What Calhoun County agencies are doing to address the early child care worker shortage

Andrea Mesarosh of Hillsdale first went to Battle Creek to study at Kellogg Community College to become an obstetric nurse.

Then COVID-19 hit, "and changed everything," she said.

The pandemic resulted in Mesarosh shifting to a career in early child care education. She recently began working at Bright Light Early Care and Education in Battle Creek, where she's part of a staff of 22 watching over some 78 kids, primarily infants to age 4.

Mesarosh is close to earning her Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, which guides early child care professionals as they work toward becoming qualified teachers of young children, opening doors for further advancement in the field. Certification requires a professional portfolio, training hours, experience hours with children, observation by a trained professional and a test.

“The CDA is one of the first steps," Mesarosh said. "I don’t know how far I want to go. I want to go further than a CDA. Wherever the road takes me... I’m trying my hardest to make it a career and the kids make it a lot more fun and a lot easier."

Pandemic-fueled worker shortages have impacted virtually all industries. But early child care was already facing a labor shortage before the COVID-19 outbreak, and that's been exacerbated due to an exodus of workers leaving the field amid the pandemic. In Michigan, there are about 9,000 child care vacancies, leading to serving fewer kids, reduced hours and longer wait lists for families.

The Early Childhood Collective of Calhoun County is working to address the worker shortage, focusing on increasing the size, quality and diversity of the applicant pool needed to fill early childhood education positions in the Battle Creek area on a sustaining basis.

The collective consists of Community Action, Kellogg Community College, Calhoun Intermediate School District, Battle Creek Public Schools, BC Pulse, Battle Creek Community Foundation, Battle Creek Shared Services Alliance, Southwest Child Resources and Michigan Works! Southwest.

Community Action recently received two grants from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation totaling nearly $2 million to support early childhood educators through an employment training career pathways program and wage supplements.

"It’s about recruitment and retaining the early childhood workforce," said Lisa Ferrell, early childhood career pathway navigator for Community Action. "It’s also about having a more diverse workforce, looking at the community and having a group that matches the kids that they are serving as well. That’s the main purpose of it. Getting people the credentials they need so they are providing quality care for the kids."

Diversifying the field

Recruiting people who are new to the field has been a primary focus of the program, with an emphasis on further diversifying the local talent pool in early childhood education.

"That’s been in my mind one of the biggest successes of the program," said Alana White, program officer at W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "We talk about diversity of cultural, racial, ethnicity and gender, and how we ensure the workforce looks like the community they are working in... The foundation sees it as a worthwhile investment to address issues facing not only Battle Creek, but facing the nation."

Ferrell noted program participants are working with startups such as Catching The Dream Learning Center, which opened in 2021 to better serve Battle Creek's Burmese population from infants to age 5; Voces, a nonprofit serving the Latino/Hispanic community of greater Battle Creek that is working to launch its early child care center; and Sugar and Spice Child Care Center, which is constructing a new 10,000-square-foot facility at New Level Sports Ministries "Youth Village," serving a predominately Black community in the Washington Heights neighborhood.

Sugar and Spice Child Care Center has been owned and operated by former Battle Creek mayor Maude Bristol-Perry for more than 30 years. New Level Sports is partnering with Perry as well as the Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative and Youth Village of Michigan to build the new facility, which will also include the "Fred Robinson all boys early childhood classroom" with all male instructors and coaches.

Of the 110 currently enrolled in the pathways program, only six are men. One of them, Dylan Rank, recently began working at Bright Light Early Care and Education and is seeking his CDA.

"It’s definitely not easy work," he said. "I want to go to school to be a teacher and I figure this is a good transition to work with kids, learn the basics of childhood development and move on from there. As long as you are willing to have patience, repeat yourself and get a little messy sometimes, I think it’s a great career path. It’s a lot of fun and there’s a lot to learn. It helps not only with kids, but with relationships overall.”

Economic impact

Since the pandemic began, the need for early child care has complicated the return to work for many. When child care costs are high, budgets are strained and parents may be forced to sacrifice a day at work to care for children or stay at home on a full-time basis.

Affordable child care can strengthen the economy with a larger labor force and stronger tax base. White noted the economic benefits of a more robust early child care ecosystem and the impact it has on employee satisfaction and productivity.

"We always talk about wanting children to be successful, but there needs to be opportunities for the parent to get to work," White said. "We’ve got employers looking at on-site childcare opportunities... Larger employers who are trying to figure out, what does it look like, do we need something on-site that will help with families? All that contributes to employee satisfaction and an ability for employees to be present at work."

The state of Michigan intends to steer $100 million to support a goal of opening 1,000 new child care programs by 2024 under the Caring for MI Future initiative. Of that, $51.1 million will go to grants for child care operators to renovate and upgrade facilities to meet licensing and quality standards. The state plans to begin making the grants available this fall, part of a bipartisan $1.4 billion investment to expand access to quality, affordable child care and get Michigan families back to work.

Low wages are a barrier for many to enter the early childhood education field. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, there are an estimated 438,520 child care workers in the U.S., earning an average of $27,680 annually, with many barely making more than minimum wage.

A survey conducted by the Michigan League for Public Policy between June 17 and July 5 of last year found that 87% of child care centers said they were facing staffing shortages. Eight out of 10 center operators said wages were the main "recruitment challenge."

Child care costs on average $9,000 a year per child. In many cases, the majority of earnings in licensed centers goes to pay rent, insurance and utilities, not employees' salaries.

Along with its $1.5 million grant to Community Action for the pathways program, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded $450,000 to the nonprofit with an additional $150,00 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to address staffing shortages and stabilize the workforce through housing and telehealth incentives and wage supplements that increase earning potential.

Lindsey Potter, owner and program director for Bright Light Early Care and Education, hosted Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist for the announcement of the Caring for MI Future Initiative in May. Potter previously worked as a facilitator for the pathways program, and touted it for creating a better culture for staff.

“It changes their investment from, ‘I work in child care’ to ‘I am a child care teacher," Potter said. "Even though I see them as teachers, the credential allows them to see themselves as teachers and allows families and community partners to see them as teachers, and it starts to change our professionalism dialogue around, what is a teacher in an early childcare setting.”

Contact reporter Nick Buckley at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Calhoun County child care workers difficult to find