Blue triangles Destiny and Raena are showing off their proficiency at a letter identification game on the Blue Triangle room’s computer when Ms. Simpson calls everyone together for a meeting. The 4-year-olds scramble to find sitting space on the carpet of the meeting area, then say, “Go-o-o-d morning, Ms. Simpson,” in time-honored sing-song unison. Ms. Simpson returns the greeting, and one by one, has different kids identify the year, the month, the day of the week and the season. They put a jacket on the bear tacked on the bulletin board under the “Weather Report” sign and offer up words that begin with the letter “Z.” Restless kids are calmed by Ms. Simpson and Ms. Fancher, the assistant teacher. Shy kids are gently drawn out of their shells. After the meeting, Ms. Simpson, who has been teaching kids for 13 years, shows a visitor a detailed lesson plan and eloquently explains her philosophy of early childhood education, while complying with little Olivia’s request for a hug. It’s an impressive performance, even more so considering that Lisa Simpson’s chosen profession is one of the most poorly paid jobs in the American economic system. Indiana child care workers’ average income is about $11,000 a year, lower than the poverty line for most family sizes and lower than the average income of janitors, bus drivers, bartenders or parking attendants. Only 18 percent of Indiana child care centers offer paid health coverage for their teachers. Even at the Wiles Center, where the children’s tuition is supplemented with a variety of grants and donations, the starting salary for new caregivers can be as low as $6.50 an hour. Low wages for child care providers lead to high turnover rates. National studies show that 31 percent of all teaching staff at child care centers leave their jobs each year. Child care administrators and researchers wring their hands in frustration over these figures because teacher quality and stability are the most important variables in the quality of child care. “The very essence of early childhood education is who is there with the children,” says Carolyn Dederer, executive director of Day Nursery. “Our society shows that we don’t value teachers, especially teachers of young children, when we place them in a pay situation where they can make more at McDonald’s.” Ironically, the work setting at McDonald’s would be more tightly regulated than the average child care setting. Although Indiana’s child care licensing standards receive criticism for being too lax — there are few requirements for child care providers beyond being 18 years old and taking a CPR course — barely a quarter of all Hoosier children are cared for in licensed settings anyway. The majority of Indiana children are cared for in home settings or in a growing number of church-operated “child care ministries,” which are exempt from licensing requirements. Less than 3 percent of Indiana child care providers have met the standard for national accreditation. Accredited centers like the Wiles Center tend to have lengthy waiting lists, especially for the youngest children, and they aren’t likely to be as cheap as other care alternatives. Like any other market-based purchase, parents have to balance cost and quality in making child care choices. The Indiana Network for Economic Fairness estimates that the cost of high-quality child care for a Marion County family with an infant and a preschooler approaches a whopping $900 per month, a figure far outside the reach of most low-income families. There has been a significant shortage in government assistance for child care to the poorest families. A recent study for the United States Department of Health and Human Services found that only 10 percent of children eligible for child care assistance in 1998 received it. That shortage appears to have been alleviated somewhat in the past year, as many states have applied unspent welfare money to child care assistance. In Marion County, the Daybreak program for providing government-subsidized child care vouchers to low-income parents recently slashed a 7,000 child waiting list down to 1,600, with no children reportedly on the list for more than a few months. But Daybreak and similar government child care programs assist only the poorest of the poor, and child care tax credits are most likely to be exercised by more wealthy families. That leaves many so-called “working poor” families struggling to afford child care on their own. Several academic studies have shown that both low-income and high-income children are more likely to be in high-quality child care than children of the working poor. The working poor also struggle with child care access due to the limited availability of off-hours care. Parents working evening, night or weekend jobs are increasingly common as mothers coming off welfare are forced to accept night shift work in restaurants or cleaning services. The results of this child care squeeze can be tragic. Tamarla Owens, the mother of the 6-year-old Michigan boy who allegedly shot and killed his first-grade classmate, had recently been forced off of welfare and into two part-time evening jobs 35 miles away from home. After being evicted, she solved her child care dilemma by temporarily placing her kids in the home of their 21-year-old uncle. It is in that home where prosecutors say the boy found the loaded gun he brought to school. [more]
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