Tarrant County coalition announces $2 million to pay early childcare education workers

The city of Fort Worth is using money to attract and keep those caring for our youngest generation.

It hopes $2 million will help hike wages for early childcare education workers, who nurture newborns, toddlers, and pre-schoolers.

"It is abhorrent to me that you can make more money as a cashier at Buc-ee’s than the heroes that sit in classrooms and teach our children to read and prepare them for kindergarten across this country," Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said.

Parker is on a collaborative mission to improve early education for kids up to 5 years old, and many underpaid workers who care for them.

"Most of them are women of color, working in these communities, raising other people’s children. Until we recognize the importance of that and the impact it can have on a community, then and only then, we can actually make the changes we need," TCU Panelist Dean Hernandez said.

On average, in Texas, childcare workers earn $10.74 per hour. 

Looking to address that problem, Tarrant County, Fort Worth, and Arlington have formed a coalition with the group Child Care Associates, which manages dozens of pre-school locations in North Texas. 

"We’re going to put $2 million, thanks to our Tarrant County Workforce Solutions Board, into paying our workers more money. That means $2 million directly into wages," Parker added.

"Two million may be a drop in the bucket, but I will tell you something, we’ve got to start somewhere," Arlington Mayor Pro Tem Victoria Fararr Myers said. "This is something we have to take steps to do incrementally."

The late developer and philanthropist Happy Baggett put the group Child Care Associates in the spotlight two years ago. 

With months left to live due to a terminal illness, he raised close to $12 million to help fund the group’s programs and build awareness that pre-school education was falling through the cracks.

His daughter attended Wednesday’s announcement.

"That was more important to him, the money was important, but really getting the knowledge out to everybody to say, have you seen this, have you seen what they’re building in our community," Maggie Baggett Shori said.

The $2 million will be spread over 1,500 childcare workers, giving them an increase in pay of $250 per month for the next six months.

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