- The national median annual wage for preschool teachers is $28,570 - roughly half of what elementary school and kindergarten teachers earn in a year.
- In 60 percent of states, the median annual earnings for a child care worker is below poverty for a family of three (i.e. $20,090 according to the 2015 poverty threshold).
- For an individual with a Bachelor’s degree, there is a $6.70 per hour difference in median wages between employment in a public school sponsored program compared to a community-based program. That translates to a difference of $13,936 per year.
- Across the 42 states and the District of Columbia now operating state preschool programs, only four states require salary parity for all lead teachers across all settings: Georgia, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee.
While in my current preschool, I do not have current routine professional development. The only day offered for this is at the beginning of each school year for one day. While I do share ideas and information with my coordinator and coworkers, if I would like to attend professional development workshops or conferences that is on my own time and money. I have been in other similar preschool settings where professional development occurred monthly but outside training again was on my own time and money. For these two reason, I have taken it upon myself to ensure I am reading and seeking information on my own time that can be applied to my current position. Taking the courses for my graduate degree has also helped with expanding this knowledge to and pushing me to grow more into a professional than I thought it would. After completing this degree, I hope to have more time to seek workshops or conferences to ensure I am staying current and have real and relevant information to use within my classroom daily.
I hope one day that all children have the opportunity to a quality early learning program which can fit the family both financially but also the schedule. Many families have to forgo part time programs due to work demands and that places many in a child care setting that may not be able to offer the high quality learning experiences that other programs can. I hope to learn more of how to help families find a program that best suits them but also about how to ensure the finical aspect is not a burden. Since my family and I relocate quite often, I feel as though I am just learning the system for the area and then we moved and I have to begin again. In the future I hope to settle in a community and contribute greatly to ensure all young children area able to have quality early learning.
Professionally, I hope to continue to grow daily. As children in our current environment are encountering new challenges, it is important to learn from these instances to help each child be his or her best. No challenge or behavior is too much and requires attention for ensuring the child has the best future. I hope to always continue learning because I have always felt that as soon as an educator stops learning he or she becomes stagnant and not current with the issues and trends within the field.
Reference
Statement by NAEYC on a New Report Addressing Compensation for Early Childhood Educator. (2016, June 14). Retrieved February 23, 2019, from https://naeyc.org/our-work/public-policy-advocacy/compensation-early-childhood-educators
To Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. You were very informative. The issue of pay has always been on the forefront of educators. I happy to say that our new Governor is pressing for a 3,000.00 raise for public school teachers, which doesn't sound like much, but for novice teachers that is a great addition to the base salary. Since I will be retiring soon, that will be a great salary to retire on. Even though you teach preschool, I don't really understand your base salary. I know in Georgia, our pre-kindergarten teachers are receiving the same pay as public school teachers, which has been a long time coming. I feel that in the near future the pay will get better for all educators. God bless.
Sherry,
DeleteThat is truly amazing to read. I hope it happens, because that would help so many educators feel valued. Since I work in a private sector and within a non-profit organization, my salary is quite low but I value my position greatly and am so fortunate to have the flexibility to double up on my courses will still gaining experience in the classroom. I know my current salary will not ever reach what I could potentially earn as a public school teacher but for now that is okay.
I find that we have a huge turnover in associate teachers due to low wage. I, like you, work for a not for profit organization, but we are state and federally funded. We actually pay the highest in our county and we still find it hard to keep quality employees because they can go to a local shop and get paid considerably higher. The problem is, if we increase wage, we don't have enough for supplies which makes it difficult to run our program. I am hoping that legislature will see that an increase in funding will benefit early childhood in more than one way. Our teachers deserve better!
ReplyDeleteJill,
DeleteYou very much understand the conundrum of a non-profit. There is such a fine balance that must be considered to ensure there are enough funds for all aspects of the program. I am blessed in the way my pay is not our sole income so I am able to work for less but still be very rewarded. I know this position will not be forever but I am thankful for the experience I am receiving each day.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI also commented in my blog about low pay grade to teachers in the field. It is a very hard situation, because government is forcing professionals to give high quality services however they do not treat them with high quality.
Laura,
DeleteIt is truly a tragedy for our nation that teachers across the board are not well compensated. I know many teachers who have to quite the school system or move to a different state for better wages for a living. There needs to be a call to action for this because if our nation is not investing in the education, where will we be in the few decades?
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post because it was very informative to me on so many different level. Salary pay for educators is something that has been getting a lot of attention in the news lately. It is mind blowing to me that our lawmakers do not see the importance of having higher paying salary for early childhood professionals. Considering the importance of providing children with a high quality education.