Keystone STAR 4 child care provider LOLAs Early Care and Education Center in Homer City welcomed state Rep. Jim Struzzi and Indiana County Sheriff Robert Fyock on Thursday for a tour and conversation discussing the ongoing challenges of the early care and education sector as it faces workforce shortages that are threatening both pre-kindergarten and child care capacity in Pennsylvania.
Also participating in the discussion were Bruce Clash, Pennsylvania state director, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids; Lindsay Ramsey, assistant director of Policy and Practice at Trying Together; and Tracy Weaver, Outreach and Communications coordinator, Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children.
Meghan Strawcutter, executive director of LOLAs Early Care and Education Center, discussed the impact that staffing shortages are having on the children they serve.
“We know turnover has a really negative impact on a child’s development because the most important indicator of a quality program is the teacher in the classroom. The interactions between teachers and children are critical to a child’s healthy development,” said Strawcutter.
Throughout Indiana County and the entire commonwealth, early learning providers are experiencing significant staffing shortages due to a lack of applicants, in part because the average child care worker makes only $10.69 per hour. A March 2022 survey of nearly 1,000 Pennsylvania child care providers indicated that these low wages are not only impacting the child care teachers but driving a statewide staffing crisis. This staffing crisis has resulted in more than 32,400 children sitting on waiting lists and nearly 7,000 open child care positions. More than 30,000 additional children could be served if child care programs were fully staffed.
Speakers made it clear that the child care staffing crisis is very real and impacting local families’ ability to access care they need in order to work. Indiana County providers responding to the survey reported 31 open staffing positions. Those six programs could serve 92 more children if they were fully staffed. Now, more than ever, children, their families and businesses in Indiana County need to have high-quality programs accessible to ensure businesses have the workforce they need.
The panel stressed the need for direct action to boost wages for early care and education professionals. Given that Gov. Tom Wolf’s budget proposal flat funds Pennsylvania’s Child Care Services and Child Care Assistance line items for the third consecutive year, advocates are urging state policymakers to allocate $115 million in sustainable state and/or federal funds to provide a $2 per hour wage supplement for teachers and staff. This would help child care providers retain their current workforce.
Expanding access to state-funded high-quality Pre-K for more eligible children was also discussed. Fyock indicated the significant long-term research showing that young children who participate in high-quality early learning programs are less likely to be held back in school, are more likely to graduate from high school and are less likely to have problematic social and self-control behavior that can lead to later juvenile and adult crime. He described important benefits that children receive when early learning providers engage parents to help their children become eager learners.
“Healthy child development and being ready to enter school put children on the path to success instead of delinquency,” Fyock said. “Law enforcement leaders know that one of our best long-term strategies to increase public safety is to expand programs like high-quality Pre-K.”
Wolf’s proposed 2022-23 state budget includes a $60 million increase for Pre-K Counts and $10 million increase for the Head Start State Supplemental Assistance Program, which continues the tradition of expanding access to high quality Pre-K. This new funding will serve approximately 2,300 additional children in these high-quality early learning programs and would provide a rate increase for providers to increase teacher compensation, bolster the early education workforce and enhance program quality.
Localized data was also provided, showing that 89 percent of the 1,150 eligible children younger than age 5 in Indiana County are not served by Child Care Works, the Pennsylvania state subsidized child care program based on family income. Additionally, 564 children, or 44 percent of eligible children, do not have access to high-quality publicly funded Pre-K in Indiana County.
Pre-K for PA launched in 2014 with the vision that every 3- and 4-year-old in Pennsylvania will have access to high-quality Pre-K. For more information, visit www.prekforpa.org.
Start Strong PA launched in 2019 to support healthy child development, working families, and the economy by increasing access to and affordability of high-quality child care programs for young children. For more information, at www.start strongpa.org.
