Chair Gutiérrez highlights pay inequities and provider challenges
Gutiérrez states that universal 2K cannot be achieved overnight and points to longstanding issues: pay inequities between community-based and public school educators, rising operating costs, and the need for dignified wages.
Unfortunately, we can't achieve a universal 2K program overnight, and there are longstanding issues with our current early childhood education system that need addressing.
For starters, the inequities in early childhood educator salaries have persisted for far too long.
Since the very first hearing of the subcommittee and at every hearing since, I've heard from early childhood education providers about the pay inequities between educators and community-based programs compared to those in New York City public schools,
or about the challenges of rising costs of operating their business while salary raises have to take a back seat.
These inequities need to be addressed as we look towards creating a stable and sustainable universal child care system.
Early childhood educators are the heart of the early childhood education system and deserve to receive dignified wages for the important work that they do.