Testimony of Alliance Co-Chair Merrill Gay on SB 380

Testimony of Merrill Gay, Co-Chair of the CT Early Childhood Alliance on
Raised Bill 380

Senator Gaffey, Representative Fleischmann, members of the committee, my name is Merrill Gay, I am the co-chair of the Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance representing over 40 organizations working together on issues related to young children.  I am here today to speak regarding Raised Bill 380, a bill that would capture unexpended School Readiness funds and use them to provide professional development to enable teachers in School Readiness preschool programs to reach the 2015 BA degree requirement.

The Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance strongly believes that highly skilled, motivated and caring teachers can make a significant difference in the lives of young children.  This bill is one of a number of steps that will need to be taken in order to reach the 2015 goal.

Attached to my testimony is a print out from the CT Registry of Early
Childhood teachers. This list is organized so that you can see how many preschool teachers currently have a BA in each town receiving School Readiness funding. Statewide 36% of those teachers have a BA. We have a long way to go.

The challenges to reaching the state goal include: retaining those teachers that already hold BAs, the limited number of colleges offering a BA in Early Childhood, the ability of the current workforce to attain degrees, and pay disparity. On average the
teachers in these preschools are being paid salaries between $23,000 and
$27,000. Several years ago CCSU suspended their Early Childhood BA program simply because they didn’t have a large enough enrollment to warrant the cost of running the classes. Students faced with the prospect of a job paying less than the cost of a year at college, not surprisingly decided on another better paying specialty.

So in closing we are encouraged that this bill takes a step in the right direction and urge you to look at, and address, the many other challenges that we face in improving the qualifications of the teachers who work with our youngest students. I would be happy to take any questions.