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The preschool teachers we rely on to help our most vulnerable children growing up in poverty get paid so little, they often live in poverty themselves. Now the Biden administration wants to change that by raising pay for teachers in the federal Head Start program. The only problem is it's not clear who will pay for it. NPR's Cory Turner explains.
CORY TURNER, BYLINE: This story is unfolding in big cities and small towns all over the U.S. - places like Pullman, Michigan, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it town about an hour south of Grand Rapids. If you drive past the VFW and the tiny post office, you'll find Julie Beck's Head Start preschool classroom.
JULIE BECK: A rainbow goes up and down. Can you go up and down?
TURNER: Miss Julie, as she's known, is the room's lead teacher and sits at a blueberry-blue table. She's helping a little girl draw a rainbow with crayons as thick as the child's little fingers.
BECK: Can you do it, too? Up and down - there you go.
(CROSSTALK)
TURNER: On the playground, Miss Julie says Head Start's focus on play-based learning helps children pick up not just their ABCs but also vital social skills.
BECK: We teach them so much. It's fun, though. The kids don't know they're learning.
TURNER: Head Start began in 1965, and it provides high-quality preschool, nutritious meals and wrap-around support for children and families in poverty. Research shows poverty can create early learning gaps for kids that can last a lifetime. But high-quality preschool can help prevent and even close those gaps. The problem is Miss Julie makes $20 an hour working about 10 months a year.
BECK: I'm paycheck to paycheck. I had to take out a loan for the summer, so I'm about one car payment behind.
TURNER: Nationally, nearly 1 in 5 Head Start teachers quit last year, in part because of low pay. So the Biden administration recently released a new rule meant to push Head Start programs across the country to raise teacher pay.
SARAH SEE: I think it's incredible because now we would be paying them somewhat near what they're worth.
TURNER: Sarah See runs the Head Start programs in Pullman and the rest of Allegan County, Michigan, and she estimates she may have to raise pay by as much as $10,000 per person. There's just one problem, See says. The rule requires this, but it doesn't help pay for it.
SEE: Not having designated funds to carry out that new rule would cause us to have to lower the amount of kids that we serve.
TURNER: See has already raised local Head Start wages, in part by eliminating 40 slots for children. She says the decision made her physically sick even as the pandemic had driven down demand. Now, though, demand is back up.
SEE: We are filling the classrooms, and we are building wait lists.
TURNER: Even after that pay raise a few years ago, longtime teacher assistant Norma Silva, who works in Miss Julie's classroom, still makes just over $16 an hour.
NORMA SILVA: I start as a Head Start parent.
TURNER: When I ask, what's it like living on $16 an hour...
SILVA: It's just hard.
TURNER: But you keep coming back.
SILVA: I do.
TURNER: You've done it 24 years.
SILVA: I do. Yes.
TURNER: OK, so tell me why.
SILVA: The kids bring me joy. I like working with kids.
TURNER: This is a common refrain. Head Start teachers who stay often do so because they know the difference it can make for children living in poverty.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: Hop, hop.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: Hop, hop.
TURNER: As the Pullman Head Start teachers stand together on the playground, I ask, what would a big, lasting pay raise mean to you? Miss Julie thinks of her son.
BECK: My son's in the Marines. When he reenlisted, he got a bigger chunk.
TURNER: A reenlistment bonus, which he then gave to his mom. Suddenly, her eyes well up.
BECK: I'm trying not to get teared up. My son paid for my house. So that's why I can make it as a teacher.
TURNER: Unless Congress follows the Biden administration's lead and agrees to increase Head Start funding, a pay raise will force many Head Start programs to make an impossible choice...
BECK: One more minute, my friends.
TURNER: ...Between making sure all children who need a head start get one and making sure their teachers can afford to stay.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Bye.
TURNER: Cory Turner, NPR News, Pullman, Michigan. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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