WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is increasing salaries for educators in the Head Start preschool program to assist retain current employees and attract modern ones amid a labor shortage.
The government’s modern rules, released Friday, will require vast operators to give their employees the same pay as their counterparts in local school districts by 2031. Large operators will also have to provide health insurance for their employees. Smaller operators – those serving fewer than 200 families – are not bound by the same requirements but will have to show they are making progress toward increasing pay.
“We cannot expect to find and hire good teachers who can practice this profession if, despite their love for the children, they do not receive a fair wage,” Health Minister Xavier Becerra said in an interview.
Many operators have been forced to reduce the number of children and families they serve because they could not find enough staff. At one point, the government-funded program enrolled more than a million children and families. Now there are only about 650,000 spots. A quarter of Head Start teachers left in 2022, some lured away by higher wages in retail and food service. Some operators have closed centers.
Head Start teachers, most of whom have bachelor’s degrees, earn an average of less than $40,000 a year. Their colleagues who work in support roles — as teaching assistants or classroom assistants — earn even less.
Founded in the 1960s as part of the “War on Poverty,” Head Start serves the nation’s neediest families, providing preschool education for children and support for their parents and caregivers. Many of the children served by Head Start come from low-income families, are in foster care, or are homeless. Head Start also tries to provide parents and community members with well-paying jobs.
“This rule will not only provide a fairer wage for thousands of Head Start teachers and staff, it will also improve the quality of Head Start for hundreds of thousands of American children,” said Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser.
Republican U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, who chairs the Education and Labor Committee, said the administration is overfunding the program.
“This attempt smacks of an attempt to unite Head Start educators into a unionized political bloc. Political paternalism should never take precedence over the lives of children,” she said.
The program generally enjoyed bipartisan support, and this year Congress increased funding to provide cost-of-living adjustments for Head Start employees.
While the requirements are costly, they do not generate any additional funding. This has led to fears that operators would have to cut slots to make ends meet. This is one of the reasons why the government amended the original proposal and exempted smaller operators from many of the requirements.
The National Head Start Association, which advocates for the programs and their operators, welcomed the modern rule but expressed concerns about how Head Start will implement the rules without additional federal funding.
The association said in a statement that it “remains concerned that if Congress and future administrations do not approve such increases, the impact of the final rule could be devastating, as it would significantly reduce the number of children and families served by Head Start programs.”
But the administration argues that it cannot allow an anti-poverty initiative to pay salaries that put staff in financial distress. Like a majority of early childhood workers, many Head Start employees are women of color.
“For 60 years, the Head Start model has been essentially subsidized primarily by women of color,” said Katie Hamm, deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Early Childhood Development. “We cannot ask them to continue to do that.”
The program is administered locally by nonprofit organizations, social service agencies and school districts, which have some autonomy in setting salary levels.
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