Amid A National Childcare Crisis, New Leadership Charts A Path Forward

We know the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated childcare challenges and the cracks in our already fragmented childcare system became more apparent. Many childcare workers and early childhood educators continued to experience dismal working conditions and receive inadequate compensation, hindering their ability to provide high-quality care to some of the most vulnerable young learners. Families across all income levels struggled to find consistent and reliable childcare. As a single working mom with school-age children, I personally felt the impact of after-school program closures during the height of the pandemic and the diminishing number of childcare providers once in-person school resumed.

To provide long-needed support for the childcare system in Colorado, Governor Jared Polis is expected to sign legislation this summer that will invest nearly $100 million in the state’s childcare system. Polis has made early childhood education and full-day kindergarten priorities during his tenure as governor and has signaled to other state leaders nationwide that the investment in some of the youngest among us can have some of the most substantial impacts on health and welfare of families, communities and lifelong learning.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Michelle Kang, the new CEO of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) — a membership organization of early childhood professionals — to discuss how policymakers, advocates and educators are tackling the childcare crisis. Michelle oversaw NAEYC’s strategy while serving the early childhood field throughout the pandemic and has been integral in revitalizing systems that support childcare and preschool programs. I asked Michelle how we can ensure families have the support they need and how the early childhood education field can attract highly qualified professionals to fill critical roles in our communities.

Alison Griffin: What sparked your interest in early childhood education?

Michelle Kang: During grade school, I realized I wanted a career focused on supporting young children. This was based on my own experience as the oldest child of Korean immigrants, watching and supporting my parents juggle the challenges of jobs and the health and education of their children without a strong grasp of the language and culture. They ended up doing what many parents have done: They brought my grandparents to live with us, enrolling my siblings and me in a church preschool and taking different work shifts to cover childcare and work. I served as a translator for both language and culture over the years and gained a deep appreciation of the challenges of navigating caregiving, education and culture.

Fast forward to graduate school: My interest in supporting child well-being led me to become interested in better understanding policy, business and the structures that can best support working families. Following an internship with a juvenile court judge, studying education policy at the University of Virginia, and then conducting research on employers and work/family supports in business school at the University of Oxford (UK), I knew I wanted to advocate directly for investment in early childhood.

My initial foray into the field was to work directly with employers to help them understand the value proposition for their workforce of investing in high-quality early education. I worked with many different types of employers that understood that then and to this day invest heavily in supporting high-quality early education for their employees. That makes a difference by supporting women, equity and employee engagement — all of which have major positive outcomes for the business. I was deeply moved by the stories and journeys of the educators who were caring for young children, and I wanted to support them more directly. I remember a visit to a center where one of the teachers reminded me of my mother, and she hugged me and asked me to keep thinking of ways to help her continue to do this work while being able to support her own family. That interaction has stayed with me over the years.

Alison: What have the last two years revealed about early childhood providers that we had not fully realized before the pandemic?

Michelle: Many of us, especially working parents, knew that quality early education was scarce and costly. When suddenly all of us were at home, juggling our work and caring for our children, it highlighted the crisis of childcare, especially when programs were closing due to the lack of funding and struggling to balance program operations with keeping children, families and staff safe. Parents could not pay more, expenses were rising, and programs that were already held together with a shoestring could no longer afford to stay open. While I joined NAEYC with a focus on growing its programs and impact, we pivoted instead to keeping the field connected, providing resources, and educating parents, policymakers and employers about their role in supporting early childhood providers. One of NAEYC’s gifts to the field during this time was converting over 100 hours of training from in-person to virtual so we help educators continue to learn and earn credentials. We awarded over 275,000 certificates to educators during that time.

Another aspect of the field that became apparent and continues to be critical is that individuals cannot work without childcare. Childcare is critical to the economy and to inclusion and equity. Early childhood education is a support for both child development and the workforce, and the lack of available, affordable and high-quality early childhood education jeopardizes children’s development and parents’ — women in particular — ability to return to the workforce. This issue affects all of us — parents and non-parents, employers, educators and businesses, as well as our nation’s economy — and we can all be part of the solution.

Alison: What is the biggest challenge facing early childhood care and education professionals?

Michelle: We have created nearly impossible circumstances for individuals who want to pursue a career in early childhood education because of the field’s chronically low compensation structures. Unlike other professions, early educators too often are required to choose between their family’s financial stability and the career they love.

As CEO of NAEYC, one of my priorities will be deeply engaging with educators and amplifying their stories, strengths and challenges. Recently, an educator shared with me that she had to leave a long-time job at a center-based preschool because she could not afford to support her family. She went to work for the public schools but wants to return to early childhood as soon as she can. Her story is sad but not unique. One in three early childhood educators lives with food insecurity. Even before the pandemic, nearly half of early childhood educators made so little that their families relied on public benefits to make ends meet.

Research in all fields points to the same conclusion: Early learning matters and is a good return on investment. We need to recognize the life-changing work that early childhood educators do by implementing structures to support them.

Alison: What are you most hopeful about in the years ahead? Have you seen any positive momentum in the way communities are approaching the current childcare crisis?

Michelle: The movement of early childhood educators and families working together to transform our sector makes me hopeful. Emerging partnerships have driven greater public recognition of the challenges and solutions to ensure all families have access to affordable, high-quality childcare. Moreover, there is growing consensus that these affordable and high-quality options need to be provided by early childhood educators who are supported and compensated as skilled professionals. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding has enabled states and programs to make long-overdue investments to support families and educators.

I am encouraged by providers who share with me how they are able to increase pay for their educators and invest in training, mental health support and family engagement. Some providers have been offering these types of supports for years, and we need to find ways to expand access. I also see employers get more engaged as they recognize the impact that access to high-quality care has on their employees and their ability to fully participate or advance in their careers.

I am excited about the ways that the public and private sectors are innovating in providing support for educators and children. While there is growing recognition that innovations in early childhood education will continue to elevate and grow the field, we also need substantial, long-term federal and state investment to drive both the supply and quality of childcare.

Alison: You recently took a new role as CEO of NAEYC. Tell me more about NAEYC’s role in supporting early childhood care and education professionals.

Michelle: NAEYC is the largest professional membership organization for early childhood educators. We engage and support the field with our content, including key position statements such as Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Advancing Equity and the Professional Standards and Competencies; our accreditation of early childhood and higher education programs; our advocacy to support investments in educators’ education and compensation; and — perhaps most importantly — our national community of diverse educators and professionals.

I see NAEYC playing a critical role in providing a community where educators can be supported, find peers, advance equity, gain professional development, and connect with others in early education.

We are also uniquely positioned at the intersection of higher education and early childhood education. Committed to increasing access to quality professional preparation and development, NAEYC has deep relationships with higher education institutions rooted in our accreditation work; currently, there are over 220 accredited programs in 39 states, including programs at the associate, baccalaureate and master’s degree levels that prepare candidates to work in the early childhood profession. And this work is in service of a vision of a high-quality, equitable and effective early childhood education profession serving children from birth through age 8 across states and settings. To advance this work, 17 national organizations recently came together to form the Commission on Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education.

Alison: What has been most effective about the NAEYC state affiliate partnerships?

Michelle: With more than 50 affiliates throughout the country, NAEYC has been able to work with an incredible network of leaders, educators and advocates to provide professional development virtually and in-person; widen our reach of engaged advocates; shape a non-partisan national, state and local agenda for young children; and equip a diverse, growing and engaged membership with processes for carrying out its work. NAEYC affiliates are tremendous leaders in their communities in their own right and also as partners with NAEYC and other national and state organizations.

As with our Colorado AEYC, which works closely with other state partners to lift up the voices of educators, center equity, and advance key state goals, I’m excited about partnering further with affiliates to grow our community; continue to support a diverse, equitable profession; implement the Unifying Framework; and progress towards a stronger, better supported early childhood education system.

Alison: What is your vision for NAEYC and the organization’s role in the evolving early childhood policy landscape?

Michelle: I am excited and eager to build on NAEYC’s leadership in illuminating and elevating the diversity of voices and experiences of educators in policymaking. These voices will continue to inform the investments needed from policymakers, which were as critical before the pandemic and in the years ahead. For example, we have launched the Power to the Profession initiative and our field surveys, which are our national collaboration defining the early childhood profession and pandemic insights on the challenges childcare programs faced, respectively.

We have seen and heard how the federal and state investments that were made in response to the pandemic are paying off, but so much more is needed.

Alison: How do these initiatives fit a variety of childcare settings and models?

Michelle: High-quality early childhood education can and does happen in all settings: centers, schools and homes. Mixed-delivery models are necessary to sustain the field and support families in choosing what works best for them. We look forward to working with states such as Colorado as they consider and support educators working in each of these settings. We continue to advocate for mixed-delivery preschool programs and programs working with infants and toddlers, and we continue to design our content, publications, member community and events for educators working in all different settings and with all different age groups. NAEYC supports the choices of families and educators in knowing what works best for their families. I want all educators, regardless of where they work and what ages they work with, to know that NAEYC is a place where they belong and are seen, supported and included.

Alison: What is the greatest strength of our early childhood care and education professionals?

Michelle: Early childhood professionals have a deep commitment and dedication to young children and their families. The greatest strength of the profession is the love of children and knowledge of what it takes to support their development. Whenever I visit programs, I am inspired by the passion and commitment of my colleagues, despite the challenges. How these professionals have navigated COVID is honestly both heart-wrenching and inspirational. We need to avoid forcing teachers to choose between their commitment to young children and families and making ends meet. I think anyone can be inspired by watching educators in action — it is pure joy seeing children learn through play!