Focus On What We Want To See More Of

Instead of worrying about the state of early childhood care and education in the US this week, I'm going to look for something positive to focus on. New Mexico.

There is nothing worse than the revolving door of caregivers in ECE. It's bad for children, and parents, and the caregivers themselves. It's possible that New Mexico is doing something about it.

VISION: All New Mexico families ​and young children are thriving​

MISSION: Optimize the health, development, education, and well-being of babies, toddlers, and preschoolers through a family-driven, equitable, community-based system of high-quality prenatal and early childhood programs and services.

https://www.nmececd.org/wage-supplement/

Oct 6 2022

SANTA FE – Today, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a new grant available to child care providers that will increase wages for staff by $3 an hour across the board, raising the wage floor to $15 an hour for entry-level workers and $20 an hour for lead teachers.  

Early childhood educators are some of the lowest-paid workers in the economy, and the low wages pervasive in the industry remain the single largest barrier to staffing classrooms and expanding child care access in the country. The new grant, Competitive Pay for Professionals (CPP), which is initially funded with $77 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars, will provide a critical support for child care providers statewide who are struggling to recruit and retain educators for their classrooms. The New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) projects that at least 16,000 child care staff across the state stand to benefit from the pay raise provided through the CPP grant. Applications will open on November 1. 

“Early childhood workers have always been underpaid relative to the importance of the work they do,” said Gov. Lujan Grisham. “We need to attract and retain the best talent to ensure the youngest New Mexicans get the high-quality early education they deserve. My administration has already delivered historic pay raises for K-12 teachers, and it’s time to take the next step to ensure that early childhood educators and staff are paid a fair and competitive wage as well.” 

Thinking about moving?

Nanci J Bradley is an early childhood and family educator, author, teacher, family aerobics instructor, and an all-around fun-loving person. She believes in the power of sleep, healthy eating, lifelong learning, and most of all, PLAY! She studied early childhood ed at Triton College and received her BS in education in 1986 from NIU. She received her MA in human dev from Pacific Oaks College in 2011. She lives and teaches in Madison WI and is the founder of early childhood rocks, a non-profit org dedicated to creating change through early childhood education.