Renée Cherez Nicole Cardoza Renée Cherez Nicole Cardoza

Protect early child care providers.

Early child care education is one of the most basic needs; however, most Black and Brown women who care for and educate the nation’s youngest minds are overlooked and discounted. As the coronavirus forced public schools and universities to transition to remote learning, some early childhood centers remained open. Absent from the conversation as essential workers in need of hazard pay were early care teachers.

Hi everyone,

Researchers warn nearly half of U.S. child care centers could be lost to pandemic, and over 4.5 million child care spots in the country could be permanently lost because of the pandemic (NPR). This affects millions of parents working from home, but also the workforce that's struggling to make ends meet. Today, Renée outlines the history of the child care industry and how critical it is that our government acts to keep it afloat.

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TAKE ACTION

  • Use the hashtag #AskAboutChildCare to urge the next moderator of the presidential debates, @SteveScully, to bring it up as a topic.

  • If you are a white parent of a young child, how are you advocating for the Black and Brown children in your child's early childhood setting? Do your children have Black and Brown teachers? Have you investigated how they’re being protected through the pandemic? If so, how? If not, why not?

GET EDUCATED

By Renée Cherez (she/her)

Early child care education is one of the most basic needs; however, most Black and Brown women who care for and educate the nation’s youngest minds are overlooked and discounted. As the coronavirus forced public schools and universities to transition to remote learning, some early childhood centers remained open. Absent from the conversation as essential workers in need of hazard pay were early care teachers.

 

The consistent depreciation of early childhood education in the United States has long been a contention point for Black and Brown teachers, teacher aides, and administrators due to a shortage of funding and disproportionate wage gaps. Childcare centers, daycares, and after-care programs have long been deemed as non-essential and instead, a place for parents to drop their children off for a few hours to be cared for. Elizabeth Warren, a former teacher, recognized the indispensable value Black and Brown women brought to the profession by recognizing childcare as “infrastructure for families” (MotherJones). 

 

Black and Brown women make up 40% of the child care industry workforce, including 22% of immigrant women (CSCEE). Nationally, women are paid, on average, an offensive $9.62 per hour, adding to $20,000 per year for full-time, all year round work (CSCEE).

 

Lea J.E. Austin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Childcare Employment (CSCEE), explains no single racial wage gap but multiple wage gaps among Black and Brown teachers versus their white counterparts.

 

“...For African American teachers, for example, we see that they are more likely to work with infant and toddler children, and infant and toddler teachers earn less than teachers who are working with preschool-age children. We also see that African American early educators experience a smaller pay bump for moving from working with younger children to older children...” (CSCEE).

 

Black educators working in centered-based settings are less likely across other racial and ethnic groups to earn more than $15 per hour. Even with educational achievement, Black educators still make $0.78 less per hour than white early educators with the same education, accounting for a loss of $1,622.40 per year (CSCEE). Hispanic teachers experience gaps in access to jobs. They are more likely to work as assistant teachers (or teacher aides), where they earn, on average, $10.00 per hour versus $11.06 as a lead teacher.

 

If we know anything about American history, the mistreatment and undervaluing of Black and Brown women’s care work is historical. During slavery, enslaved Black women were forced to feed, nurse, and care for white children while also taking care of their master’s homes, unpaid and under violence. During Jim Crow, the ‘Mammy’ archetype gained popularity, which depicted Black women as wholesome, skilled, submissive, and obedient caretakers (The Grio). Often shown with exaggerated smiles, Black women were usually made to look happy while taking care of children – children that were rarely depicted as their own. 

 

Structural racism is what makes it possible for Black and Brown early educators today, amid a pandemic, not to be considered essential workers in need of equitable and hazard pay. Even before coronavirus, structural racism within the early education sector contributes to the low wages Black and Brown early educators earn, causing them to live below the poverty line. 

 

More than 325,000 childcare workers lost their jobs during the five-month lockdown, as almost half of all child care programs closed (Prism). The federal government has done little in providing economic assistance to Black and Brown women of color business owners who own and operate home-based childcare centers.

 

A July survey found that half of childcare business owners of color are sure they will close permanently without additional assistance (NAEYC). Economic aid from the federal government is required for various day-to-day operations, including masks for teachers, cleaning supplies, the ability to pay teachers more money, and training for both parents and teachers.

 

A little more than one in six women, child care workers live below the poverty line (NWLC). Over half depend on a form of public assistance like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, the Earned Income Tax Credit, or Medicaid (CSCEE).

 

The frustrating part of the devaluing of early childhood services and its professionals is that it was primarily created to alleviate poverty among children from low-income families (Head Starter Network). In an effort to break the cycle of poverty, the Lyndon Johnson president administration created the Head Start Program to meet the emotional, social, nutritional, and psychological needs of children who needed it most  (Wikipedia). 

 

This summer, two bills passed at the end of July: the Childcare is Essential Act and the Childcare for Economic Recovery Act. This, resulting in a $60 billion investment to stabilize the child care sector during COVID-19, is significant. But more work needs to be done (CNBC). Advocates, both teachers and parents, are fighting side by side for a federal minimum wage as part of the Child Care Fight for $15 campaign movement to ensure higher pay and benefits for teachers (Prism).

 

Organizations like the Grassroots Movement for Child Care and Early Education, in collaboration with the ECE Organizing Network, are working to bring a shared economic, racial, and gender justice lens to their work as child care workers, educators, and parents (Grassroots Movement for Child Care and Early Education).

 

We must continue to actively work to dismantle the racial disparities in the child care field, whether as parents, teachers, or allies. It is unjustifiable that Black and Brown women continue to carry the highest economic burdens in this country regardless of their professions. Childcare is a basic need, and those with privilege should advocate to ensure Black and Brown parents and caregivers have their most basic needs met.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Black and Brown women make up 40% of the child care industry workforce, including 22% of immigrant women.

  • Hispanic teachers are regulated to assistant teacher positions then lead teacher roles resulting in lower pay.

  • The ‘Mammy’ archetype during American slavery contributes to the low-wages Black women experience as care workers.

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