First Focus on Children submitted the following comment today urging the Department of Education to protect early learning professionals from provisions in H.R. 1 that would deny federal aid to students pursing professions that typically draw lower salaries than high school graduates.
Excerpt from the comment:
Along with the lack of affordability for families looking to access high-quality early childhood resources, there is a critical shortage of early care educators. Poverty-level pay and a lack of professional development opportunities create difficulty in maintaining early childhood educators, exacerbating child care shortages across the country. The early care and education workforce was found to be compensated at lower rates than 97% of all professions. The low pay and lack of resources can make early childhood careers undesirable and create high turnover. Increased investment in the early care and education workforce is desperately needed. A high-quality early childhood workforce requires specialized training and specific skill sets, and educators must be encouraged and supported in pursuing professional development and additional degree programs. Placing further restrictions on the ability of these professionals to pursue education opportunities by limiting their access to federal student loans will only exacerbate the problem that already exists.