{"id":64832,"date":"2023-03-07T12:40:11","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T17:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/?p=64832"},"modified":"2023-03-09T13:15:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T18:15:19","slug":"caring-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themainemag.com\/caring-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Caring in Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Emily and Nate Peterson have a problem. The couple, who moved to Bucksport and had their first baby just before the pandemic hit, discussed childcare when preparing to start a family, but they had no idea how obsessive they would become about the topic. \u201cWe\u2019d heard so many horror stories, even before the pandemic,\u201d says Emily. \u201cOur friends in southern Maine would tell us about having to get on wait lists as soon as you decide that you want to have kids. It was the first question everybody asked when I got pregnant, and it was something we really worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chances are, if you\u2019re one of millions of Americans living with young children, or you\u2019re in the process of adding children to your household, the Petersons\u2019 problem is also your problem: reliable, affordable childcare is something many families across Maine and the nation can only dream of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A version of the wait-list story unfolded for the Petersons as they began searching for infant care in Bucksport. As soon as they decided to move, Emily began scouring the internet, and talking to whomever she could about options. She said that in a way they were lucky the pandemic hit when it did. Emily found zero infant care in the Bucksport area, but with the announcement of the statewide shutdown, they were able to take that worry off their plate for a while. Eventually, Emily\u2019s parents decided to move to the area part-time to help with taking care of their new grandson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This kind of patchwork childcare is all too familiar for families in Maine. A few hours of time with the grandparents here, a trade-off between Mom and Dad there, maybe a meal together at the end of the day between loads of laundry and diaper changes. The Petersons\u2019 son started at Bucksport Area Child Care Center when he turned 18 months old, and the center offers the safe, nurturing environment that Emily was so anxious about finding. Their daughter will start in the spring, but the anxiety remains. \u201cI worry every week about staff turnover, and what we would do if something happened,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s happened a number of times in our community. Childcare centers just close all of a sudden, and it\u2019s such a gnawing anxiety, that if something happens there, we\u2019re all totally screwed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emily says the childcare issue has been a big factor in her and Nate\u2019s decision not to have any more children. \u201cThe logistics of living in rural Maine make it too hard\u2014how to have another kid and keep everybody moving and happy and in the right places at the right time\u2014we couldn\u2019t do it even if we wanted to,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the corner of Cumberland Avenue and Preble Street in downtown Portland sits a gabled building with a cherry-red front door. The former church is small compared to the eight-story giants it neighbors, but it offers a robust potential solution to the problem that the Petersons, and thousands of other Maine parents, face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA board member recently described us as \u2018scrappy,\u2019\u201d says Camelia Babson-Haley, \u201cand it\u2019s true. We\u2019re scrappy.\u201d Babson-Haley is the director of Youth and Family Outreach (YFO), an early childhood education center that serves 60 families in the greater Portland area. The center places an emphasis on supporting homeless, teen, and immigrant parents, with more than 60 percent of the families it serves at or below the poverty level. Babson-Haley goes on to explain how \u201cscrappy\u201d accurately explains the characteristics needed in order to survive in the world of childcare these days. \u201cWe\u2019re drowning. We\u2019re broken. We\u2019re crumbling. That\u2019s what it feels like when you\u2019re on this side of it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cit\u201d Babson-Haley refers to is the national crisis facing childcare centers. After her 33 years in a field she describes as never not struggling, she says childcare providers are now more desperate than ever: desperate for better funding and more teachers, but also desperate to offer relief to burned-out parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020 Babson-Haley was awarded the Maine Children\u2019s Alliance\u2019s \u201cGiraffe Award\u201d for her many years of advocacy in the field. The award also recognized her leadership at YFO through the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the pandemic continues to wear on, childcare\u2019s already chronic difficulties have evolved into a critical workforce shortage. \u201cChildcare is just going away. It\u2019s diminishing, and if we don\u2019t do something soon it\u2019s going to completely disappear,\u201d she says. Perhaps \u201ccompletely disappear\u201d is hyperbole, but if certain changes aren\u2019t made, childcare will come to look drastically different, losing the diverse, vibrant educational and nurturing experience that many centers currently offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

YFO is a good example of the kind of childcare organization that\u2019s running short in Maine. It ranks a level four on Maine\u2019s Quality Rating and Improvement System\u2014the highest possible rating for a Maine-based childcare center. Highly ranked childcare centers employ trained educators to teach vibrant curricula that are designed to meet the needs of each child as they progress through developmental stages. Staff members are experts in social-emotional development, trauma-informed practices, and assessment. According to Zero to Three, a Washington, D.C.\u2013based nonprofit working to translate the science of early childhood development into programs, resources, and policies, a whopping 90 percent of brain development happens between birth and age five. Without dedicated teachers and carefully designed curriculum, early childhood education will be lacking in the diversity, equity, and quality that are crucial for a rich learning experience during a child\u2019s most formative years. Without places like YFO providing high-quality learning, a caring environment, and important foundational experiences, children can face significant learning delays that can have lifelong effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts to bring new childcare providers into the field are underway in the state. The University of Maine at Farmington, for example, offers a robust early childhood education program in which students get hands-on experience at the college\u2019s on-site center for teaching and learning. The center will see a major upgrade in the next two years as it expands to make room for more students and more children. Governor Janet Mills has proven to be a champion of early childhood education, committing more than $100 million of the state\u2019s budget since March of 2020. A portion of that funding has made the UMF program expansion possible, but it still can\u2019t necessarily change bigger-picture problems, like salary discrepancies, that make teaching the youngest children a hard sell, even for motivated caregivers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching in general is a lower-paying field, but teachers in charge of children from birth to four years old are paid the lowest of the low, on average making 59 cents less than people who take care of animals and 73 cents more than fast-food workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even among those who work with young children, there are disparities. According to a 2019 episode of Maine Public Radio\u2019s Deep Dive<\/em> that explored childcare issues in the state, a certified teacher who works with kids between birth and three years old makes $12,000 less annually on average than a teacher who works in a public-school pre-K or kindergarten class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brianna Maxim, an early childhood education student at UMF, is earning a certificate that qualifies her to teach children from birth to five years old. She\u2019s one of the people who could help meet the need for childcare providers working with kids aged zero to three at centers such as YFO, but she also has the option to become a teacher at a state-funded preschool or kindergarten. \u201cI want to be that teacher that the kids remember years later,\u201d she says. \u201cI think about the structure, and the goals, and curriculum planning. Public school programs seem a little more structured. But I do like helping kids develop and become their own person, which is what childcare education is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cChildcare workers were forgotten as essential workers at the beginning of the pandemic. They weren\u2019t recognized alongside the doctors, the nurses, even the restaurant workers who were identified as essential,\u201d says Babson-Haley. \u201cWhen they were finally recognized, it was as a need for parents and the companies those parents worked for, not as professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That recognition, however, did result in federally funded hazard pay raises to YFO\u2019s teachers. Those funds have expired, but Babson-Haley says she couldn\u2019t let her employees go back to what they were earning prepandemic\u2014wages that, after the recent historic inflation rates, would create an untenable situation for most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

YFO is currently operating at a significant revenue loss due to salary increases to maintain the hazard pay rates. Those salaries make up 90 percent of YFO\u2019s operating budget. The 18 staff members, most of whom have at least a two-year degree if not a bachelor\u2019s or master\u2019s, have received 40 percent pay increases over the past two years, but Babson-Haley says her organization still can\u2019t compete with companies like Starbucks or Target, which have ramped up wages to $24 or more per hour in an attempt to attract employees. \u201cWe cannot pay that, not even to our highest-paid staff,\u201d says Babson-Haley. \u201cSo, teachers are leaving us, and why not? Those jobs are easier.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Babson-Haley\u2019s ideal world, everybody would care about her workforce. Target should be paying their employees $24 per hour, she says, but they should also be offering childcare vouchers to working parents. \u201cThey\u2019re wondering why they can\u2019t find employees, or why they don\u2019t have as many employees who are women? It\u2019s because parents can\u2019t find childcare. This is every employer\u2019s issue, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babson-Haley says that public funding for birth-to-age-three classrooms would make a big difference for organizations like hers, and for the families she works with. Tuition was raised 18 percent over the past two years, and families are the ones who foot that bill. If YFO were publicly funded, parents could get a break, and Babson-Haley could offer competitive salaries that would help attract highly qualified teachers. With more teachers, she wouldn\u2019t need to sub in the classrooms, and could spend her time expanding programming, including increasing available slots, a precious commodity in any community. And if there are more available spots for kids, more kids will come, and more parents will be available to work. \u201cIt\u2019s a completely connected web. And childcare is at the center for working families,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Babson-Haley is quick to recognize that she is not the first advocate for this cause, noting that thousands have been running against walls trying to get public support for early childhood education almost since its inception in the mid-nineteenth century. There have been wins, but not enough wins. During World War II, the first federally funded childcare centers opened to support mothers heading into the workforce, but they closed with the end of the war. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen this happen throughout history,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen times are tough there\u2019s all this focus because it\u2019s needed, but when things start to get better people forget about us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is going to be lasting change, there needs to be a fresh approach; otherwise, the same brick walls will keep popping up. To push the needle locally, Babson-Haley and her team have dreamed up an improved, expanded program at YFO, one that will help connect the dots for parents and community members, including things like additional classroom space, community education rooms, and affordable housing units for area residents. A successful capital campaign that concluded last March and a partnership with the Portland Housing Authority have brought the $18.35 million project within a few months of breaking ground. The expanded center will not only double YFO\u2019s current capacity for childcare spots\u2014addressing their waiting list of over 100 families\u2014but also provide 60 apartments for income-qualifying families. Babson-Haley believes that the new model\u2019s wrap-around services offer a potential answer for supporting families in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in Maine, the \u201coldest\u201d state in the country (with a median age of 44.7 years), where deaths still outnumber births, improved and expanded programs such as the one YFO is working toward would not only lessen the burden for families like the Petersons but make it possible for more young families to choose to grow, or to relocate to Maine. Ironically, according to the Bangor Daily News<\/em>, Maine was also the only state in the country to get younger between 2020 and 2021, seeing more in-migration during the pandemic than almost all other states. Investing in childcare is a no-brainer in Babson-Haley\u2019s opinion, but it should be a no-brainer for every Maine citizen who wants to see the state become a vibrant, supportive place to live, work, and grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can Maine begin to let its grandparents be grandparents instead of childcare workers? How can it allow parents to have careers they are passionate about? And how can it pull early childhood education teachers up the ladder in terms of both pay scale and respect? With organizations like YFO and UMF leading the charge, it seems possible that the next generation of working Mainers, both parents and teachers, might be able to find the holistic support they so desperately need.<\/p>\n\n\n\t\t

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