American Federation of Teachers Convenes Early Childhood Education Summit
Early Childhood Educators Combat Low Wages with the
"Tired of Working for Peanuts" Campaign

Washington, D.C. – Attendees of this week's AFT Early Childhood Education Teacher Summit delivered a petition and bag of peanuts to all 535 members of Congress on behalf of thousands of activists across the nation, to send a clear message to elected leaders that early childhood educators are woefully underpaid – in short, that they work for peanuts.

"Members of Congress need to know that early childhood educators shouldn’t have to work for peanuts," said Monica Tabares, a Head Start teacher from New Jersey attending the summit.  She and her colleagues recently affiliated with the AFT. "Low wages don’t just hurt early childhood educators like me.  They hurt parents, children and anyone looking for high-quality early childhood care because very few people can afford to live on our wages." 

Partly as a result of efforts by the AFT and other early childhood education advocates, Sens. Christopher Dodd  (D-Conn.) and Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) last week introduced the Focus on Committed and Underpaid Staff for Children’s Sake (FOCUS) Act to help raise wages.  If enacted, the bill would create a grant program to help early childhood educators to obtain scholarships, pay increases, and health benefits.

"Low wages, which contribute to high staff turnover rates and deter new people from entering the field, are a roadblock preventing a high-quality early childhood education system from being created in our nation," said Antonia Cortese, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).  "One of the best ways to build and maintain a high-quality program is by attracting and retaining high-quality early childhood educators.  This bill does just that."

To further support these educators, the AFT convened a summit of working activists from around the country to discuss their most pressing concerns and find new ways of addressing them.  Attendees discussed potential action plans for activism and advocacy.

"For too long, there has been a mismatch between the low wages and the high level of responsibility and importance of the work that early childhood educators undertake,” said Marci Young, deputy director in the executive vice president’s office.  “By working together, early childhood educators can better help the children they care for by creating new solutions to old problems, such as low wages, poor or nonexistent benefits, and bad working conditions."

For more information on the "Tired of Working for Peanuts" campaign and other ways you can get involved including posting stories on the message board or accessing free reports, go to www.firstclassteachers.org.  To learn more about other AFT early childhood education initiatives, go to www.aft.org.

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