Study: They're teaching pre-K, for janitor's pay

Ladrina Powell ran into an attendance problem with teachers at her West Philadelphia prekindergarten center this winter.

"They kept coming in and asking me, 'Can I be late tomorrow?' 'I have to go down to the city . . . or my electricity is getting shut off,' " Powell said. "Then I'm short a teacher, but can I blame them? They can't pay their bills."

Powell, director of Community Preschool & Nursery, which serves 71 children, has nine staffers, none with teaching degrees. Most earn about $10 an hour; the least experienced get $7.25.

"My plight is, we all want high quality, and the standards are constantly rising for quality. But the money isn't, and it's hard to find quality teachers with degrees with a salary that's starting so low," Powell said.

An 18-month study of Philadelphia's early-childhood education workforce, funded by the William Penn Foundation and released Friday, makes those same points.

The narrative mirrors Powell's: There is little money coming into the system, subterranean wages, and a serious need for more qualified teachers. The report offered recommendations for how to bolster teacher recruitment, preparation, and retention as Mayor Kenney aims to expand pre-K citywide.

The study, done by the Public Health Management Corp., the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children, and Montgomery Early Learning Centers, looked at labor statistics as well as data from the school district and results of several surveys.

Nationally, the study found, 46 percent of pre-K teachers earn so little that they qualify for public benefits. Salaries are on par with those of janitors and convenience-store workers.

In Philadelphia, the report found the average salary of a pre-K teacher with a bachelor's degree ranges from $24,000 to $44,000.

The turnover rate for pre-K teachers is 30 percent. Many switch to teach grades K-3 for the school district, at higher pay.

The issue is a timely one: Kenney wants 10,000 more kids in quality pre-K by 2019, an expansion that would require adding as many as 650 certified teachers and 1,300 assistant teachers, according to the city's Commission on Universal Pre-K.

Friday morning, Kenney opened an early-childhood education conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center by plugging both pre-K and the soda tax he has proposed to pay for it.

"Poverty is going to hold us down forever unless we change it. And the only way you change it is through education," Kenney said at the event. "The only way."

Kenney said he sees pre-K expansion as a job creator: "Men and women in our neighborhoods who are underemployed or unemployed can work at educating our kids in their neighborhood, so that becomes their profession going forward."

Whether his plan can fix the pre-K salary issue remains to be seen. The proposal puts more money into the system but also expands the number of slots for pre-K kids - that is, 3- and 4-year-olds.

A big factor: Pennsylvania's per-child subsidy to pre-K centers for teaching disadvantaged kids hasn't increased since 2007. The report suggested lobbying Harrisburg to make sure decent pay for teachers is factored into the subsidy.

The report also proposed recruiting more men and Latinas into the field, setting up volunteer opportunities in pre-K centers for high school students, and creating a website listing all local teacher preparation programs.

Powell, who heard Kenney speak at the conference Friday, said she has two groups of employees and both deserve better than their paychecks.

"Some of the teachers are on welfare-to-work, so they're struggling on welfare and they've got to get a job, and this is it," she said. "Others, you can tell every day, really love children."

jterruso@phillynews.com

215-854-5506

@juliaterruso