A regional conference for childcare providers in Juneau offered a chance for attendees to meet with legislators and advocate for more childcare assistance from the state. Attendees also learned about two bills currently in the legislature that address the lack of child care in Southeast Alaska.
The Southeast Alaska Association for the Education of Young Children has served the region for 40 years. It helps parents find child care, assists providers with training and advocates for improved childcare access.
Blue Shibler is the executive director of the organization. Earlier this month the nonprofit held its annual conference in Juneau.
Shibler: “We bring together between two and three hundred early educators from all over Southeast Alaska, I think we had ten different southeast communities represented this weekend, including people who work in Headstart, in school districts, and private childcare programs.”
The theme this year was “Be well, care well”
Shibler: “We had a lot of workshops about active play and mindfulness, both for adults and the children they work with. Our keynote speaker Tina Woods, she talked a lot about healing space for helping people heal themselves through culturally responsive treatment. Some other ones were ‘Art for self-care’. We had a really good workshop that was all about caregiver stress management tools. So it’s really giving people tools for mindful self-regulation while they are working with children.”
There is a reason for all this talk of self-care. Workers in the field are overworked and underpaid. The starting pay for childcare workers is around $12 per hour. Days are long and staff turnover is high. Not enough people get into the field.
Shibler: “Southeast Alaska as a region is considered a childcare desert, that means we are meeting less than half of the need. There are communities that have no childcare, and there are communities that have not enough childcare.”
Shibler led an advocacy workshop that offered attendees a chance to speak with legislators. Haines child care provider Kim Larson was part of that group. She is limited to providing care for eight children total, and only three of these can be under 30 months old. She says care for this age range is in high demand.
Larson: “We are in need for more providers zero to thirty months.I have a waiting list for five infants right now, and you know I can only take three at a time.”
Despite the waitlist, Larson says she is not reaching her quota of eight children because many parents take their older children to Headstart, a free program.
Larson: “It’s just hard for people that want to start childcare because if there is free programs, they going to of course go there.
Larson told legislators she thinks helping parents pay for childcare is part of the solution.
Larson: “One of the things we talked about was how they support college-age kids, you know with the Pell Grants and stuff, and then of course they support the K through twelve kids, through the school, and then now they are starting to support pre K, but they don’t support zero to three which is when the kid’s minds grow the most, their brains grow the most, is in those early years and there is no funding for that. So that’s why we went and talked with the legislators.”
Legislators are currently working on two bills that address the issue. Representative Andi Story was among the lawmakers who met with the group.
Story: “We are trying to expand the number of families who can afford child care by making the subsidies more inclusive.”
House Bill 89 would extend assistance to families who make up to 300% of the poverty level.
Story: “You would make an application and then you apply to child care assistance, which is under the department of health, and then they make a payment towards the center to help with the cost of care. They would make a payment on your behalf.”
The payment would be a flat rate, adjusted to the cost of each daycare center.
The other bill –House Bill 46 – would incentivize investments in childcare centers through tax deductions.
Story: “If a business makes investment into a childcare center, they can deduct up to three million dollars for an investment they might have made into a childcare center in their area.
The House bill also includes a provision that would allow childcare providers to organize for collective bargaining with the department of health.
Story says the bills and increased revenue will help daycare centers function better.
Story: “They can afford to keep the adequate staff on, keep their doors open, keep the experienced staff with your kids, not have so much transition. Little ones like to see their same caregivers, they bond with them. You want the people taking care of your kids making a living wage.”
Shibler, the conference organizer, says childcare fits into the bigger economic picture.
Shibler: “Childcare is an essential part of an economy, and without it, we are going to continue to see labor shortages in all industries. I think everybody needs to come together and realize that as a public good, childcare needs to be heavily subsidized, not only at the government level but from private businesses as well.”
The bills are currently moving through the house. Representative Story says if childcare is seen as a priority, they will pass.
