“We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something.” - The Child Care Crisis, Up Close and Personal with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the deep fault lines in our already crumbling early education and care sector. Those paying attention know that we were suffering from a child care crisis long before the pandemic, and that this suffering will continue long after if we don’t act to address it now.

We are on the precipice of meaningful change: legislation to create universal, affordable early education and care programs is before both Congress and the Massachusetts State House. And, child care champion, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, is working overtime to ensure that we don’t miss this moment. 

Last week, Neighborhood Villages was thrilled to host Congresswoman Pressley at our Neighborhood partner, Ellis Early Learning Center, to shine a spotlight on the child care crisis and how President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation could bring transformative change to families across the country. Most importantly, it was an opportunity to hear directly from the parents and educators most impacted by the crisis.

During the visit, Congresswoman Pressley toured the facility, met with center staff and families, and read a story to her littlest constituents outside on the playground. She heard first-hand about how the child care crisis is impacting everyone, and why we can’t afford another minute to act.

On the tour, Congresswoman Pressley and Ellis CEO Lauren Cook paused in front of a beautiful classroom set up for students… but that was totally empty. The early education and care sector has been facing a severe workforce shortage, and Ellis, sadly, is no exception. Unable to staff classrooms with educators, Ellis hasn’t been able to enroll up to capacity. The empty classroom stands as a poignant example of how failure to invest in the early education and care sector – and its educators – is denying early learning opportunities to children and care solutions to families desperately in need of them.

“We have waiting lists of families who want to come to Ellis, who want to send their child to early education programs,” said Lauren Cook. “But we don’t have enough teachers to help them. We live paycheck to paycheck as an organization. Our front desk person is in a classroom, our financial director is at the front desk. No one can do their job because everyone is doing jobs that aren’t their own.”

In Massachusetts and nationally, early educators earn little more than minimum wage, with salaries as low as $14 or $15 an hour. More than 15% live below the poverty line. Low salaries have always contributed to high turnover in the field; in this moment, however, teacher shortages and churn are at crisis levels.

“For many people, working as an early educator is their dream job but they’re choosing to work in retail or something else because they can’t afford to work in this industry,” said Cook. “We are competing with Amazon and Dunkin’ Donuts for talent. This is a high-skill job. It requires patience and know-how and passion, but we can’t get those people to stay because they can’t afford to.”

This structural wage crisis – in which educators are undercompensated, but providers can’t afford to increase wages without passing costs onto already tapped out families – was front and center in a roundtable discussion with the Congresswoman, hosted by Neighborhood Villages’ Sarah Muncey, along with Cook, two Ellis parents, and two Ellis teachers. Congresswoman Pressley kicked off the meeting emphasizing the urgency of investments in stabilizing the child care workforce.

“Even within the debate about child care, often child care workers get lost in the discourse. This is why I wanted to come here today… Our early childhood workers were essential long before the pandemic… we value your labor. And also your lives! And that’s why you need a living wage. We know Massachusetts has the highest cost for center-based child care — $21k/year on average. Our early educators are living in poverty. They can’t provide for their own children! This is simply unacceptable, and we CAN do something about it.”

To a room full of nodding heads, Representative Pressley stressed the centrality of early education and care as essential infrastructure.

“If we truly want to build back better, we need investments in social infrastructure, in human infrastructure… What does infrastructure mean? It means it’s essential and you can’t live without it. So how can we be debating whether child care is infrastructure? These investments are crucial and the stakes have never been higher. It’s not enough for us to recover to a pre-Covid, unjust status quo. We have a once in a lifetime opportunity to make these bold investments and chart a path forward.”

The parents at the roundtable shared their own child care stories: of how access to care, or a lack thereof, has impacted their families’ lives. They discussed struggling to afford child care, to access subsidies, to balance being present for their kids with work. Over and over, parents described a never-ending cycle of compounding financial burden to ensure access to the education and care that families need and children deserve — from early learning, to after-school programs, to college loans.

One mother talked about making the difficult decision between child care and going back to work.

“I had a three-year-old and then a new baby. The month before I had to return to work, I had a dilemma — the child care cost more than what I was making in my job! I am a first-time college student in my family. Being a Latina, being the first, I want education for my kids too. I want them to get an education.”

Fortunately, she was able to receive financial assistance and secure a highly competitive spot to enroll her children in Ellis. Most families, however, are not so lucky.

Teachers from the Ellis program shared their own stories about the difficult choices they have had to make to remain in the field.

”I had an internship as an educator at Ellis and I never left!” one said. “This is my passion. But it’s a struggle. I live with my parents because I can’t afford to leave with this pay. I want to start my own family, but I don’t think I can because I can’t afford to right now.”

Deeply moved by these stories, the Congresswoman replied, “It is a cruel contradiction that you’ve delayed having your own family but you’re here taking care of other people's babies…Our reality often means we’re sacrificing ourselves and I’ll keep fighting until that isn’t the case.” 

Neighborhood Villages is proud to fight alongside Congresswoman Pressley, and THIS is our moment! We have the opportunity in Congress to pass the Build Back Better bill, which would invest billions into the child care system, lower costs for families, and raise wages for educators. In Massachusetts, we have an opportunity close to home: the Common Start legislation currently being considered in the statehouse would establish a transformative, first-in-the-nation universal early education and care system for all families in the Commonwealth. 

One thing is clear: Families can’t wait any longer. Children can’t wait. Teachers can’t wait. As Congresswoman Pressley says, change can’t wait! We agree.