Senate Bill Forgives Loans for Early Childhood Educators
By Paul Ziobro
WASHINGTON – NEON Head Start teacher Wendy Hilliard, 35, juggles raising three children, working full-time and earning an associate’s degree in early childhood education at Norwalk Community College, where, she said, her tuition is subsidized through federal financial aid.
Hilliard, a Norwalk resident, said she would not hesitate to take advantage of a program that would expand the funds available to forgive a percentage of federal loans to early childhood educators nationwide from $1 million to $25 million through a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate last week.
“If I could do that, then I’d definitely jump on the opportunity,” Hilliard said in a phone interview Thursday.
Introduced by Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), the Paul Wellstone Early Educator Loan Forgiveness Act, named after the late Minnesota senator, would aim to keep early childhood educators and childcare providers in the field longer. The bill applies to educators pursuing associate’s degrees in early childhood education and pre-school teachers working toward or having already received bachelor’s degrees.
“These are not typically high-paying professions, but their value is immeasurable,” Dodd said. “By offering incentives to enter into these careers, we can not only attract more qualified people to the profession but also provide better early learning experiences to millions of children.”
Congress has found that early childcare providers earn on average $7.86 an hour or $16,350 a year, according to the bill. Low income causes a turnover of up to 31 percent a year in some childcare programs, which affects the quality of the program and causes anxiety in children, the bill said.
Elaine Liberto, director of the four Norwalk Head Start programs, said Wednesday that teachers in her program earn more than the national average because the cost of living is higher in Norwalk. Assistant teachers who have completed a nine-credit program earn $9.50 an hour while teachers with a two-year associate’s degree earn $14.70.
The bill, which precedes the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act scheduled for later this congressional session, also hopes to keep educators pursuing higher degrees in early childcare education rather than moving to more lucrative positions, according to Adele Robinson, senior director of public policy and communications at the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The NAEYC worked closely on the bill with DeWine, Dodd and, before his death last fall, Wellstone.
“It’s a move in the right direction that says we need early childhood educators and that we want to help them at the federal level to keep them in this field,” Robinson said.
Under the bill, 20 percent of loans would be forgiven after the second year in early childhood education and up to 30 percent for the fourth and fifth years., Loan forgiveness would be on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Liberto said any program that helped her staff obtain degrees would help the program reach its goal of at least half of Head Start teachers nationwide having associate’s degrees in early childhood education by 2004.
“We need to have people with associate’s degrees, and if they have to pay for it on their own, then we’d like to give them the incentive that they would be reimbursed,” Liberto said.
Congressional findings show that high-quality early childhood education correlates with better language development, math abilities and social skills. Workers with higher degrees improve the quality of childcare, which “helps children grow and thrive,” according to the bill.
Amendments to the Higher Education Act in 1998 began a $1 million loan forgiveness program for early childcare providers that went into effect in 2001 and 2002, according to a Congressional Research Service report – extending a program previously reserved for K-12 teachers.
This is the second legislation Dodd has introduced that would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965. A bill introduced last month would increase the maximum amount students could receive from the federal Pell Grant program.
Published in The Hour, in Connecticut.
