Early education officials from the Merced County Office of Education are urging parents in the community to take advantage of early childhood education programs.
During a press conference Thursday, officials said a child’s education prior to entering kindergarten is crucial and laid out several options available for children younger than 5 years old.
School districts and the county office support federally-funded preschool programs such as Head Start, California State Preschool programs, licensed child care and family child care centers. The county also mentioned transitional kindergarten, which fully launched at all California school districts this school year.
Vanessa Mininger, the program manager of governance and community support for the early education department, said it’s clear parents want more options — but school districts also need more funding to expand their programs.
“If we can put money behind going down to 3 year olds and being able to have a system that supports families and gets them that care that they need, along with that quality educational aspect, that’s the direction that we’d really like to see everyone go in,” Mininger said.
The county is rolling out bilingual information about all of the programs it supports to get the word out. They also shared a strategic plan for early learning and care that was developed with the Merced County Local Childcare Planning Council and will take place until 2030.
The county office found Merced needs more than 1,000 more child care workers to meet the current need. Most need is not being met in infant and toddler care as well as after-school care.
Officials said this need is, in part, due to the lack of educators with the proper skills and adequate pay. The average salary now for an educator in the early childhood space is about $43,000 a year — half of what officials say is the average living wage salary. Steven Tietjan, MCOE’s superintendent, said 60 new teachers were recruited into the early childhood education workforce.
The plan, according to officials, is to help providers partner with local school districts in providing more space, staff, and the expansion of programs to younger children and longer days.
Mininger said they are also looking at finding teachers who can tend to multilingual learners, too. Ultimately, she wants parents to invest in the resources, so they can focus on getting more funding to support every parent’s needs.
“You’re going to start seeing billboards, social media campaigns, and we really want parents to know that they have a choice,” Mininger said.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Vanessa Mininger’s name.
