I am an educator. I truly love my job and feel privileged to work at what I love to do, even during this unprecedented time. Reading the newspaper Sept. 5, I felt the need to write concerning the desperate need for child care workers in the day care setting. It refers to how a veteran worker was “poached” by another child care center. It also stated that the wages were “$12 to $13” per hour, a bit less than nearby fast food restaurants.
I believe that children are a nation’s greatest treasure and should be recognized as such. Truly, our government must realize this. To help parents provide for their child’s day care needs, something must be done about the low wages child care workers are offered. This would allow for high-quality child care workers to enter the field. Most parents probably could not pay child care tuition that would allow this.
I would like to propose the idea that local or federal government step up to the plate to provide the funds that would allow for the higher wages need to attract high quality workers in this field. I could see myself working in this field after I set my regular teaching job aside. It would be nice to make more than $12-$13 per hour while doing what I love — caring for children and teaching them Spanish along the way!
— Shannon Lee
Anchorage
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