatives are not fighting with professional development and other important efforts that they need to be dedicated and aligned streams of money We need to help funds to be able to we need funds to help states build and strengthen their current Data system such as workforce registries so we can capture the extent to which members of the workforce are participating in education and professional development receiving Compensation increases and remaining in the field and I might add that it would have been much easier to do this report If we had more comprehensive data and probably much easier for all of you to read it and Finally, we recommend that researchers who study The developmental and societal impacts of early childhood education pay much more attention to the adult working environment and teacher Well-being as critical elements of developmentally supportive Practices for young children and the cost benefits of early childhood settings in the short and the long term Our nation has an uneven playing field in which the wages of teachers depend more on the ages of children They teach and where they work than on their qualifications Economic and security linked to wages is endemic Especially among teachers have children in their own Nobody working full-time in our country and certainly no early childhood teachers working for full-time should be worrying about paying their rent or feeding their families We need in the words of the 1990s where the wage campaign to find a much better and more equitable way to help parents pay and To attract teachers and help them stay something that our Department of Defense A handful of state pre-k programs and most other industrialized countries have managed to accomplish It's our hope that this new evidence that we've reported here today and that we'll be speaking about for the rest of the Morning will spur the nation to not only aspire But to achieve livable equitable and dependable wages for early childhood teachers Of whom we expect so very much, but we still provide so very little My final words are that Deborah Caroly and I will not be doing the 50th anniversary report But because where are we'll be start stretching our arms forward. We have chosen its title Worthy work finally livable wages early childhood teacher teaching in the US and let's hope it can be written before 2039. Thank you