COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – A new school year is less than a month away in Michigan and the Branch County Great Start Collaborative and its partner the Early Childhood Investment Corporation remain dedicated to their vision of having all children in the community start school healthy, safe and ready to succeed. Early childhood educators face many issues in their line of work. Valora Washington, the CEO of the Council for Professional Recognition, says one of the issues is pay. She says a lot of people are not aware that childcare is one of the lowest paying professions in the United States, adding that there’s been very little progress over the past 25 years.
According to Washington, the average childcare worker makes ten dollars an hour, while the average preschool teacher is making $15 per hour. Washington thinks many people have a misunderstanding about how important the early years are, saying 90 percent of a child’s brain is developed by age five.
Washington’s new book “The New Early Childhood Professional: A Step-by-Step Guide to Overcoming Goliath,” provides early childhood educators with experiences and strategic approaches from other educators in the field.
