Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.
 
 
BATTLE CREEK, MI — Loni White isn’t an Early Childhood Educator for the money. For her, it’s all about the children she works with.
 
“It’s not about the money for me. I want to give children who don’t have opportunities, the skills and knowledge they need to be successful academically, socially, and intellectually to be a person in society,” she says. “I’m modeling that in a healthy way because a lot of them don’t have that at home.”
 
While sharing that the joy she gets outweighs concerns about behavioral issues and her pay, she says it’s a constant balancing act to make sure the five children she shares with her husband have what they need without worrying about the lights being turned off.
 
That balancing act has leveled out some for her and other early childhood educators working for the Community Action Agency of Southcentral Michigan which has its main office in Battle Creek. Grants to the CAA’s Battle Creek location which serves Calhoun County from the American Rescue Plan Act and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation are offsetting the cost of monthly rent for those workers who rent their homes and covering the cost of utilities for homeowners like White.
 
The last of a three-year allocation of $150,000 in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds is being used to cover April rent and a three-year $450,000 grant from the WKKF which was awarded in 2022 is being allocated to early childcare workers who qualify for rental or utility assistance.
 
CourtesyLoni White, an Early Childhood Educator, stands in front of her home in Battle Creek.Michelle Wiiliamson, outgoing Payroll and Benefits Administrator for CAA, says about 38 of the employees with nonprofit childcare centers in Battle Creek have taken advantage of this pool of funds.
 
Those who rent their homes receive one-time assistance of up to $6,000 and homeowners are eligible for up to $4,000 for assistance with property taxes and utilities which they receive monthly in $500 increments. Initially, the assistance was only for renters, but Williamson says homeowners indicated that they also were in need.
 
“Overall, the grant will help about 75 people total and we are getting applications in all the time,” Williamson says, adding that the grants are available only to workers with nonprofit childcare centers in Battle Creek.
 
“This is an innovative approach to provide more support and recognition to the incredibly important role of early childhood professionals and the contributions they make to support early learning and child development and to support economic prosperity in communities,” says Megan Russell Johnson, Program Officer with WKKF. “The leaders at CAA have done an amazing job working in partnership with early childhood providers and stakeholders to design a program that meets the needs of those it is intended to serve. 
 
Currently, 17 childcare centers are participating with six homeowners and 32 renters taking advantage of the grants. In order to receive this funding they must commit to staying in the profession for three years.
 
Williamson says 10 people have completed their first 12 months of service and three have left the profession.
 
We are also able to link them to other programs like credentialing help (either Child Development Associate, associate degree or higher 19 of the current students are in this program) food, utility
assistance etc,” she says.
 
CourtesyTeachers enjoy interacting with the students while celebrating the end of a successful head start year White, who is a Lead Teacher with Headstart under the CAA umbrella, calls the housing incentive an “amazing thing.”
 
“Last summer, my utility bill was a lot and I thought this is insane,” she says. “I make what I make but it’s still hard to live on this income. Michelle was amazing and she was all about helping and supporting me. I went for it because I’m not too proud to say I need help. If my utility bills are taken care of for a certain amount of time I could focus on something else. 

"My husband and I work full-time and sometimes it’s just not enough. It’s taken a lot of stress off of my back and allows me to put the money somewhere else like groceries, and shoes, and clothes for my kids.”
 
The financial boost also will enable her to continue working in her chosen field.
 
The grants came together while Williamson was the CEO of CAA.
 
“I was working pretty deeply in early childhood issues with the Early Childhood Collaborative of Calhoun County and BC Pulse,” she says. “We started exploring the grant opportunities during COVID when my organization and those across the city were having challenges recruiting workers who have never been very well paid.”
 
As of July 15, ZipRecruiter says the average hourly pay for an Early Childhood Lead Teacher in Michigan is $14.36 an hour.

“While ZipRecruiter is seeing salaries as high as $23.89 and as low as $9.01, the majority of Early Childhood Lead Teacher salaries currently range between $12.98 (25th percentile) to $17.60 (75th percentile) in Michigan. Michigan ranks number 46 out of 50 states nationwide for Early Childhood Lead Teacher salaries.”

The average hourly pay for a Preschool teacher in Michigan is $14.14 an hour, according to the ZipRecruiter website. This is about $4 more than Michigan’s minimum wage of $10.33 per hour.

Ahead of the curve

The housing incentive grants are part of a broad-based approach that includes the Early Childhood Career Pathway Program (ECCPP) which began in 2019 and was funded through a grant from WKKF.

Through a collaboration between ECCPP and the Women’s Co-op clients enroll in the training program. They work 20 hours a week at a childcare center for 12 weeks and receive a small amount of money.

The first credential they earn qualifies them to be a Child Development Associate. To earn this, they need to do 120-course hours of training in the field of Early Childhood Education. They decide if they want to have a specialty in infant, toddler, or preschool. They get experience in the classroom and put together a professional portfolio as prescribed by the CDA.

The CDA typically costs an individual $451. This cost, books, other materials, and CPR training are paid through the grant.

During the pandemic, childcare was considered an essential service, but because of a shortage of workers, early childhood classrooms were shut down.
 
Of the 38 who have received the rental and homeowners assistance, Williamson says 24 participate in the CDA program which increases their wages so housing is more affordable when they’re done.
 
“CourtesyFamilies enjoy activities together with teachers at end of year celebrations at head start centers. You can really see the investment Battle Creek has made in early childhood education,” she says.
 
“Research conducted to evaluate the recruitment and retention efforts showed that “there is an abundance of evidence which show that talented workers are essential to the maintenance and growth of high quality, well-facilitated preschool programs which are critical to the learning and development of preschool and early elementary school children.
Moreover, a growing shortage of those talented workers is being seen in centers across Battle Creek with research showing it being fueled by economic disparities among many working in the early childcare education field.”
 
That research shows:
 

• Over 90% of early childcare educators depend on some form of public assistance.
• 15% of early childcare workers are uninsured and are unable to pay their rent or mortgage.
• 98% of early childcare educators earn less than all other occupations.

 
“I’ve worked (at CAA) for almost 20 years and I had never seen so many childcare openings as we had during the pandemic. We had almost 50 openings when we started this renter and homeowner assistance program and we’re under 10 openings now,” Williamson says. “As a percentage of staff overall, when I’ve talked to other center directors, they are also much better staffed.”
 
Johnson Russell says the housing incentive program, led by the CAA is achieving the goal of recruiting and retaining early childhood professionals. 
 
“By meeting this goal," she says, "they are strengthening the sector and expanding access to opportunities for children and families in Battle Creek."