The pay gap goes as far as 25% in Stanislaus County in the Central Valley, according to a comparison of school district and Head Start salaries conducted by the county’s Office of Education.
“There’s a stark difference, and that’s without going into the fact that Head Start teachers work year-round while K–12 teachers get winter, spring and summer breaks,” said Tony Jordan, executive director of the office’s Child & Family Services Division.
Wu Yee Children’s Services, the largest provider of Head Start programs in San Francisco, has a 17% vacancy rate and a low pool of substitute teachers, even though salaries range between $28 to $40 per hour thanks to additional funding from the city, said the center’s executive director, Monica Walters.
“With those wages, we’re still not attracting the people that we need, and they’re not staying because of all the other costs of living [in San Francisco],” she said.
The low pay, combined with the physically and emotionally demanding work, is driving high turnover rates, which affects the quality of care for young children.
“We all know that when kids don’t have the same teacher day after day or year over year, they don’t know what to expect,” Walters said. “Parents don’t know who they’re going to be talking to in the classroom, and that really affects outcomes for the kids.”
The lack of staffing is leading to longer wait lists. This year, California received funding to cover nearly 95,000 slots, but only about 85,000 children are enrolled, according to Melanee Cottrill, executive director of Head Start California.
Besides poor pay, she said many families don’t meet the income requirements to enroll in Head Start because the federal poverty guidelines are “unrealistically low” in California. For example, a family of four must have an annual income of $30,000 to qualify for Head Start.
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