Stumbling Through Work

Pass the Collection Plate for Childcare?

• Jerek Hough • Season 3 • Episode 13

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The day a state slices $225 million from childcare and 45 centers go dark, the ripple doesn’t stop at the classroom door—it hits every shift, every meeting, every bottom line. We dig into why asking local businesses to “chip in” can’t replace public responsibility, and we map out what real fixes look like: permanent funding that doesn’t vanish after a grant cycle, practitioner voices at the decision table, and pay that matches the professional weight of early education.

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SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Stumbling Through Work, where educators figure shit out. I'm your host, Jarek Huff, and I'm here to explore and share the complexities of our work and let you know you are not alone. Before we start though, please follow this podcast and share episodes with others. You can find me on my website www.jerickhuff.com where you can find links to my social media and where I share information and tips for educators. Now let's jump into today's episode. Hey team, welcome to another episode of Stumbling Through Work where educators figure shit out. I'm bringing you a story today from Indiana. Take a listen.

SPEAKER_01:

In the wake of$225 million in state funding cuts for childcare, and local employers,$45 care providers, state five.

SPEAKER_02:

I think there will be a receptive audience to helping us help the providers because this isn't a structure for the workforce. I can't say they're going to give us money, but they're going to partner with us in seeking out support in the business community. So an investment in high-quality child care supports the current workforce, but it also supports the future workforce.

SPEAKER_01:

Jeff Perrett, W VPE News.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. First off, has nothing to do with the story, but well, it does. Can y'all tell that they chopped up that woman interview and put pieces of what she said together to make a cohesive sentence? Y'all basically took the middle out of what she said. She probably was going off on y'all ass and y'all cut it off and it just started putting pieces together. Because I'm sitting here listening, like, mm-mm, her tone changed. Not y'all chopped and screwed her interview, but okay. So let me get this right.$225 million was slashed from childcare. Like it was extra guacamole at Chipotle. 45 centers are now gone. Then you put 1,500, I could say 1,500, but for dramatic purposes, 1,500 families on a voucher waiting list. So then so now these people are just stranded. And basically, your people, your state, your county, whomever it may be, they basically just say, you know what, we're making fiscal decisions. Nah. You're making stupid decisions. Just dumb, stupid decisions. And so to fix this, their plan is now, let's just ask businesses to chip in.

unknown:

Wait, what?

SPEAKER_00:

Who does that? It's like pass the collection paid to local employers. Like, would you like to keep your workforce? Like, who does that? Like, I I I just want the same businesses that are already complaining that their employees are calling out because they can't find childcare. Make it make sense to me, please. Let me go and ask these people that are already pissed off that we don't have child care to get clear. We all know that childcare is one of the backbones of the workforce, if not the only backbone. We some of those bones back there. Because without us, your employees don't show up. Without us, your meetings don't happen. Without us, your productivity, your profits, your peace of mind are gone. We do a lot. Like we do an extreme amount. And everyone should just go out and just think of childcare employee right now. Just thank you. Because if you I'm just thinking about this thing as a whole and everything that's happening right now. If you really want to fix this broken system, we really need to stop putting band-aids on bullet wounds and just handle it. First off, we need to admit that childcare is an infrastructure. Just like highways, hospitals, it is an infrastructure. Stop treating early educators like babysitter with crayons. That is exactly the way that majority of people in the field are treated. Pay and treat them as the professionals that they are. Universal childcare, not someday, not one day, but it really needs to be now. It's all these little pieces of steps going here and there. That's why I'm saying New Mexico, do what you gotta do. Show us how it's done, because obviously other people can't get it done. Now, when I say this, don't try to be letting people steal the money and do all kind of crazy shit. You got a point to prove, and you got to make sure you prove it. But the other thing that's been a big problem, and I think we're kind of coming back, we're feeling the effects of it from COVID, is that funding isn't permanent. Funding needs to be permanent, and it's not like a grant season or only from this year now, the money's gone. And I think that's hitting a lot of people hard now was those extra COVID funds. But we need money that is not grant season, that money just needs to be here. Put actual child care leaders at the decision-making table, not people whose some people have never even changed a diaper, but they sitting here making decisions for everybody else. This shit doesn't make any sense. Please put the people that actually know how to do the job in places that can help do the job. Because let's be honest, the people making policies have never tried to run a classroom with 12 toddlers during a full moon while short staff during potty training season with parents emailing at 2 a.m. and licensing walks in unannounced. They do not understand, but they're gonna tell us how to do our jobs? Yeah, that's cute. That's real cute. So yeah, shout out to South Bend though for trying to step up. I do love that, but I hate that for them as well. But the system isn't struggling, the system is on fire, it is blazing. And instead of fire trucks, they send thoughts and prayers. It is time to stop patching holes and just build a new ship, one that values children because it is hard to come to the realization that our country does not care about children the way that they say they do. They say they do, but our children are still getting shot in schools. We're still getting money taken away from our children. The teachers that are working with our children are underpaid. Tell me where any of that says we love our children. So let's be somewhere, let's create an environment that values children and respects educators and understands that childcare is the engine of the entire economy. Because let me tell you one thing. If we burn out, we're gonna burn this whole down. We're taking out the workforce, we're gonna take out the economy and everybody's sanity with us. Y'all remember how it was during COVID when people had to stay at home with their kids and was going crazy? Nah. We're gonna take this whole thing down. South Bend, like I said, thanks for y'all for stepping up. But it's sad that they turn around and asking y'all to give money, but it is the world that we are living in. And on that note, we'll be right back. We all want our schools or programs to be the best. And although every school is different, all successful programs have the same fundamentals. Best practices for high quality preschool, after school, and enrichment programs by Jarek Huff share standards to foster a high-quality program. These tips will help you put your best service forward, focusing on your children, families, and communities. Best practices for high quality preschool, after school, and enrichment programs by Jarek Huff is available on Amazon and Amazon Kindle. Hey team, we're back with Asking for a Friend. Hi all, I've been an ECE teacher for three years now, two of which at my center I'm currently at. I've been the lead twos teacher for the entire time. Ratio in my state is one to eight for twos. I've been having some issues at my center that do not involve the kids. My kids are my everything and they do great. My issue is that I'm five months pregnant and I'm being treated like dog shit. Okay. The administrator the administration or director is the owner. We have about 30 preschoolers, including my kids, and 16 in the ITU. I don't know what the hell that is because I'm uncultured, so we'll just say ITU. She is eccentric, bought the daycare when she was twenty-three with a loan from her parents. Now she's fifty-three and still runs the daycare horribly. Well, the best she can while she's doing everything. The problem is she cares more about her family, and she has a lot of family working for her. Example, her daughter-in-law, who is one month further along than me, is allowed to leave whenever she wants, gets to wear crop tops because her clothes don't fit anymore. She gets to hit her weed pin and vape outside the daycare while she's on the clock because her mom is covering her. She gets to sit in the baby room all day while I'm out wrestling with preschoolers and taking care of all my twos. There's a few other people who are her family that she allows to leave whenever they want, making me cover them and close when I get there at 6 30 AM. My boss is saying that I'm freaking out. LOL WTF exclamation point. Because if other people get to leave, and I'm the only one that can stay and close. She buys them things like DoorDash and shit and pays for their nails and does cash advances for them. It's giving favoritism while our preschoolers are basically getting neglected and we've always and we're always over ratio outside because someone has to leave. My amazement my amazing husband husband makes enough for me to quit. He's telling me to quit. He's literally expecting me to do it, but I feel bad. I'm one of three teachers who care and I don't want to leave them to suffer by themselves while having to deal with my class of twos. Please tell me I'm not crazy for doing this. Dear lady, let's go back and review a few things that you said. I want to go back to my issue is that I'm five months pregnant and I'm being treated like dog shit. Girl, what the hell does that have to do with anything that you just said? You just threw that in there, like, oh, I'm pregnant. Girl, that ain't got nothing to do with the price of tea in China. So I'm just trying to figure out why you even threw that in the story. Was that supposed to make us feel more empathy for what was going on? I guess it was. So we'll continue though. Uh then she said, Well, the best she can while she's doing everything. I don't even know what the hell that means. So is she doing everything? So is she running around like a chicken with her head cut off? Is it hiring practices? I have more questions, but we're gonna we're gonna keep going. But this is what took me out, y'all. This was diabolical. Now, the daughter-in-law is pregnant because it said that she's one month old, one month, so she must be six months pregnant, and she gets to hit her weed pen and vape outside the daycare. I don't need to read anymore, because that was enough foolishness right there for me. So she's pregnant and she out there with the vape pen smoking and doing weed. What is this, the 1970s? No one told her she can't do that. I'm assuming, lady, that you're just trying to throw out all the things that are terrible wrong. And I'm hoping she's not, you know, you know, using the jazz cabbage while she's pregnant in helling the tobacco. Then she makes me cover them and close when I get there at 6 30. What time do you close? Are you closing like 6 30, 7? So you've worked a full 12 and a half, 13-ish hours? That is a long ass day. And she this is what got me. This took me out too. She buys them things like DoorDash and shit and pays for their nails and does cash event. Girl, you just mad because she ain't bought you no DoorDash. That's what it comes down to, girl. You was hungry. You was hungry one day, and they came and had that hot McDonald's with them toxic fries and and and those and that dry lettuce. Oh, girl, no what happened at breakfast when they got them dry ass sausage biscuits and you was hungry and you got one, and and they got one and you didn't get one, and you was mad about that, and you ain't moving, you ain't moving past that shit. But my thing is it's her family and it's her money. If she wants to spend and get her nails done with them, then that's something that they can do. Now, some things have to do with the actual child. What got me was the out of ratio. That's the issue for me. I'm not a fan of weaponizing licensing, not at all, but they exist for a reason. And I feel like if someone does something wrong, especially if you're consistently being out of ratio, girl report they ask the licensing, and this is how you're gonna do it. Let me tell you, give you the tips. When you report to licensing, what you want to do is say the time. See, this is how you're gonna do the shit. See, if you're gonna do it, do it. So let's call pregnant sister her daughter-in-law, that's what she is. Let's call pregnant daughter-in-law, let's call her Stacy. And let's call another family member, let's call her Ebony. So we have Stacy and Ebony, and both of them leave when you go outside. So when you go to licensing and you go on their little website and you hit that button to submit, you're gonna put their names. The teacher Stacy and the teacher Ebony, you're gonna say them by name. Then you're gonna put the days, date that you know it happened, and the time. So you'll say, you know, Ebony went and left me at a ratio at 1115 in the preschool room. So you got to get detailed with the business. And the reason why I say do that is because when you do report it that way, when they come out, when licensing comes out, they're gonna come out at that time. And they're gonna specifically say, let me look for can I uh is Stacy they're gonna go around and ask and talk to everybody, but they're gonna figure out who Stacy Antenna's antenna's ass is, and then they're gonna figure out who Ebony is and figure out where they at. Then they're gonna turn around and ask for sign-in, sign out rosters to see if they were in their room, out their room. See if you want to try to try to get somebody caught, let me tell you how to do it, girl. And that's how you want to do it. But all that other stuff, you were just mad because you wanted that dry sausage biscuit and you wanted that dry salad. How your salad be dry? I don't know, Axe McDonald's. But you was mad about that. You was mad because you didn't get the jail tips and and they got the jail tips and you feel some type of way. Um, and I get that. It it does feel some type of way, and that's the issue when you have smaller businesses, when you don't have the type of HR structure, they can kind of do what they want to do a little bit, and technically it's not against the law, so it kind of sucks. So I'm with your husband, just quit. Girl, you're about to be out anyway. Just relax. And if you don't need the money, girl, go get your cribs together, go do what you gotta do for your baby in the next four months and move on. Okay, the next story. No longer teaching, and I'm an enrollment specialist. The room that is in our building for enrolling kids, having events, and is also used as a break room for staff, is where meetings are held, as there is no other meeting space in the building. Everyone uses it for this purpose, is the setting for this event. Okay, before we even move on, let me just say that again because the way that she wrote that was weird. So they have a meeting room slash break room slash enrolling tour room. It's a catch-all, you use the room for whatever you need to use it. It's just important that I break that down. Okay, continuing on. A parent brought her two small kids and their grandparent to the space for a meeting to finalize enrollment. If you live in a place where you think a parent cannot have their own child in their care, come to a meeting, you are mistaken. I don't even know what the hell that meant. Accompanied minors must exist in a space and be in the room with their parent for this purpose. I am reposting this to get answers to my questions since so many focus on non-important info from my last attempt. Pause. Y'all can't even get through the damn story without keep interjecting. So what I'm guessing is she tried posting this before and they must have been reading her for filth because she wasn't giving us enough information because she wanted us, she was trying to get people on her team, so she wasn't giving out the information. But see, haha, us as the viewers, we were reading through that shit and they started asking questions, and so she got pissy and then turned around and then re-posted it with this said information. See, I copped all that. Continue. A child with limited expressive language found a pill that was only particularly that was only partially intact on the floor of the room. She brought it to her parent. Her parent or myself have no idea if she ingested it or if there had been more. Admin in the room told me to immediately throw it away. This was two different admins that wanted to cover it up. They stated it was a break room, so adults are allowed to be in there. Seemingly important so seemingly implying pills on the floor, no worries, because adults are in the room and kids aren't taught in there anyways. It was a wild response and obviously designed to hush the situation. Instead, I kept a pill, tried to look up what the number was, it was partially visible. It could have been Tylenol with codeine or something else. I took a picture, filed a report, and named names of the admin responses. I also offered mom ideas of how to proceed like taking her child to the doctor. I'd like to know what the center's policy would be. I'd also like to know if you think if I had tried to sweep it under the rug and the parent brought it to light, that we could have lost our licensing. There are reasons as admin that I was that I told I wanted to talk to me about this in a day. Okay, her weird it gets just weird because I don't know what the hell she's saying. And then it goes to what do you think? I got the gist of it. This is an interesting one. What I will say is, from what I gathered from this long clapback message in a way where she had that little piece. In the multi-purpose room, you were trying to enroll a family, you had a child there, the child brought a peel to the parent and to you. You don't know if the child had the peel. And you told the administrators of the building, they're like, Well, basically, it's not a classroom, so they have medication and they kept it pushing. Just to the story. Cool. My issue with this, this shouldn't be a multi-purpose room. All of this would be avoided before I even get to my conclusion. All of this could have been avoided by not having a multi-purpose room. If your staff room is a staff room, then that's what it needs to be. Because my thing is if staff needs a moment, and I just want to say, if you're looking at high-quality environments, there are things that are in the iters and echers that actually encourage staff to have a staff break room and area for them. So I'm imagining that if I'm a teacher and I go into the break room and I'm on the phone, I'm handling business, I'm doing whatever I have to do. I don't even have to be handling business. I could be sitting there watching Jerry Springer on my Hulu app. I don't care. Judge me. I could be sitting there doing that, and then the parent comes in, then I have to leave the breaking room. So where do I go? What if I don't have a car to go sit in my car? What if I just don't want to sit in my car? How about it's 20 degrees outside, and I gotta turn the heat on to waste my gas? Nah, that's not cool. Staff needs to have their own designated area so they can relax. It sounds like they're up moving throughout their break, which is not right. That's part of the issue that it seems what's happening. That's just weird. So that's where I would start off. Staff needs their own break room, and this is kind of a hard situation. I think it depends on what your childcare licensing regulations say, but from a generalistic aspect, your administrators were kind of right though, because most licensing and regulations has specific requirements for rooms where children are at. So technically they are the responsibility of the parent, not the school at this point. Because they're not in a teaching room, it is a break room, it is a room that is used for non-teaching, and children, I'm assuming children aren't allowed in there. Now, where this would change is if that was another room that children could use randomly as a teaching space, there's a difference. Holding an event is a little different because if it's an event, then the parent is with them, so that's a different situation. But if you use that room for children to go in sometimes to exercise when they can't go outside when it's raining or something like that, if you use it for that, that now makes it different. But if the room is only used for that purpose of just enrolling in a break room and random shit after school, even though it feels a little callous, your admin was kind of right. I mean, they could have said something more. It sounds like I don't have time for this the way that you told the story. But they really kind of weren't wrong, lady. They weren't, and this is why they need their own space, and it's just a messy situation situation. But all this could have been fixed if they had their own break room and the antennas wouldn't have been in there, so just saying. And here's our final one. Hi everyone. I'm currently a school-aged teacher at an unnamed child care for center and recently had a discussion about pay where I mentioned that the two teachers they wanted me to delegate to make more than me, and I find issue with it. Well, my director didn't like finding out I discussed pay and told me that federal law and policies are separate. Then she told me I'm breaking policy and could be terminated before suspending me for the day. Now I'm genuinely surprised that after mentioning federal law she didn't back down. Had a conversation with the NLRB, which is a National Labor Relations Board, and is not looking great for them. She told me we would have a meeting on Monday. Is it weird that I'm a little excited? This center moved me to school age without telling me or giving me a chance to negotiate pay, kept me at my assistant teacher's wage, and told me to delegate to the two men running schoolers. I actually found out I was transferred by the parents of my previous students. I was also told to do the lesson plans, organize the room, and I do bus runs. I've been slowly losing tolerance as one of my co-workers actively antagonizes kids and rough houses with them, gets me to do things they shouldn't and overall make my life harder. I'm so done with this space. Um well, I feel like there's two different things going on with this. Sometimes when I talk to people and people are telling me a problem, I despise when they start telling me about random shit that has nothing to actually do with the problem, and that's kind of what happened in this one. So the actual problem is where she said my director didn't like finding out. I discussed pay and told me that it was federal law and policies are separate. I I think she meant to say that they aren't separate, which they are, because that would be the gag. It would be like, girl, these are two different things. Then she said they told me I'm breaking policy and could be terminated before suspending me for the day. Okay. The National Labor Relations Act, she is actually correct. Those are two different things. You can discuss pay, even if someone tells you that you cannot discuss pay. You can. You can discuss pay. It's tacky, it's something that I wouldn't do, or that you know, I just look down upon anyone that does it. And people do it all the time, especially like, well, so-and-so is getting paid this, and so-and-so's getting paid, and I'm like, and why do you this is what y'all sitting up and talking about? This is what y'all decide to talk about. There's reasons for that, and people, you know, always feel like, well, so-and-so gets there are so many different things that come into play that you may not know about education experience. Were you in the interview with them? Did you negotiate? It's not my fault that you didn't negotiate, but they did. I mean, there's a there are a lot of reasons for that one. So, yes, policy and federal law are definitely two different things, and one thing that the National Labor Relations Act does, it covers someone who is being retaliated against for discussing certain things like this, and this is one of them. So, homie girl is correct. She was suspended, and it was unlawful, and she may get her a cute little coin out of it. She may get a little money out of it. It's possible. Uh, probably not that much, but I mean, you girl, you get a whole$20. Take that on down to the taco of the bail. But that's probably about all she wants to get. But then she goes into this whole thing about just basically not liking her class, and I get that one. Now, what's ugly is that one of the parents had to tell you that your ass was transferred. That ass to gag right there. Not the parent told you that you was in a new room, but saying, like, oh, well, I didn't get a chance to negotiate, girl, that shit don't fly in my place. You go where I send you to go. Now, when you hired, I don't hire people for classrooms. I hire them for the school, and then if you have a preference, is where we try to keep you. But at the end of the day, we do what the building needs. So if your ass needs to go to school age and you was in pre-K, then your ass is going to school age because that's where we need you at. But I am going to tell you. Now, all this negotiating. Hold on, see what she said. Negotiating pay kept me at my girl, we ain't about to do all of that now. And told me the delegate, girl. I mean, I get what you're saying. My thing is to get there doesn't mean that you have to not be able to negotiate afterwards. It could be your ass is going to school age tomorrow. Cool. We need to have a conversation. Am I at a raise point? I feel like I need something. You can have that conversation. You don't need to everything doesn't need to be so dramatic as people make it. Like, nah, you go into this room. If you feel like you're worth it, then you advocate and you speak up for yourself. Do that. Because maybe somebody else did that work that works there too, and that's could be why they get more. Who knows? There's a myriad of reasons why. So, yeah, part one, that's part A. Yeah, she was wrong, and she got that shit coming. She totally do. She was wrong. But part B, girl, you go where I send you. And that's the end of that story. And we'll be right back. I love sharing information with educators and program administrators. I have had so many successes, but also so many failures in my education tenure. I want leaders to know what not to do, but better than that, what to do. So, I decided to write a helpful guide, Best Practices for Center Program and Activity Directors. It's short and to the point. It's a compass to guide education leaders. These best practices will give you a foundation to lead your school, program, or organization. You can find best practices for center, program and activity directors by Jared Cuff on Amazon or Amazon Kindle. Here's our interview corner for today. You asked the question how did you deal with the situation? Situation the last time your boss strongly disagreed with a statement, a plan, or decision you made. And they respond with, I cussed that out. Period. She won't gonna disrespect me that way. Don't hire them. Please don't hire them. But some of y'all will because you hire out of desperation. The question is asking about communication. There obviously was a breakdown of communication. Communication is usually the reason why these type of conversations have because something was not said or something was not understood. There was some implying going on. That is the crux of what the question is. Asking it's about communication. If someone says, I don't have a good example of that one, I can't think of a time that happened. They a lie. They are not just a lie, they're a liar. They a lie and the truth ain't in them. What they did was open that orifice in their mouth and let words come out. And these words were strung together in a lying sentence that floated through the air that whisked into those holes on the side of your head. Lies for you to hear. I want to hear how you talk. That's what I want to hear. I want to hear how you went and had that conversation and you know how you seen where they were coming from. Now I didn't say you had to agree. I just said you had to see where they were coming from. A lot of the times where I had situations where I tell people you may not agree with my situation, but at least understand it. And the other way around, I've seen other situations and I went, huh? Okay, I see how you did that. I see why you said that. I don't think that was the best course of action, but I can see it. I mean, I kept that part of myself, but I don't say you had to agree with it, but I want to hear about the resolve. And then I want you to end it like on a positive note, like here we go. You could say something like, I realize I've made a mistake because I didn't have all of the information. Now I ask more questions before I start to make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm a much better communicator now. One, I did that in a dramatic voice, but two, feed me some bullshit like that that says you owned your shit and moved on. Yeah, I messed up. I totally did, but guess what? I got it together and it's not gonna happen again. But if they turn around and looked at you in your face and they said, you know, I cussed so-and-so out, and they had an attitude with me, and we both got into it, and then I said, I'm going to lunch and not come back, do not hire them, but y'all will. Y'all totally, totally will. But now it's policy time. And remember, something became a policy because someone didn't mess this shit up for all of us. And our policy today is education credential requirements. Why is this a policy? See, Brenda's telling her children that the world is flat, and when you pass Hawaii, you just fall off into space. Then licensing walks in, Brenda panics, and she hides the kids eating glitter. She doesn't know regulations or that hiding a child is even worse. Jobs have minimums, and they exist for a reason, whether you agree with them or not. I get it. Sometimes they are frustrating, like, why do I need to have this and why do I need to have this? So your ass don't end up like Brenda. That's why. That's exactly why. Because let's be honest, although there are people that are currently in jobs with no education and credential requirements, but that's because they were voted in by other people with no education and curriculum requirements, but I digress. These things are really important. These things are super, super important, and to have them helps you make the best decisions best decision and choices going forward so that everyone is safe, especially especially in early childhood education, where you want to make sure people understand developmentally appropriate decisions and choices that need to be made. Well, that's all that I have for you this week. I want y'all to pass the collection plate to pay for these child care tuition rates. Don't cuss people out, period. And don't put people in jobs that don't have the education or credentials to do the job. I'm just saying. But other than that, y'all have a good week. Bye. That's it for today. If you like this episode, it would mean so much to me if you left a rating, review, and subscribe to the show. I'd love to hear from you. You can visit my website, which is in the show notes, to contact me, and I hope you have a great rest of your week and speak to you all soon.

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Jerek Hough

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