The Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance says there are about 4,000 job openings in the childcare industry in the state right now. This is not a new problem, as our state has been one of the most expensive places for childcare in the country for decades.
Couple that with low wages and high responsibility of taking care of those kids, these are hard jobs to fill.
This week, we found out about a new possibility of making a dent in that big goal. NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Office of Early Childhood Commissioner Beth Bye about it.
Mike Hydeck: So, many other industries have apprenticeship programs. This one is going to deal with the childcare industry. How does it work and how is it funded?
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Beth Bye: Sure, this particular one is a partnership with SEIU, which is the union that represents family childcare in Connecticut. And how it works is they will get a mentor, they will get all the supports they need to get a child development associate's degree and get nationally accredited through this program. And they are earning while they're learning, which is what makes it an apprenticeship program. And it's been adopted by the Connecticut Department of Labor. And SEIU is reaching out now. And this is the start of one of the first family childcare apprenticeships in the country.
Mike Hydeck: So this would be, if you are a stay-at-home mom or a stay-at-home dad and you want to get into a home childcare business, this could be your first jumping off point. Is that right?
Beth Bye: It could be. I think a lot of the folks who have applied are those who have already started programs, but certainly we want to grow our population of family childcare homes. And this is another way to do it.
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Mike Hydeck: So can anyone apply? Or is this a targeted program based on income need? Are we looking at inner cities here? Does this happen in rural areas? How does it work?
Beth Bye: There's family childcare homes all over the state. This is not a targeted program. This is a workforce-targeted program trying to enhance our early childhood workforce, particularly family childcare. We also have eight workforce pipeline programs across the state for childcare centers, where we have about 60 people enrolled now, and we'll have almost 200 by the end of the year. So we're trying to grow the workforce in many ways under Governor Lamont's leadership.
Mike Hydeck: And the closer those childcare centers are, based out of a home, the less transportation it is to drop your kid off. So one of the things that you mentioned just a moment ago is that SEIU, one of the unions, is involved in his whole plan. One of the biggest deterrents we know about getting new people into these jobs is the pay. Will that address this in any way?
Beth Bye: It's a really great question. This addresses some of the costs that are involved in getting a degree and getting accredited. And it gives you a free mentor to help you with both your business and your high quality practices. So it helps that way. But how we help with the pay is that our family childcare providers in Connecticut are unionized. And they will be receiving an 11% a year increase for three years based on our last collective bargaining. So the rates are going up 11% a year. And that'll make a big difference for them.
Mike Hydeck: And the scale balance is difficult, right? Because when you pay your workers more, that means moms and dads may have to pay more for the actual childcare. How can that be addressed?
Beth Bye: Really good question. Well, in the case of the union agreement, those are state dollars that are increasing to try to keep it affordable for families. The state has also added, under Governor Lamont's leadership and using some of the federal relief dollars, we've been able to open up childcare subsidy to folks in workforce training now, which never used to be an option before 2019. And we are also expanding the income level of families who can access childcare subsidies. So parents can call 211 and ask if they qualify for a childcare subsidy. If you're like a family of three and you make less than $65,000 a year, you may well qualify. And that program is open now and families are taking advantage. About 20,000 children in Connecticut are getting childcare subsidies, their parents are getting the subsidies, but the children are getting care that is licensed and inspected and all that.
Mike Hydeck: Just like any business, it's important to have more than one revenue stream and I'm setting this up because Governor Lamont has said before that he would like to see major corporations with thousands of jobs still open as a part of this solution. In fact, it's easier for people to take a job or even two jobs if they have affordable childcare. For example, Electric Boat has hundreds of jobs open. Companies like General Dynamics, Pratt and Whitney - are they part of this discussion? Can they help when it comes to funding childcare?
Beth Bye: Yeah, I mean, businesses in the 80s were really getting all in and helping with childcare. And then they really backed out and sort of contracted it out and stepped away from that as saying it's not in their primary business model. But what we're finding now with the big workforce shortages is the businesses have come to the table. CBIA has been a part of the conversations. I've met with Electric Boat several times. They're looking for innovative solutions and I think they're willing to bring some resources to the table to help with this problem. So we're going to need everybody. This is a major challenge. We need businesses, we need the federal government, we need the state government and we need municipalities all looking at this problem and trying to work collaboratively to help families.
