| How Are the Low Salaries of Childcare Workers | | | | an industry, which pays its workers little more |
| Affecting Our Children? | | | | than minimum wage, produce the next generation |
| Every day, more than eighty percent of the | | | | of fine, upstanding citizens? The truth is; it can't. |
| nation's preschool-aged children are cared for | | | | The average child care worker earns less than |
| during the day by someone other than a parent. | | | | $20,000.00 per year. Because of this, and the lack |
| The increasing need for qualified daycare workers | | | | of benefits and incentives for industry workers, |
| has produced an industry where the hands-on | | | | child daycare organizations experience an |
| workers who provide the actual services are in | | | | excessively employee turnover rate and have |
| high demand. Yet, the childcare industry boasts | | | | witnessed the education level of its workers |
| some of the lowest paid workers in the country. | | | | steadily decline. In essence, child daycare industry |
| Even more important, the people who spend the | | | | jobs are better suited for high school dropouts |
| day with our children are responsible for imparting | | | | than educated and knowledgeable providers. And, |
| a wealth of information that was once the sole | | | | many of the higher-skilled workers who are |
| territory of one or more of the child's parents. | | | | working in these low-paying positions are only |
| Where Sesame Street and Romper Room once | | | | doing so as part of an early childhood education |
| taught basic skills and manners, overwhelmed and | | | | program that they, themselves, are participating in |
| underpaid workers are juggling an entire room full | | | | and they leave for better paying positions as |
| of active toddlers and preschoolers, leaving little | | | | soon as they finish their own education. |
| time for any real and meaningful interactions with | | | | In a cruel parody of the nation's educational crisis, |
| any of them. | | | | qualified child daycare workers can't afford to |
| Child daycare centers are luring more working | | | | remain in these low wage positions, but our |
| parents with the promise of social interaction and | | | | children can't afford for them to leave. |
| structured environments for their kids. How can | | | | |