OPINION: Early childhood educators are key to universal care

I’m excited by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s historic announcement about universal child care, but we have a long way to go to ensure every New Mexican has access to free child care, and the Lujan Grisham administration has steps it needs to take now to make this happen.

Early educators like me fought for 12 years to pass the constitutional amendment that makes universal child care possible, so we know the challenges of building the child care system New Mexicans want. The first problem we see is that our state has nowhere near enough early educators to meet the rising demand for child care slots.

Lujan Grisham had a plan to bring more early educators into the profession in order to meet the demand, but after proposing an increase in the base wage to $18–21, the state scaled back its proposal to $16–19. The message we get from this is clear: When it comes to paying for universal child care, the state is willing to make early educators shoulder the cost by paying some of the lowest wages in the state. A $1 or $2 raise is a joke. It’s not going to bring new educators into the profession.

What will? New early educators need to see that the state is committed to creating a real career path with professional wages like those of public school teachers. The Early Childhood Education and Care Department has the pieces in place to make this change. The department worked with me and colleagues from across the state this year to draft a professional wage and career lattice that provides higher wages based on teacher credentials and experience, reaching pay parity with K-12 teachers. But the lattice has been collecting dust since the draft was finalized in July.

The department needs to adopt the lattice now and request a $100 million annual appropriation to fund it. Currently, they are requesting only $10 million for a lattice that could cover 10,000 teachers. You do the math. This is not a serious budget proposal to raise wages and attract new early educators.

Early educators will never stop in their fight to give our youngest children bright futures. We are the key to universal child care. Without professional pay, universal child care is a fantasy in need of a serious reality check.

Yes, New Mexico is leading the way on child care reform, but before we congratulate ourselves for being the first in the nation to create universal child care, we need to get serious about putting the pieces of the universal system that our communities want in place, starting with a professional wage lattice that will attract droves of new educators to this wonderful profession, so we can meet the demand for child care in every neighborhood, village and pueblo in New Mexico.

Olga Grays is an early childhood educator, certified home daycare provider and community organizer.