Toddlers Take Politicians To School

In a ​“Developing Toddlers” classroom on Olive Street, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro got an up-close look at the severity of the child care staffing crisis — and at the joys and benefits of early education work.

DeLauro’s glimpse of that essential industry in flux came during a Monday morning visit to the Hope Child Development Center at 81 Olive St. in Wooster Square.

As the sound of rain drops pounding on the daycare center’s roof filled the building’s brightly colored classrooms, DeLauro joined state Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye, New Haven State Rep. Toni Walker and other early education advocates for a tour of the local day care site as led by Hope Child Development Center Executive Director Georgia Goldburn. 

After a half hour of talking with teachers and the youngest of students about topics ranging from nap time to blowing bubbles to proper hand washing to becoming independent learners, DeLauro, Bye, Walker and Goldburn then participated in a roundtable discussion with other child care advocates and providers about the staffing and cost crises facing the industry — and about what the state and federal governments can do to help.

“If you do not have child care, you do not have work,” DeLauro stressed during the roundtable conversation. 

She said that that is the message that she has repeated time and again to her colleagues in the federal legislature as she’s fought for more funding for early education. As the chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and as a Congressional candidate running for a 17th two-year term in office this year, DeLauro promised that, if reelected, at the top of her priority list will be both boosting aid for the child care industry — and extending the child tax credit.

“We need to create this infrastructure that fills in the gaps,” she said. Because child care is ​“fundamental” to the American economy’s success.

That means making sure that there is enough money to hire teachers and subsidize tuition for parents in need, she continued, so that adults can pursue their own employment while remaining confident that their youngest of children are receiving high quality care from teachers who can afford to remain in the field.

Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance Executive Director Merrill Gay said the average wage for a child care worker in the state is $14.23 per hour. He said there are 250 staff vacancies and 50 closed classrooms among state-subsidized preschool programs for low-income families alone.

And that’s ​“only the tip of the iceberg,” given how many vacancies and shuttered classrooms there are in other state and privately funded childcare programs across Connecticut.

“It’s pretty desperate out there,” he said.

More federal funds are essential to help hire teachers and close these staffing gaps, said Hamden’s Creative Kids Early Learning Center Director Cheri Reid. She added that there also ​“has to be a campaign tour about how great this work is.” Because as hard as providing high quality child care can be, especially at a time when so many teacher spots are empty and pay remains so low, ​“it’s been very rewarding.”

The wonders and struggles of child care work were both on full display during DeLauro’s tour of the Olive Street child care site before the start of the roundtable.

Goldburn said that her center serves kids between the ages of 6 weeks and 13 years old. Her site currently has 56 children enrolled. That’s quite a bit less than the 75 enrollees she had capacity for before the pandemic.

The reason for the drop in enrollment, she said, is not a lack of demand. Instead, it’s due to a lack of teachers. She currently has 11 staff members in total — and is in need of at least three more teachers as well as additional support.

She thanked DeLauro, Bye, and Walker for directing roughly $6 million in the state’s allocation of federal pandemic-relief American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds towards an apprenticeship program to help train high school graduates and others to start their careers in child care. She said that the state and feds need to do more to increase that supply of teachers. Most importantly, she said, the state could both increase reimbursements for the state’s Care 4 Kids program and also expand the eligibility for that program to allow for families who make 100 percent of the state median income to participate.

Toddler teacher Haley Gregory took a quick break from teaching one of her students how to properly clean his hands to tell DeLauro, Bye and Walker about her career path from an HBCU in North Carolina to Southern Connecticut State University to a job at the Olive Street child care center.

“She’s one of the individuals we’re training in the workforce pilot,” Goldburn said with pride about Gregory.

Gregory said she sees her top priority as ​“supporting [her young students] in any way we can” — including by teaching good hygiene.

“They’re little sponges” at this age, DeLauro said with awe, right before complimenting some young students further down in the classroom on their bubble blowing skills. 

“This is the best part of the day,” she said with a smile.

In an adjacent classroom, master teacher Delva Moore talked her young student through a handheld game designed to help with both math skills and sensory perception. In between holding the blocks, the student, noticing the Congresswoman and other adults before her, clapped her hands and smiled.

At this age, Moore added, ​“they’re learning regulation and self control.” They also learn ​“how to be independent.”

Moore said the biggest need for the 18- to 24-month-old students in her classroom is ​“to have a consistent routine.”

During the roundtable discussion, DeLauro, Bye, and Walker listened in as child care providers from across the state spoke about how challenging it’s been retaining staff — and finding that more and more early care workers are leaving the industry for jobs ranging from public school teachers to retail employees at big box stores like Target.

Hartford’s Women’s League Child Development Center Executive Director Karen Lott said that three of her center’s 17 classrooms are currently closed because of a lack of staffing.

“We have to be intentional about incentives on how to hold on and how to keep” staff at child care centers across Connecticut, said Newhallville’s Harris & Tucker School Director Kim Harris.

“Employment is employment is employment,” Walker said. She urged her state lawmakers to recognize that child care work should not be undervalued just because its workers are mostly women. ​“We don’t talk about the value of different types of jobs” enough.

And while the federal government was quick to bail out the airline and restaurant and automobile and manufacturing industries during the pandemic, DeLauro said, the child care industry — which ​“is collapsing around us” — has not seen the same level of support.

She and Bye said that the original Build Back Better federal legislation was going to infuse the child care industry with $450 billion. That large subsidy fell out of what would eventually be passed as the Inflation Reduction Act. She said that a Senate appropriations bill currently has only a $1 billion bump for this child care. 

DeLauro described the frustration and ​“anger” she and many other child care advocates felt when the Build Back Better’s subsidy plan got slashed. If reelected, she promised to put fighting for significantly increased funds for child care at the top of her priority list.