Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
Head Start Teachers Could Get A Wage Boost Under Biden Plan. Public Comment Is Open
Head Start teachers could get a pay increase under a proposed rule by the Biden administration.
(
Mariana Dale
/
LAist
)
Head Start teachers in California and across the country could get a pay increase under a new plan by the Biden administration.
In California, the average salary for a Headstart teacher is $43,618, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research. The Biden administration hopes to increase that by about $10,000.
Head Start is the federal program that offers early childhood education and wrap-around services for children under 5 from low-income families. But Melanee Cottrill, the executive director of Head Start California, says staffing shortages have made it hard to serve the number of eligible kids for the program.
“What happens is, we have a classroom, we have the funding to put a teacher in that classroom, but we can't find a teacher, and a large part of that is because the wages are lower,” she said.
Support for LAist comes from
The administration’s proposed rule is an effort to bring up wages to better match those of teachers in the public school system. In California, the typical salary for transitional kindergarten teachers, or those who teach 4-year-olds, was $84,700, according to UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.
Make A Public Comment
-
When does public comment open? The proposed rule published on Monday, Nov. 20 on the Federal Register, and will undergo a 60-day public comment period. All comments are considered public and will be posted online once the Health and Human Services Department has reviewed them.
-
What's the good of public comment? As the National Archives explains, an agency may extend or re-open a comment period when public comments make a good case for adding more time, and an agency may decide that public comments have made a persuasive case to change an initial proposed rule.
-
Read the rule. You can offer a public comment online or through the mail.
Cottrill said she’s also heard anecdotally of Head Start teachers whose children have qualified for the program's services themselves because their wages were below the federal poverty line. And many early childhood educators have been leaving the field.
“There's a lot of concern right now with healthcare getting a $25 minimum wage, with fast food getting a $20 minimum wage, while the median wage for Head Start teachers nationally is $19 an hour — that that will exacerbate this problem, particularly in California,” she said.
Staff turnover doubled to 22% over the last decade, according to the Biden administration.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist