Special Guest Blogger Julie Rogers: Florida’s State Board of Education Wants Better Early Care and Education Results with Less Investment

The Florida State Board of Education recently sat in a meeting (likely while you were at work and your child was in child care) and complained about putting your state tax dollars into low performing child care programs. They are right to be concerned about your (and my) tax dollars. But if these Board members are as dismayed as they say they are at the return on the state’s child care investment, instead of asking teachers to do more with less to get your kids ready for kindergarten, why are they not outraged at the dismal wages and low levels of education your child’s teacher has to settle for? Why are they not out in the state advocating for living wages and a college education for your child’s teacher?

How can they complain about putting state dollars into low performing child care programs while at the same time settling for a workforce that on average earns around $8-9/ hour? Your child’s teacher earns less than the warehouse workers who pack and ship your orders at Amazon.com. And many child care teachers have at most a high school diploma as the top achievement in their education tool kit with which to work from to prepare your children to pass tests at five years old.

By virtue of the dismal teacher wages and minimal education this state’s leadership accepts, you as parents are being sent the message that your child’s teacher is not worth much and doesn’t need much education to care for and educate your child from birth to kindergarten. Yet, for this substandard investment in pay and education, they expect your child’s teacher to ensure that your child can pass educational tests when he/she turns five years old.

Would you want your five year old to pass a test to determine whether or not your parenting is adequate? Do you think the value of the skills you need to raise your child from birth to kindergarten is worth $8/hour? Yet, your child’s teacher works with a whole classroom full of children like yours, often for more waking hours than you spend with your child. Perhaps a real investment in your child would reap better results all the way around.