New program o ers free community college for prospective early childhood teachers

BY ANN SCHIMKE CHALKBEAT COLORADO

Colorado residents interested in early childhood and ve other high-demand careers can get training for free starting this fall at more than a dozen community colleges around the state.

It’s part of a new $40 million state program called Career Advance Colorado that’s intended to mint thousands of workers in shortage areas. Besides early childhood education, the program will cover tuition, course materials, and fees for up to two years of training for students studying education, construction, law enforcement, nursing, and re and forestry.

“All these elds are in need of great folks to ll jobs that are open today and that are critical for our state’s success,” said Gov. Jared Polis in a recorded announcement about Career Advance.

e program is open to new students and those currently enrolled in one of the six target areas. For those already enrolled, the state will pay for their remaining coursework.

e o er of free training for prospective early childhood employees comes amid an ongoing shortage of child care and preschool teachers that’s led to shuttered classrooms at some centers. e need for qualied sta has become even more pressing as Colorado prepares to launch a major expansion of tuition-free preschool in August. More than 31,000 4-year-olds are expected to participate.

Career Advance is the latest e ort by state policymakers to beef up the anemic pipeline of early childhood teachers. In recent years, the state used COVID stimulus money to pay for two introductory early childhood classes for hundreds of college students. It also o ered scholarship and apprenticeship programs for students seeking early childhood credentials. e cost of college classes or student loan debt makes the barrier to entry even higher.

In Colorado, where the median preschool teacher wage is around $15.25 an hour, it’s hard to make a living in the early childhood eld.

State o cials and advocates recently have taken tentative steps towards addressing the eld’s abysmal pay. As part of an e ort to pay preschool teachers a living wage, the state pays a higher per-student rate in the new universal preschool program than it pays public schools for each K-12 student. In addition, the state recently unveiled a report recommending a series of statewide early childhood salary scales that would signi cantly boost pay. For example, the suggested rate would be at least $22 an hour for early childhood teachers in metro Denver and some mountain communities. e salary scales are not binding for preschool and child care providers, but show what workers in di erent regions would need to earn to make a living wage.

Chalkbeat is a nonpro t news site covering educational change in public schools.