Question of the day
Wednesday, Feb 22, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Gov. Pritzker was asked yesterday in Peoria how he intends to spark interest among potential childcare and pre-K workers to alleviate the shortage…
So let me begin by reminding you what it was like to be a childcare worker four years ago. Four years ago, we had a minimum wage in Illinois that was $8.25. Typical child care worker in Illinois was maybe making $9.25, maybe $10. And the opportunity to go get $11 an hour was enough for many families who are living at poverty level to just decide, yeah, I’ve got to move on. I need to bring more dollars home.
And so it’s been obvious to me for a couple of decades now that childcare workers, just picking them for a moment, have been vastly underpaid, too close to minimum wage, and the minimum wage has been too low. And so we’ve worked over the last four years, as you know, we’ve been raising the minimum wage by about $1 a year. We’re going to $15 but now we have to be competitive with other industries. And there are so few people out there looking for jobs as compared to the number of jobs available that wages have gone even higher than $15 an hour.
So we’re looking to first raise wages for people in childcare to $17-$19 to begin with. And then beyond that, because we need people who want to stay in the industry, can stay in the industry with the wages that are being provided.
So wages are one thing. Training is another and we can talk about early childhood educators, those who have a higher education degree, whether it’s for an early childhood pre-K program, or something else. And those folks are, these are teachers. These are teachers just like the teachers that are in kindergarten, just like teachers in fifth grade, just like teachers in high school. They need a degree and they’ve got to be able to justify getting that degree with the wages that are provided.
So lifting up wages across the board is hugely important and then making sure that we’re showing people that there’s a path in early childhood for them to do better and better over time. And that’s one of the reasons that Senator Cristina Pacione-Zayas, who’s not here with us today, came to me a year and a half ago and said, Let’s take some ARPA dollars and dedicat it to a two-year program to try to upskill people who are in early childhood already, but maybe don’t have a higher degree so that we can bring people along, bring the pipeline of teachers along, which we’re also doing now in K-12. But this is something very important, we put $200 million aside for those scholarship programs. And then what I’m proposing to do in this coming year, and for the next three years after that in FY 25, 26 and 27 is to continue that because we need more and more people to raise up in the early childhood field. Quality teachers, more teachers, better pay, these are all things that make up a better workforce in early childhood so that we can expand and have more kids.
* At a later event in Macomb, Pritzker was asked about some of his own pre-school memories…
Sure. I’ll just say, I was thinking about it today. They didn’t call it preschool back then. I’m just old enough so that, I don’t know 54 or five years ago, I guess, I was in what they commonly called nursery school, which was sort of a year or two before kindergarten. And I remember Mrs. Romes was the person in charge. And honestly, one of the great times of one’s life is those early years, and especially when you feel safe, when someone who’s caring for you and in the classroom is constantly helping you learn without excoriating you for not knowing something and who just exudes love. And I think that’s, that’s what great early childhood teachers, and I could tell a Mallory does that in her classroom as well.
Both of my kids went to preschool as well, two different ones that were different places. One was better for one of my kids, one was better for the other. So fortunately, we were able to afford to pay for it ourselves. And these were private providers that we went to. I’m sure that the one that I went to when I was a little kid was also a private provider. But remember, if you can’t afford a private provider, every child, every child needs early childhood services, needs early childhood learning. And so I want to make sure that everybody in the state of Illinois has that ability.
I didn’t go to preschool, but my mom was a school teacher at the time, as were two of her sisters, so I had my own advantages.
* The Question: What are your own pre-K school memories, if any? This can apply to your personal experiences as well as the experiences of your children/grandchildren.
- Friendly Bob Adams - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:14 am:
They didn’t have pre-K back in my day. Loved kindergarten though.
- George Ryan Reynolds - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:16 am:
I was left handed but hadn’t been “diagnosed” at the time. So when they gave out the scissors, I got a pair for a righty. And I couldn’t use them. To hear Mom tell it, they thought something was wrong with me and sent me for some sort of evaluation. Turns out, I just needed the lefty scissors, which had green rubber at the top. Held onto those scissors for many years. Mom has told stories about growing up on the South Side and the nuns would actively try to get you to not be left-handed in writing. This would have been the 1950s.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:17 am:
My pre-school was our farm and Sesame Street and a mother who encouraged reading at a very young age. She was somewhat relieved when I finally went off to kindergarten and had a great teacher who was patient with all answering all my “why” questions.
- Suburban Mom - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:24 am:
Nursery school 2-3 mornings a week at the local Methodist church. (Very few of the students were Methodist.)
Big highlight was that I had my own totebag.
- Manchester - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:24 am:
I didn’t go to preschool and in the early 1960’s our school district didn’t have kindergarten. Where I grew up was very rural and I doubt there was a preschool in the entire county. I did well in school though and went on to a degree in Accounting and an MBA. My kids both went to private preschools.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:31 am:
I have specific and pointed memories that could “age” me but what stands out is that I went to Pre-K, it was, by all indicators, “3 or 4” to 1 ratio, big group and small group “learn and play”, the real measure was the “socialization while learning”, where being able to say the alphabet or even any ability to read or write, the goal was to invigorate learning and growth but never forgetting it was still about socialization and learning to learn with others.
“That’s all I have to say about that”
… except that Pre-K was very critical, I “remember” as I started kindergarten, I remember the “rules and social” aspect were old hat, as much as anything can be old hat for a kindergartener.
- Arsenal - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:31 am:
I’m gonna be a jerk and not answer the question because I bumped on this:
==And honestly, one of the great times of one’s life is those early years, and especially when you feel safe, when someone who’s caring for you and in the classroom is constantly helping you learn without excoriating you for not knowing something and who just exudes love.==
Given what we know about how JB’s home life was a little rocky growing up, this line has some added poignancy.
- Save Ferris - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:34 am:
Mrs. Shandelov was our teacher, JCC in Skokie on Church. Rode there in a small school bus when I was 4. I’d never been in a bus before, but I’d been in a cab with my mom so I knew you had to tell the driver where to go.
First day, I was the first one in the bus. “505 Church, please.” The driver and my mom cracked up. I was mad.
- Save Ferris - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:35 am:
That’s “5050 Church.”
- Proud Sucker - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:43 am:
We couldn’t afford nursery school but we had some very caring and giving retired neighbors who watched me while mom was at work. They had me do workbooks in the mornings and then play with a few other neighbor kids in the afternoon. This is now what we classify as unlicensed daycare.
I missed the December 1 cut-off for kindergarten so I had to wait until the following year, starting at 5yrs and 9 mos. I was a lot bigger than the bulk of Mrs. Kahn’s class and could already read and do some arithmetic. CPS figured-it out later and double promoted me from 1st to 3rd - then I became one of the smaller kids.
- Keyrock - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:47 am:
My main memory of nursery school was sledding down the “giant” hill outside. I went back as an adult and it was maybe a 4 foot rise.
- train111 - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:53 am:
I was in the first pre school class ever in my small rural Wisconsin farm town. 1973
A neighbor was an elementary school principal. He secured a scholarship for my parents to cover the costs of me attending.
train111
- H-W - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:57 am:
I am too old, but when I was a child, Kindergarten was optional. My parents sent my twin and me to Kindergarten in a neighbor’s home (garage, actually).
I remember learning poems and a play. I was “Little Boy Blue.” I also remember meeting kids from the other side of the highway for the first time.
For most children, that first year of semi-formal education is their first opportunity to meet other children (with the exception of Sunday School for some) and the first time they exist in a social setting where there are many more children than adults. It is also their first true exposure to hierarchical social systems (e.g., teacher rule over children, and parents submit to teachers’ wishes). It is their first time to learn to play by rules others create that are applied uniformly to a group of children. Beyond the academics, the social skills taught should never be taken for granted.
- Amalia - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:59 am:
Pre K was reading/looking at the Junior Encyclopedia. lol Pre K……
- Gravitas - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 11:59 am:
Another memory from kindergarten is that the daily highlight was that we were all given half pints of milk to drink. Each child was expected to bring a box of cookies to the classroom on a rotating basis to be shared with the others. One cookie and one half pint of milk per pupil. I also remember that we were supposed to take a naps during the afternoon. This was in 1966.
There were two kindergarten classrooms and the classes were crowded. The local church affiliated schools did not have kindergarten classes. By the start of the 1st grade a fair number of students transferred to the religious schools.
- Huh? - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 12:07 pm:
Didn’t have pre-k 60 years ago. Though do remember, 60 years ago today, being 6 years old, sitting on hard wood chair in kindergarten, think to myself that I was old.
My how time flies.
Happy birthday to me.
- unafraid - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 12:11 pm:
The issue is cost to the parents. Everything in this article is nice but it costs money. My son and his wife have two children in daycare at $700 a month each. They work at relatively lower paid jobs at a university and this is quite expensive already.
Let’s make this clear, this is more about daycare than anything else. Trying to link it to schooling is a stretch. We have had decades of K and it does not seem to be raising the test scores later on. There is nothing wrong with daycare as it serves a real need for working parents.
But, the expense issue. Should it be placed on the taxpayers in terms of basically free or highly subsidized state reimbursement. I do not believe so. The state is really stretched already and any economic downturn will exacerbate that. The closest I can come to is to have bot the state and federal government to allow people to have much greater deduction possibilities on their income tax and treat it as a ‘cost of doing business’ which in manywasy it really is.
- flea - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 12:15 pm:
preschool was at home with my 10 siblings until we graduated to K
- Retired and still in Illinois - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 12:20 pm:
Was fortunate to attend the lab school at EIU as a four year old for pre K. Just remember it was fun. We would visit the older kids classrooms and see chicks hatching, be read books and recess. Also got to choose white or chocolate milk at snack time. Eventually in regular kindergarten two students were selected each day to go to the kitchen and enter the walk in refrigerator and pickup the milk for snack time. We had to make a list and then count the correct number of each milk for the class. Still remember being shown how to push the big door handle button on inside in case the door closed while we were inside. Crazy the things you remember. Mostly remember that school was fun.
- From DaZoo - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 12:35 pm:
I have a couple memories of a classroom pre-k but my mom tells me that was just kid-care while she went to a bible study group. So no preschool for me. But my mom has a degree in education. So I consider myself very fortunate for that.
My kid didn’t go to childcare/preschool until he was 2 1/2 years old. He has some health issues from birth that had Luries and Cook County watch his development regularly. At 2, they recommended speech therapy. With both parents working, my in-laws helped every weekday. And while their English is decent, it’s not their first language. At 2 1/2 we put him in childcare and within a couple months of being there, he was consider “on track” developmentally. By age 3 1/2, he was assessed at a bit above average.
A trained and experienced educator can spot the needs and levers to encourage the kids under their care to flourish. The resources and environment of preschool helped my kid. And the dividends are showing in elementary school.
- Cool Papa Bell - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 1:14 pm:
I went to pre-school in one of those town’s that the Governor visited the other day. It was really wonderful from what I remember. I think I was totally bored as a little kid at home and needed more stimulation. I hope for the same experience for todays’ kids.
My two are products of pre-school and they still have friends from those days on into High School.
- 32nd Ward Roscoe Village - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 1:21 pm:
“We have had decades of K and it does not seem to be raising the test scores later on.”
My kids went to a Waldorf school where the pre-K and K (ages 4-7) are about learning through play. Before age 7 is too early to be doing homework, reading, etc. Their job is to play and grow their brains. I was lucky enough I had to ability to pay for that. I kept them out of public pre-K and K because of that and because this was before Mayor Emanuel came in and lengthened the school day to a decent number of hours.
I went to private Pre-K in Kansas because there was none in the private or Catholic schools; went to a public K because there was no K at my Catholic school; then off to Catholic school 1 through 12.
- DuPage - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 1:29 pm:
They are talking about making childcare a career by giving the workers a raise and having them take classes to become teachers. Teachers would usually go teach in a school district for better pay, health insurance, and a pension. (Although Tier2 is nothing to write home about). It would be great if we could get more qualified teachers to work in daycare, but it would be very expensive.
- Huh? - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 2:38 pm:
In 1988, when I went back to school for Engineering, UIC had a pre-k program. It was a fabulous experience for my oldest daughter. I firmly believe that it gave her a firm foundation for her public education experience.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 2:47 pm:
When I was that young, pre-school didn’t really exist. And in my neighborhood, there were a lot of moms who didn’t work outside the home, mine included. Those were the days when one working parent could earn enough to raise a family.
Pre-school is as much about childcare as it is about learning. But I’m gad it’s available because so many children and families benefit from it. Glad Gov. Pritzker is trying to make it available universally in Illinois too. That’s a tremendous goal.
I guess it’s too much to wonder how things might be different if one working parent could earn enough to raise a family, buy a home and save money for retirement, but those days are over and they aren’t coming back.
Also, I have memories of Kindergarten and am still in touch with some of the kids I was with in Mrs. Longtin’s class at Limestone School.
- Rudy’s teeth - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 2:58 pm:
Our community had a wonderful Montessori for pre-k and K. My kids made friends with classmates and remain close with many as they reached adulthood.
Montessori was/is expensive but it was an excellent investment and provided a foundation for hands-on learning.
- Bolingbrook party of 7 - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 3:14 pm:
why does “every child need early childhood learning” we don’t even require kindergarten in this state.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 3:32 pm:
Didn’t have pre-K back then. Son went to 186’s early program, but it wasn’t district wide at the time. Made it nice because Mrs RNUG was working for 186; don’t remember if that was during her few full-time years, or her part time sub years. By the time the grandkids came along, 186 Early Learning Center (ELC) was district wide. They seemed to enjoy it.
- RNUG - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 3:33 pm:
Adding … back when I was that young, daycare was grandma or a neighbor.
- Dotnonymous - Wednesday, Feb 22, 23 @ 3:43 pm:
Way (way) back before any thought of pre-K…I sat on my Mom’s lap while she read to me…giving me the gift of learning…from books.
Still learning.