Educating and caring for Georgia’s youngest children is a $2.45 billion industry and one worthy of public support, state early childhood officials say.
The state's Department of Early Care and Learning will release a study today supporting its case for increased public funding. The study comes after Gov. Nathan Deal announced he wants to spend $50 million to reverse cuts to Georgia's pre-kindergarten program that increased class sizes and cut teacher pay.
In 2011, Deal and state lawmakers cut the pre-k program’s school year by 20 days to save money. The maximum classroom size was raised from 20 to 22 students. A 180-day school calendar has since been restored, but class sizes remain the same.
“This study really highlights for us that there is an immediate economic impact to this,” said Dana Rickman of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education. “You don’t have to wait five years, 10 years, 12 years to see the benefits of these investments.”
In addition to the $2.45 billion taken in by day care centers, preschools and other providers, the DECAL study estimates that the industry directly employs more than 67,000 people.
The two-year, $532,000 study by University of Georgia and Georgia State University was based on a fall 2014 survey and 2013-14 financial data.
On average, lead early childhood teachers earn about $12 an hour, up about $2 from 7 years ago, according to a previous DECAL study. Teachers outside of state pre-k and Head Start programs make even less — about $10 an hour on average.
Increasing early childhood teacher pay — possibly through a series of tax incentives for providers, teachers and parents — could be one way to reduce teacher turnover among early childhood teachers, DECAL Commissioner Amy Jacobs said.
“If you’re making $10.14 an hour or even just minimum wage, you’re going to go look for another job,” she said. “We think they’re teachers, we think they’re important and we want to treat them the same as all other teachers in the state.”
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