Underfunded and Overlooked: The Challenges Facing Early Childhood Education Providers

The early years of a child’s life are critical to their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development. In the third and final part of this three-part series, Chasity Edwards, Director of Education Grantmaking at The Columbus Foundation, continues to explore the challenges facing early childhood education providers and share reflections and insights from local early childhood education leaders. Read parts one and two here .

Each aspect of the early childhood education system is mutually dependent upon the other. While education is at the center, the sector is made up of businesses—not unlike any other sector—that require balanced revenue and expenditures to remain viable.?Unaffordable childcare not only negatively impacts children and families, but also childcare centers and providers.

In Franklin County:????

• Fifty-three percent of childcare providers have had to raise tuition in the past 12 months.?
• Post COVID-19, 63 percent of Franklin County childcare programs are still not operating at their full capacity. On average, programs are at 66 percent enrollment across central Ohio.
• Fifty-nine percent of childcare providers reported monthly revenue does not cover their expenses.????
• Seventy-five percent of childcare centers want to hire classroom teachers to increase enrollment.????
• Sixteen percent of childcare providers report they are unsure if they will be open in the next three months.????

Source: Action for Children, 2023

Childcare centers have historically operated with narrow margins. Characteristically slim margins result in low wages for qualified early childhood teachers, our brain builders, making it difficult to hire and retain staff. Decreased Publicly Funded Child Care (PFCC) eligibility results in lower enrollment (as mentioned in the previous installment of this series, Ohio has the lowest income eligibility limit for PFCC in the country). Childcare centers cannot raise the cost of tuition much without outpricing families. With all things considered, and interconnected, Action for Children has succinctly stated, “child care wages and tuition pricing are at a tipping point.” (Action for Children, 2023) ???? ????

The Consequences of Undervaluing Early Childhood Educators

There is general consensus that early childhood education and its workforce are undervalued. Early childhood education leaders, advocates, and researchers agree that this miscalculation is at the root of poor compensation and has implications for the level of services that are provided.?

In Franklin County, the median highest wage is $17.00 an hour for a lead teacher and $14.25 an hour for an assistant early childhood teacher. Only one-third of Franklin County childcare centers can afford to offer health, vision, or dental insurance for staff (Action for Children, 2023 ). Clearly, a career in early childhood education is unsustainable. Individual and collective capacity are diminished by the burdens inherent to earning poverty wages.

"So many of our staff are single moms, sole breadwinners in their family. To not be able to pay them for their true value is very hard as an executive—to not be able to pay people what they should be paid. Carrying that all of the time is a lot." — Central Ohio Early Childhood Education Leader?????

From 2017 to 2022, the number of childcare workers in Ohio dropped by nearly 36 percent. Turnover has implications for quality, too, as children benefit from continuity and learn in the context of relationships. There is not a path to high-quality early childhood education without effective early childhood educators, nor can we emphasize adult career-readiness and workforce development without addresses the challenges faced by childcare providers (National Association for the Education of Young Children ).

“(A) manifestation of the lack of value is burnout. Many have a lack of ability to respond to anything that may happen (ex. Car breaks down, heat goes out). They don’t have the resources or capacity to deal with those things because of the pay and inability for them to build wealth over time.” — Central Ohio Early Childhood Education Leader?????

Racial Disparities in the Early Childhood Education Workforce

Racial disparity is a reality within the sector: Black Ohioans are more likely to be childcare workers than their counterparts of other races, making up nearly 18 percent of the childcare workforce but just?more than 12 percent of the state’s population (Ohio’s Childcare Crisis , 2024). Throughout the workforce, Black women are more likely to be pushed into the lowest paying jobs, one of which is childcare. Black educators in the early childcare workforce are less likely than other early educators across racial and ethnic groups to earn more than $15 an hour (Ohio’s Childcare Crisis, 2024 ).

“There’s a great opportunity to raise our respect for the profession of early childhood educators. That’s at the heart of our challenge. It’s not by accident it is where we have a lot of African American females leading and doing that work. There’s opportunities to really empower them and grow their ability to do that work. Especially with focus on workforce initiatives, opportunity to credential/degree professionals and hopefully tie funding to that so the more degreed staff, the higher your center’s quality rating, the more dollars that flow your way. Theoretically we can raise the whole profession."— Central Ohio Early Childhood Education Leader?

"As the early learning system has been built up, it has been on the backs of low wage, disproportionately women of color who are making an average of $13 per hour to do the brain building of children in our communities. That is why it has been historically undervalued and now we can’t build the political will to deliver on the systems that will support kids and families."— Central Ohio Early Childhood Education Leader?

Empowering Brain Builders for a Better Future

High-quality early childhood education is a vital resource for any child, family, and community to access opportunities necessary for inclusive prosperity. Quality is contingent on adequate funding and fair compensation. Relying on families alone to bear the cost will perpetuate the under-provision of care and, as our economy grows, widen the opportunity gap. ?????

Additional investment is crucial. Early childhood education funding is driven largely by policy, but there is a role for philanthropy as well. Support for nonprofit childcare centers can help mitigate narrow margins and close tuition gaps for families. System wide, a strategic focus on the workforce must include raising respect for the field and ensuring accessible, affordable, high-quality early childhood education for all.?????

Sources

Action for Children. (2023). The Tipping Point: Central Ohio Child Care Provider Survey.

Ohio’s childcare crisis. (2024, March). Policy Matters Ohio. https://www.policymattersohio.org/research-policy/shared-prosperity-thriving-ohioans/basic-needs-unemployment-insurance/basic-needs/ohios-childcare-crisis ?

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.). Transforming the Financing of Early Childhood Education: A Statement from the National Power to the Profession Task Force. NAEYC. https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/initiatives/profession/transforming-financing-early-childhood-statement

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Meeting the Moment is a newsletter that explores the dynamic changes in our region, what those mean for our community and those who call it home, and the importance of coming together to face the opportunities and challenges ahead. Don't miss a chance to stay informed. Subscribe to "Meeting the Moment" to receive updates on future articles from the series: https://cbusfdn.org/meetingthemoment .