Voters Support Early Childhood Education

"New research finds strong bipartisan support among American voters for investing in the early childhood profession," proclaimed the headline on a recent press release from NAEYC.  The release shared the results of a national survey of 950 voters, as well as focus groups of early childhood educators, conducted on behalf of NAEYC.  Key findings:

• Six in 10 voters recognize that a child’s earliest years are crucial for learning and development, and nearly 9 in 10 voters believe that early childhood educators are an integral part of our society, valued at levels similar to firefighters and nurses.
• Seventy-two percent of early childhood educators believe that the community doesn’t respect the importance and difficulty of their work.
• Eighty-four percent of early childhood educators identify low pay as a significant challenge.
• Sixty-one percent of voters believe that early childhood educators are paid too little and a majority of voters support raising their wages across all settings.
• Eighty-five percent of voters believe that having well-compensated teachers is a ‘very important’ indicator of quality early education programs.
• Voters’ support of public investments in early childhood education increased from 80 percent to 83 percent when told the investment would specifically focus on increasing the profession’s wages.
• Fifty-one percent of educators of color cited college affordability as a barrier to staying in the profession compared to 37 percent of white educators.
• Eighty-three percent of educators believe it is fair to require current and future early childhood educators to meet a baseline set of qualifications in order to receive a higher salary and benefits.

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