Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye is leading a Blue Ribbon Panel to create a strategic plan for making childcare more affordable.
Mike Hydeck: Ask any parent who is paying for full time childcare in Connecticut and chances are you will hear it can consume a huge chunk of their budget. As for what the caregivers get paid for providing that service? They'll tell you, they're barely getting a living wage. Well, the governor has assembled a Blue Ribbon Panel to try to search for solutions on this. Joining me now is Beth Bye, Commissioner of Early Childhood. Commissioner, welcome back to Face the Facts.
Beth Bye: Happy to be here.
Mike Hydeck: So who is part of this Blue Ribbon Panel? And what do you think the first steps will be?
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Beth Bye: Sure. Well, what we have, we have a mix of 23 members and the numbers represent childcare, family childcare, center based childcare, rural childcare, urban childcare, and then business. Employers in the state are represented and community members, parents. So the idea is to represent the whole state because problems are different in eastern Connecticut than central Connecticut. And really take on the four core issues in early childhood and childcare that need addressing. So we're excited to bring information, to get their questions, to get public input and develop a plan by December for the governor.
Mike Hydeck: That's my next question, is when you're going to try to get a plan? Where do you tackle first? Do you go to the financing? Do you look to the federal government for assistance? Do you try to lean on companies to be a part of the solution? Maybe they, as the governor suggested, build childcare centers on site at their business? Where do you start?
Beth Bye: Yeah, well, we start with what is, you know, it's about a $1.4 million industry. Parents are paying a fortune, as you said, a lot of parents are paying more than they're paying for their mortgage. So parents are payers and the federal government pays and the state pays. Municipalities often run early childhood programs in their public schools or through the city. So where we start is, the biggest challenge in the field right now is the workforce, having enough workers, given that there's low pay, and there's low unemployment, you know, childcare workers have left for other fields. So how do we lift up the profession, talk about it as a great profession and address the compensation issue? So we're going to spend the most time probably on the workforce pipeline, which is important. But also, as you led off with, equity and access. How do we help families access childcare at a price they can afford? That will be a big part of the work. And then putting those pieces together. The federal government funds Headstart and childcare subsidies for Connecticut. The state funds state funded preschool and state funded toddlers. How do we put those pieces together to make sense and maximize the funding we have? And as you stated, also bring business to the table to see what their role can be. Other states are starting to do this as well. So we'll look to other states and other countries that have been doing these plans. And we're gonna bring in a lot of national experts, thanks to the Hunt Institute that has taken us on as a state that they want to work with this year, which brings expertise and funding and facilitation of national perspective.
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Mike Hydeck: Now, in your role in early childhood, you've been in childcare centers, you've talked to the workers. You also used to be in state government before you had this position. So you've been in the State Capitol. Now you're working in this administration. So you've seen all angles to this. And now you're studying it as well. Why is Connecticut the most expensive, or among the most expensive in the nation when it comes to child care? What are we missing? We have high taxes here. So you would think those taxes could go towards childcare. Why are we so expensive as compared to other states?
Beth Bye: Well, I think what you see is, it's expensive on average. There are programs in wealthier communities who can charge more because parents can pay more. So that's one factor. It's also just a high cost of living state in terms of real estate and that kind of thing. And we also have some pretty strict rules about how many adults you need for certain number of children. For example, you know, you need to have one teacher for every four infants. If you have an infant program in other states, that might be five or six, but Connecticut decided pretty strict regulations to guard children's safety. I think if you look at our education system, that's more expensive than a lot of states as well. You know, labor costs are higher, as well. So I think it's safeguards and workforce, and then things like real estate. And also, there, there is a population of parents who can pay and so there are some programs that are more than $500 a week, for example, in Connecticut, but that's not the average, the average is probably $300 a week for an infant.
Mike Hydeck: Now, you alluded to this, you alluded to this a moment ago, are there things we can learn from the South Carolinas of our country or South Dakota? They're among the most inexpensive when it comes to childcare. Obviously we want to be concerned about the quality of childcare and the number of teachers per student. But can we learn something from South Carolina or South Dakota or some of the other states that have much more affordable health care? Excuse me, childcare?
Beth Bye: Yeah, I think when you look at states that have more affordable childcare, 70 to 80 percent of the costs are staffing costs, no matter where you are. I guess it can be lower if you don't have the same regulations. So maybe their staffing costs are less, but it's still the vast majority of any childcare budget is the cost of labor. And in Connecticut, we have a $15 minimum wage, which we think is is important. And we think that early childhood educators are teachers and they're professionals. And certainly not everyone's a head teacher, there are also assistant teachers. But I think that in those other states, they don't have the same educational outcomes. They don't have the same quality. And their workers don't have health care and are paid even less than they're paid in Connecticut. In Connecticut, the wages are among the lowest in Connecticut. So it basically comes down to labor costs.
Mike Hydeck: Labor costs are the biggest thing. Do you foresee the state of Connecticut subsidizing, whether it's the salaries for childcare workers to get more people in the pipeline? Or is that not on the table, do you think?
Beth Bye: Well, that's something that we've been doing this year with the pandemic, subsidizing the salaries. But I think it's important to remember when we think of the state and childcare, 70 percent of it are private, is private. Seventy percent of programs are private programs, totally private businesses. About 30 percent are funded with state funds. So, you know, certainly we don't do wage supports for private businesses, for the most part. We are increasing the rates for state funded programs in Connecticut that we hope will help with the salaries. But we're going to look at everything with the panel. Some communities have looked at wage supports, but often those are in cities where it's majority publicly funded. Where in Connecticut, the majority are privately funded in Connecticut. So what we're going to look at, how can we maximize our federal dollars? How can we bring business to the table? What's the role of philanthropy?
Mike Hydeck: Commissioner? I have to interrupt you and we have to leave it there. We ran out of time, but sure, I do appreciate it. I know it's complex, and we'll have you back so we can talk some more. Thanks for joining us.
