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Last year, New Orleans added more than 1,000 child care seats for low-income families after voters approved a historic property tax increasein 2022. The referendum raised the budget of the program seven-fold — from $3 million to $21 million a year for 20 years. Because Louisiana’s early childhood fund matches money raised locally for child care, the city gets an additional $21 million to help families find care.
New Orleans is part of a growing trend of communities passing ballot measures to expand access to child care. In Whatcom County, Washington, a property tax increase added $10 million for child care and children’s mental health to the county’s annual budget. A marijuana sales tax approved last year by voters in Anchorage, Alaska, will generate more than $5 million for early childhood programs.
The state of Texas has taken a somewhat different tack. In November, voters approved a state constitutional amendment that allows tax relief for qualifying child care providers. Under this provision, cities and counties can choose to exempt a child care center from paying all or some of its property taxes. Dallas was among the first city-and-county combo in Texas to provide the tax break.
I agree with you about educators, but educators are not involved in this case because it’s child care and not school. And while child care workers definitely need to be paid more as well, this is a good thing for a lot of poor people and don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Professionals working in Early Childhood Education, that is 0-5 years, are called educators.
We teach children, that is our job. We are not simply minders while you work. We hold university degrees for teaching, we follow (where applicable) state regulations, we plan curriculum, and buy resources to teach with.
Children learn more in the first few years of life than they ever will at any other point. ECE is critical.
Okay, my apologies for not knowing the term. I would still say not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You do deserve to be paid more, but that doesn’t mean this is a bad thing.
This isn’t even good, there’s already a huge demand for a spot in a centre that cannot be met due to staff shortages, all this does is add to the number of children trying to be enrolled.
If you want to see more children attending, you need to get more educators, to get more educators you need to focus on their wages and working conditions.
Programs like this while potentially great for handful of low income families fuck over us low income workers.
apples and oranges dude. this article is about child care, not education. youre not wrong about education also taking a back seat, but this is an article about the critical nature of child care and a mild success in its implementation, not the also critically important child education.
Childcare is the colloquialism for Early Childhood Education.
So no, not apples and oranges, it’s bananas and nanas.
ahh i see, youre not capable of separating them despite our society being setup in very distinct compensatory categories. got it.
I work in the industry, we are educators.
And if you think teachers in schools are getting compensated well you’re also mistaken.
You don’t know what you’re on about, got it.
Boop beep I got delete.
I apologized for not knowing the correct terminology. What more do you want me to do?
Boop beep I got delete.
No worries, I understand the anger.