Congresswoman Johnson’s Virtual Roundtable on Early Childcare Education in Texas and Federal Funding
For Care Economy Week, I had the opportunity to organize a virtual round table for Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson’s office with Early Childcare Education Leaders and Stakeholders from across North Texas.
Under the leadership of the Biden Administration, the federal government has been able to respond to the immediate and long terms needs of Americans who have been struggling due to COVID19.
The American Rescue Plan has provided extra funding to Earlychild Care Education, and Congresswoman Johnson wanted to hear directly- what’s working, what’s not, and what can the federal government due more to help ensure that the children of our nation have the best chance at having a successful future.
Personally I learned a lot! Including how little early childhood education staff are paid in North Texas ($10-$11 an hour with no benefits); that this causes staff to continuously quit either once they’ve received their degrees or when they get a job at a private food chain or grocery store which is able to pay $15 an hour with benefits. This further results in a shortage of qualified staff.
I also learned that one of the greatest areas for need of immediate improvements in early childcare education in Texas is with infant and toddlers. Reimbursements are extremely low for this area, and the same issues exist with being unable to find quality staff that are able to stay on long term.
It was also fascinating hearing how the federal government could help ensure that the State government correctly applied federal funding by providing additional and specified guidelines targeting the exact issue at stake.
Congresswoman Johnson suggested that her office create some sort of joint Initiative between the Dallas Regional Chamber and all of these Eary Childhood Education representatives to encourage the business community to step up as well, and provide them with the opportunity to be informed of how great the need is.
We were joined by:
Melanie Rubin, the Director of the Dallas Early Education Alliance
Tori Mannes, President and CEO of Childcare Group
Gayle Nave, President and CEO of Mi Escuelita
Kathryn McCartney, CEO of Head Start of Greater Dallas
Mackenzie Martin, CDO of Mi Escuelita
Jarrad Toussant, Senior VP, Education and Workforce Team at the Dallas Regional Chamber
Heather Bryant, Dean of Early Childhood Education and Early Learning at Dallas College
For more information on these Early Childhood Education groups in North Texas, check out:
http://earlymattersdallas.org/
https://www.dallaschamber.org/
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