Fort Worth, state leaders talk gaps in pre-K system, wages for early learning teachers

Local and state leaders are convening in Fort Worth this week to discuss two pressing issues within early childhood education: diversification of how pre-K is offered to families and improvement of the working conditions and credentials of early educators.

Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, Commissioner of Education Mike Morath and Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Bryan Daniel participated in a panel discussion on Thursday where they addressed the obstacles school districts and private early childhood programs are facing when utilizing partnerships that could make both operations thrive in unison. Additionally, they discussed ways to improve wages and credentials of early educators responsible for teaching 3- and 4-year-olds.

The discussion was the keynote conversation of the Momentum Early Learning Summit, where about 120 attendees — who have a hand in operating or regulating the early childhood education system — gathered to collaborate on solutions regarding these two topics. Kara Waddell, president and CEO of Child Care Associates, moderated the conversation, and first asked how each agency and leader played a role in growing the early learning system.

“From a K-12 perspective, one of the ways that we think about this is (that) the outcomes of the 0-5 system are the beginning of ours,” Morath, of the Texas Education Agency, said. “We think about pre-K that is overseen by school districts as a key piece of this puzzle, and improving quality and access is pretty critical.”

Texas schools can provide pre-K themselves in-house or can also partner with existing community-based programs that would provide early learning on behalf of the school district, Morath said. The logistics behind this partnership are complicated because of contract negotiations and bridging the different finance models of the community program and the school district; Only a handful of districts in the state have successfully implemented it.

The Austin Independent School District is among those to utilize this partnership model that has expanded families’ access to pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds alongside the United Way for Greater Austin. Students go to child development centers with high-quality state ratings that are overseen by the school district and are considered to be co-enrolled at both entities. Only 1-2% of pre-K slots statewide are provided through these partnerships, according to Waddell of Child Care Associates.

“Ultimately, it’s a vision of the leadership team of the school district (of) how to prioritize this and how to then pull it off,” Morath told the Star-Telegram.

Today's top stories:

→ Rashee Rice, other driver face 8 criminal charges in Dallas car crash

→ Abandoned grain silos in Fort Worth catch fire

→ New taco restaurant brings original menu by standout chef

🚨Get free alerts when news breaks.

In terms of improving wages for early educators, Waddell noted how they earn an average of $12 per hour with an early education bachelor’s degree being among the lowest-paying degrees in the United States. In comparison, a cashier at Buc-ee’s earns about $18.

Daniel, of the Workforce Commission, said Buc-ees’s ability to pay competitive wages is not sustainable for every industry, especially for child care.

“I don’t think the group talking about this is big enough. We need to expand our group. We need to expand the conversation. We need to expand how we really think we can solve this problem in the marketplace,” he said.

Through a local lens, Mayor Parker mentioned the city’s and county’s contribution to a local pilot program, which uses federal funding to boost local early educator wages to $18 an hour and offsets operational costs of community providers. The program tests a new funding structure that could be used as an example of how to improve quality of child care without increasing costs to parents.

In general, it’s going to take the public and the private sector working together to find solutions, Parker said.

“It’s sometimes not just the responsibility of government, and you have to bring the private sector to the table,” Parker said.

The event was hosted by Child Care Associates, one of the largest child development programs in North Texas; Early Matters, a statewide collaborative of various organizations focused on economic mobility of families through early childhood investments; and Philanthropy Advocates, a statewide funders collaborative focused on public and higher education policy issues. The invitation-only event ends Friday and is taking place at the Worthington Renaissance Hotel in downtown Fort Worth.