This week the three podcasts I listened to were “How Federal
Policies Affect Early Childhood,” “Underpaid Early Childhood Professionals:
Finding the path to better pay,” and “Curtailing High Turnover among Early
Childhood Educators.”
According to the podcast, federal policies have an extremely
large effect on Early Childhood. Most Early Childhood programs that feel the
largest effect are federally funded programs such as Head Start. Although
federally funded programs are affected, other programs are also affected because
federal dollars are used on Head Start as well as other programs. For example,
each private or public early childhood program has a licensing counselor paid
by the state; the state will pay for some training, and the federal and state grants
and funds are available for some programs other than Head State and state
Pre-K.
Educators are looking for their return on investment where
their education can be compensated. Wages for early childhood educators are not
comparable to K-12 educators. Early childhood educators make $15,000 to $20,000
whereas K-12 teachers make more. When an educator picks an early childhood
career, they are deciding to live at the poverty level due to the low pay. The
average wages for a preschool teacher with a Bachelor’s degree is $10,000 to
$15,000 less than a kindergarten teacher.
The biggest factor of turnover in early childhood educators
is the vow of poverty they make to work with children. Turnover in any program
can cause mass exodus of staff or at least a derailment of staff as others
compensate for the change until someone else can take over the roll. This
problem leads to the motivation of staff changing. Instead of working together,
the team is working separately because of the change of motivation. You, as an
early childhood educator, must decide why you have chosen this field. The job
is not babysitting but is a rigorous job that asks a lot out of its teachers.
Motivation and the sense of a job well done is what is important to many
educators.
I reviewed the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization website. I found information on a study called Caring and
Learning together. The one article I read was “Caring and Learning Together: a
cross-national study on the integration of early childhood care and education.”
Kaga, Bennett, and Moss (2010) stated, “This research Caring and Learning
Together is focused on a current, major development, namely, the integration of
early childhood care and education through the transfer of responsibility for
the sector to education ministries (p 7).”
The caring and learning together was studied in several
different countries: “A Case Study of Brazil (2010),” “A Case Study for New
Zealand (2010),” “A Case Study for Slovenia (2010),” “A Case Study of Sweden
(2010),” “A Case Study for Ghent, The Flemish Community of Belgium (2010),” and
“A Case Study for Jamaica (2010).”
Nunes, Corsino, and Didonet (2010) stated, “this study is
very clear concerning children’s development, as well as in the scope of laws,
rules and policies on early childhood, that a child is a whole subject, that
the physical, social, emotional and intellectual aspects are only parts of a
single and complete human being, and none of them can be fulfilled without the
other (p 4).”
“Education in Brazil is a right for all and free in public
schools, from early childhood to higher education. It is a government’s duty
and is provided for by the different branches that comprise the federacy: Union
(federal government), States, Federal District and Municipalities (p 6).”
Meade and Podmore (2010) stated, “In 1986, responsibility
for childcare administration moved formally from the Department of Social
Welfare to the Department of Education. From that date, the Department of Education2
became responsible for all ECS recognized by its chief executive officer (p 6).”
“The Preschool Law (1996) defines that preschools are
established and funded by municipalities. Preschools are organized and integrated,
and are intended for children from the end of maternity leave till entrance
into the 1st grade of compulsory school, but they are internally divided into
two age periods: the 1st age period includes toddlers aged from 1 to 3 years
and the 2nd age period includes children aged from 3 to 6 years (Umek and
Peklaj, 2010, p 2).”
“The government bill “Quality at pre-school” declares that
the pre-school’s commission, in accordance to the curriculum should remain
unchanged and continue to give children good care while providing educational
stimuli and promoting good conditions for growth (Munkhammar and Wikgren, 2010,
p 1).”
Munkhammar and Wikgren (2010) also stated, “Pre-school ought
to be a unique type of school in the Swedish school system. Today the national
school system consists of many different types of schools, such as pre-school
class, compulsory basic, upper secondary school, special school principally for
pupils with impaired hearing/vision and speech disabilities, schools for the
mentally disabled and Sami school ( p 6).”
“All kleuterscholen (preschool) are fully subsidized and no
parental fees are due, whether the schools are private (mainly organized by
Catholic organizations) or public (either municipal of State schools). State and
private (both funded) schools have consistently been in competition with each
other and fierce debates between the ideologies of confessional
(denominational) versus lay or neutral education have marked the history of
Belgian education (p 5).“
“Until 1975 no ministry had been involved in care services
for children from birth to three years old except for medical and immunization
services in the primary healthcare system under the Ministry of Health (Jones,
Brown and Brown, 2010, p 9).”
Jones, Brown and Brown (2010) also stated, “A new democratic
socialist government launched a National Day Care Program in 1975 and built 23
day care centers to serve the working mothers of low-income communities but the
program did not work out and 10 centers closed; the others are partially subsidized
(p 9).”
