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Supervisors Kim and Yee introducing universal childcare ballot measure with Parent Voices SF, the Felton Institute, FCCA SF & SFCCPA
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Martin Luther King, in his 1967 speech, The Three Evils of Society, says, "The time has come for America to face the inevitable choice between materialism and humanism. We must devote at least as much to our children's education and the health of the poor as we do to the care of our automobiles and the building of beautiful, impressive hotels." Yet here we are in 2018, and the day before King's birthday the Sunday New York Times Magazine ran the article, Why Are Our Most Important Teachers Paid The Least? In the article, the author asks, "Who will pay the higher salaries?"
Child care and education, which allows families to work, and offers children opportunities to learn and be loved while they are away, leaves educators providing this essential human service in poverty.
The three evils of society King names are racism, poverty, and militarism, so resonant to us still today. With the federal government passing a tax plan detrimental to all but the wealthiest, and congress moving toward voting to increase our military budget, for now, building on the local and state funding for these essential services offers the most hope, but even here we need a vocal and active community.
San Francisco has the potential to add at least $100M to its early care and education funding - see the call for help collecting signatures and related articles below. Register to join SFCCPA at our Monthly Meeting and Creative Action Network (ECECAN) to get the word out, collect signatures for the ECE ballot initiative, and make clear that a well-paid dedicated workforce is the core of a quality ECE system. Mark your calendar for February 15, SFCCPA's ECE Issues Breakfast. See dates and links to register for each of these events, as well as upcoming conferences and workshops, below.
Sara Hicks-Kilday
SFCCPA Director
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Monday, January 22
6:15-8:30 PM
Children's Council,
Room 120
445 Church Street, SF
The San Francisco ECE Ballot Measure has been announced. What's next? Collect signatures. This initiative could add more than $100M to San Francisco ECE funding. Build a public and legislative will to use these funds to prioritize well-paid early care and education providers as a cornerstone of a quality ECE system. Come find out how you can help.
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Tuesday, February 6
6:15-8:30 PM
Children's Council
445 Church Street, SF
SFCCPA's ECE Creative Action Network workshop to plan & develop message for ECE ballot measure and Feb. 15 ECE Issues breakfast with local legislators. What's the best way to communicate our priorities? Come help create our message and event!
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SFCCPA ECE ISSUES BREAKFAST
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SAVE THE DATE
Thursday, February 15
SFCCPA will bring educators and elected leaders together to discuss priorities for early care and education in San Francisco.
MORE INFO
TO COME!
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Help Collect Signatures for ECE Ballot Measure!
We need your help collecting signatures and distributing materials to raise funds for early care and education in San Francisco.
A ballot measure raising an estimated $100-150M, with the majority of funds dedicated to ECE, has been put forward by Supervisors Kim and Yee with the support of Fewer, Ronen, and Peskin.
See the story on CBS news announced on Monday, January 8. While this initiative has the support of the supervisors, with enough public signatures, this initiative could pass with a simple majority (50 + 1) vote, instead of the 67% required of dedicated tax revenues placed on the ballot by supervisors.
We need the ECE community to help gather signatures. You can do this at your site, in your neighborhood, or at classes and events you attend.
Can you help distribute materials? Sign up below to let us know!
Timeline:
The signature forms are under review by the City Attorney now, and may be ready by
January 22. We will distribute as soon as they are ready so we can turn them in by
February 1.
Supervisor Yee sends his thanks in advance, and adds, "Time will be extraordinarily short to gather signatures. We may have at most 2 weeks and as little as 10 days to gather 17,000 signatures.
All signatures must be by registered San Francisco voters. So it will be intense once we get going."
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KTVU: Childcare subsidies measure announced to make it on SF's June ballot
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Supervisors Jane Kim and Norman Yee today announced a ballot
measure that would finance the expansion of childcare subsidies with an increase in the city's gross receipts tax.
The measure, which is expected to appear on the same June 5 ballot as a hotly contested mayoral election and the District 8 supervisorial race, would raise the city's commercial gross receipts tax by 3.5 percent, according to Kim.
That increase would provide more than $100 million in annual revenue, an amount that would allow the city to eliminate a waiting list of around 2,400 families for subsidized childcare, expand the number of available spaces for working and middle class families and increase the pay for the lowest wage childcare workers.
The measure is intended to help keep working and middle class families in the city."
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NYTimes: Why Are Our Most Important Teachers Paid the Least?
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f teachers are crucial to high-quality preschool, they are also its most neglected component. Even as investment in early-childhood education soars, teachers like Kelly continue to earn as little as $28,500 a year on average, a valuation that puts them on par with file clerks and switchboard operators, but well below K-12 teachers, who, according to the most recent national survey, earn roughly $53,100 a year. According to a recent briefing from the Economic Policy Institute, a majority of preschool teachers are low-income women of color with no more than a high-school diploma. Only 15 percent of them receive employer-sponsored health insurance, and depending on which state they are in, nearly half belong to families that rely on public assistance. 'Teaching preschoolers is every bit as complicated and important as teaching any of the K-12 grades, if not more so,' says Marcy Whitebook, a director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. 'But we still treat preschool teachers like babysitters. We want them to ameliorate poverty even as they live in it themselves.'
"The solution to this paradox seems obvious: Hold preschool teachers to the same standards as their K-12 counterparts, and pay them a salary commensurate with that training. But that proposition is rife with intractable questions. Who will pay the higher salaries? How will current teachers rise to meet the new credential requirements? And if they can't or won't, who will take their place? At the heart of those questions is this one: What, exactly, makes a good preschool teacher?"
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KQED Radio: How to Foster Quality Early Childhood Education
"Recent research suggests that a child's first years are critical to neurological development. And some education experts view preschool as a prime opportunity to close the educational gap faced by children from lower-income households. With so much riding on the first few years, early childhood education warrants attention ... and some say - more funding."
KQED talked to the author of the NYTimes article above and explored topics such as increasing teacher pay and training, and talked to experts about how to foster quality early education in their radio hour on January 12th.
Guests:
Jeneen Interlandi, journalist; author, "Why Are Our Most Important Teachers Paid The Least"
Lea Austin, co-director, Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, UC Berkeley
Melissa Moses, Bay Area preschool teacher
Rebecca Gomez, education program officer, Heising-Simons Foundation
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WHAT STORY COULD YOU SHARE?
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SFCCPA is collecting stories to build our message. Why?
Humans think in story. The most memorable appeals to leaders and our community is your story woven into an ECE picture.
Let our community and elected leaders know about what we need to provide quality care and education and why our children, families, and community need it.
- What is a day in your life like? Let the SF community and leaders know what it's like to be a provider of early care and education.
- Studies show that almost half of all child care educators were enrolled in public assistance (CHIP, SNAP-food stamps, EITC, or TANF). Many work two or more jobs. What do you need to do to make it on an early educator wages and benefits?
- Are you able to afford a home in San Francisco? How? What are your living conditions like? If not, were you displaced? What is your commute like?
- Being an educator of young children is transformative work. What inspires you? What impact have you seen your and/or your colleagues' work have on the children and families in your care?
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LIIF Financial Management Workshop
The Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) has an upcoming workshop on
Thursday, January 25, 2018
. Join LIIF for a workshop focused on early care and education Fiscal Management. Attendees should be Directors and finance managers.
Date: January 25, 2018
Time: 1 PM to 5 PM
Address: Low Income Investment Fund, 50 California, Suite 2900, San Francisco, CA 94111
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Making it Work: State and Local Perspectives for Improving California's Early Learning System
Tuesday, January 23, 2018, 2 - 4 p.m.
Sacramento Public Library Galleria
828 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
On January 23, the Learning Policy Institute will release Building an Early Learning System that Works: Next Steps for California. This new report complements the Learning Policy Institute's earlier report on early care and education (ECE), Understanding California's Early Care and Education System, which provides a comprehensive overview of the state's ECE system. The earlier report found that California's ECE system is complex and fragmented, and fails to provide hundreds of thousands of children with the quality early learning experiences they need.
At the forum, researchers will present key findings from the report, followed by panel discussions between state and local ECE stakeholders. Participants will explore the challenges that the complexity of the ECE system in California creates and make recommendations for policymakers to improve the system.
Registration is required.
Please RSVP by Wednesday, January 17, 2018. Space is limited.
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"Enhancing Whole Child Development through Natural Outdoor Classrooms" Conference
The Child Educational Center Presents Outdoor Classroom Project® 2018 Annual Conference, "Enhancing Whole Child Development through Natural Outdoor Classrooms"
for Early Childhood Educators with Special Half-Day Outdoor Classroom Observation and Workshop for Directors and Site Supervisors
WHEN
Full-Day Conference
Saturday, January 27, 2018
Special Half-Day Outdoor Classroom Observation/Workshop Option Available for Directors and Site Supervisors
Friday, January 26, 2018
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
WHERE
Child Educational Center
Outdoor Classroom Project® Model Site
140 Foothill Blvd.
La Canada, CA 91011
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New Zealand Early Childhood Study Tour
Registration now open for the 2018 New Zealand Study Tour!
March 18-25, 2018
You are certain to have a wonderful time in New Zealand participating in this focused professional learning opportunity that includes visits to a number of cutting-edge early childhood centers in and around Auckland. Participants enjoy an intellectually engaging and rewarding experience including multiple opportunities for self-reflection, critical thinking, and learning in dialogue.
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2018 CAAEYC Annual Conference & Expo
Registration now open for the 2018 CAAEYC conference!
April 19-21, 2018
Pasadena, CA
California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAAEYC) is hosting its annual conference in Pasadena this April. Stay tuned to hear about the keynote presenters.
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WORKFORCE REGISTRY & JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Workforce Registry & Job Announcements
For comprehensive ECE job information, check out the California ECE Workforce registry, a comprehensive ECE job source!
The Registry is a state, regional, and local collaboration tracking and promoting the education, training, and experience of the early care and education workforce, and piloted in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Visit www.caregistry.org to create your account, and post or search job listings. For assistance, contact the San Francisco Professional Development Project (PDP) in the Child Development and Family Studies Department at City College, 415-452-5605, or Mona Mala, [email protected], 415-343-4669.
Jobs in the ECE Community
- Administrative Coordinator at Friends of St. Francis Childcare Center
Wu Yee Children's Services has several job openings, including:
- ERSEA Specialist
- Family Advocate
- Family Community Partnership Manager
- Family Services Specialist
- Floating Resource Teacher
- Home Visitor
- Preschool Associate Teacher
- Preschool Lead Teacher
- Resource Teacher
- Substitute Teacher
- Substitute Teacher II
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