June 20, 2023
Dear Superintendent Grant,
We, the Under 3 DC Coalition, are writing to express our concern about the design of base payments in the Pay Equity Fund Child Development Facility Funding Formula, which fails to reach pay parity for early childhood educators with DCPS teachers. We urge OSSE to expeditiously correct the formula to include pay for educator experience before the launch of the program’s second phase in October 2023 and to publish an estimate of the cost to do so this calendar year.
For too long, a shameful legacy of racist and sexist devaluation and under-compensation of the majority Black and brown woman early childhood educator workforce has persisted, harming their ability to thrive and afford housing, health care, and other essentials. It also hurts children and families in the District, limiting their ability to access high-quality early education and care due to the workforce shortage. The Birth-to-Three law moved to end this status quo by mandating publicly-funded pay parity for early educators with DCPS teachers with the same role, credentials, and experience. The Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Force reinforced this goal with a proposed funding formula that includes experience.
OSSE’s funding formula fails to honor that mandate, and is positioned to continue to underpay early childhood educators by an average of $3,900-$6,700 compared to their peers. Your explanation of this omission, at the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Roundtable on June 13, 2023, as a cost-saving measure and as beyond the minimum required by the law, reinforces the perception that their experience is less valuable than their DCPS peers.
At the Roundtable, you acknowledged the need to revisit OSSE’s omission of experience in the funding formula for child development facilities. We ask that OSSE work to incorporate pay for educator experience into the funding formula before the launch of the program’s second phase in October so educators receive full payment for the value they bring to the field, children’s lives, and the District’s economy. We also ask that OSSE complete and publish an assessment of the cost to incorporate experience into the funding formula before January 2024 so that the Mayor and the DC Council can prepare to include these funds in the FY 2025 budget.
In your testimony, you celebrated the Pay Equity Fund as “the first in the nation to create pay parity between early educators in licensed child care facilities and public school teachers.” We hope to join you in celebration when OSSE meets that goal by incorporating experience into the formula. Failing to do so disincentives longevity in the field, robbing children of access to educators with valuable years of experience that make them better educators and caregivers. In the meantime, we offer ourselves – a community of early childhood educators, child development facility administrators, child care associations, advocates, and more – as thought partners in correcting this gap in the Pay Equity Fund.
Sincerely,
Advocates for Justice and Education
Bread for the City
Bright Beginnings
CentroNía
Community Educational Research Group
Children’s Law Center
Children’s National Hospital
Common Future
Community of Hope
DC Action
DC American Academy of Pediatrics
DC Appleseed
DC Association for the Education of Young Children
DC Early Learning Collaborative
DC Family Child Care Association
DC Fiscal Policy Institute
DC for Democracy
DC Head Start Association
DC Hunger Solutions
DC Jobs With Justice
DC Directors Exchange
Early Childhood Innovation Network
Easterseals DC MD VA
Educare DC
EmpowerED
Fair Budget Coalition
Greater DC Diaper Bank
Early Childhood Innovation Network
Jews United for Justice
Jubilee Housing
Kiddie University
Lia’s Rainbow
Low Income Investment Fund
Martha’s Table
Mary’s Center
St. Mary’s Center
MD/DC Hands & Voices
MLOV (Many Languages One Voice)
MomsRising/MamásConPoder
Mothers Outreach Network
Multicultural Spanish Speaking Providers Association , MSSPA
National Children’s Center
National Women’s Law Center
NOVA Birth Partners
Nurse-Family Partnership National Service Office
Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE)
Point of Care Childcare
Ramsey Decision Theoretics & Civic Participation
SPACEs in Action
United Planning Organization
Washington Area Women’s Foundation
Petit Scholars
Petit Scholars Rhode Island
Safe Shores
Educare DC
