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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Gregory Bender, Representative from Day Care Council of New York
5:38:30
·
143 sec
Gregory Bender from the Day Care Council of New York testified about the ongoing staffing crisis in early childhood education programs, highlighting the salary disparities between community-based programs and public schools. He warned that the situation could worsen due to New York City Public Schools' need to hire additional teachers to comply with class size reduction mandates.
- Thanked council members for baseline funding of key early childhood education programs
- Emphasized the underpayment of the early childhood education workforce as a form of discrimination against a predominantly female and minority workforce
- Urged the city to take action to eliminate salary and benefit disparities, including expediting collectively bargained salary increases and identifying new resources to increase pay for early care and education staff
Gregory Bender
5:38:30
Thank you.
5:38:32
Good afternoon, I'm Gregory Bender from the Day Care Council of New York.
5:38:35
We're the membership organization of New York City's childcare provider organizations.
5:38:39
We want to start with thanking you Councilmember Joseph and Councilmember Brannan and your colleagues for your leadership in getting so many key funding streams for early childhood education baseline including three k, preschool special education, and the school day plus pilot as well as restorations for outreach and for Promise NYC.
5:39:00
The main issue we wanted to really highlight though is the continued staffing crisis in early childhood education programs.
5:39:07
DCCNY is proud to have worked with our partners in organized labor to settle collective bargaining agreements that will increase salaries for the EC workforce in many city contracted community based programs.
5:39:17
But the biggest threat to the viability of early childhood programs remains the underpayment of the workforce.
5:39:23
In every type of early childhood education whether you're home based, center based, you're receiving pays that are significantly less than counterparts in public schools and this is a form of discrimination against the workforce that is mostly women and women of color.
5:39:39
It also means that the people who have the skills, the knowledge and education to be great early childhood educators cannot and often do not stay in their roles because they cannot sustain their lives with lower salaries.
5:39:50
This situation is gonna be exacerbated and present an increased challenge in the upcoming school year because New York City Public Schools needs to hire 3,700 additional teachers in order to comply with the state's class size reduction mandate.
5:40:04
It's very likely that intentionally or not, NYCPS will be recruiting from teachers, staff, and directors away from the child care centers working under contracts with NYCPS.
5:40:14
Child care centers are understandably strictly regulated.
5:40:19
Health department requires that they maintain ratios of adults to children and ensure that quote staff meets the qualification requirements.
5:40:26
Centers are not going to be able to operate if they're understaffed and may be forced to reduce capacity or even close.
5:40:32
We urge the city to take further action to eliminate these salary and benefit disparities that are driving talented teachers and directors and staff away Including expediting the payment of collectively bargain salary increases to childcare center staff and identifying new resources to increase pay for the early care and education workforce.
5:40:51
Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify.