by Michelle Engelmann
If we don’t work
You can’t work
Justice for Early Education Teachers
Pay us what we deserve!
Teachers create the
Future of the country!*
*Seen on a protest sign at the Early Education Rally on April 5
Mayor Bowser’s proposed budget completely wipes out the Pay Equity Fund (PEF) created several years ago to provide salary increases and health benefits to early childhood educators. A 2021 income tax increase on the highest earners was used to start the fund. The PEF has delivered about $80 million dollars in salary raises to over 4,000 educators who still have not achieved pay equity with the salary and benefits received by public school teachers with similar experience and education.
In passing the tax increase and setting up the PEF, the city made a commitment to early educators to steadily increase their salaries so they could finally be paid fairly for the valuable work they are doing in caring for and educating our youngest citizens. Quality daycare is essential for our economy to function, a critical lifeline for working parents. If the PEF is destroyed, thousands of mainly Black and Brown women will be thrust back to the brink of poverty. Our childcare system will again return to a state of collapse as educators leave the field and providers close. Who would want to stay in a job where their salary increases and benefits are abruptly taken away at the stroke of the Mayor’s pen?
Why I Care
My kids are grown but I recognize that this issue is one that affects our communities and the quality of young children’s education in DC. A number of years ago I worked on reproductive justice issues with TSWRJ (prior to the Davis Center or the Reproductive Health & Rights Group). I focused on the accessibility of high quality early childcare and got involved with JUFJ’s advocacy for the full funding and implementation of the Birth to Three Law. This law phases in gradual salary increases so that early educators will eventually be paid on par with public school teachers, as well as provides subsidies to make childcare more affordable to families. I believe it is critical that our underpaid, mostly women of color, early educators be paid a fair salary that matches their value and skill, which will stabilize the supply of teachers, improve the quality of early education, and create a better future for all DC’s children.
What can we do?
JUFJ and our allies in the Under 3 DC Coalition encourage you to take the following steps. Additional actions will be coming up over the next weeks so stay tuned!
- Sign up to testify, either in person or in writing, at the DC Council Committee of the Whole (COW) budget hearing on May 3. By signing up here, with JUFJ, we will be able to assist you in writing testimony. Scroll through the guide and you will also find talking points from Under 3 DC that are specific to early childcare. The important thing is to convey your own personal story, i.e. why the funding of fair salaries for early childcare educators is important to you. Here are some additional talking points that might be helpful in writing your testimony
- Take a moment to call Chairman Mendelson and tell him that you are counting on him to do the right thing. This is a simple one-click call tool that will patch you right through to his office and provide you with a script to help deliver this message.
- Email the DC Council to reverse cuts to the PEF.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or if I can be of assistance.
JUFJ Economic Justice Working Group