Low-paid child care workers are ALICE. <strong>The</strong> average wage for child care workers is approximately $10 per hour ($20,000 annually if full time) – so low that nearly half <strong>of</strong> child care workers receive public assistance. A recent report released jointly by the U.S. Department <strong>of</strong> Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department <strong>of</strong> Education makes clear that low compensation undermines child care quality. <strong>The</strong> quality <strong>of</strong> any early learning setting is directly related to the quality <strong>of</strong> its staff. If pay is too low, workers are susceptible to tardiness, absences, and stress from their own living situations. In addition, there is no incentive for workers to obtain specialty training (Ludden, 2016; U.S. Department <strong>of</strong> Health and Human Services and U.S. Department <strong>of</strong> Education, 2016). Trends in Education ALICE households have few means to change the educational trajectory that places low-income students in poorer quality schools and increases their risk for not graduating high school or not attending or completing college. <strong>The</strong>re have been several national attempts at education reform in recent decades, with mixed results. <strong>The</strong> role <strong>of</strong> charter schools is increasing. One response to the persistence <strong>of</strong> the achievement gap and the perception that public schools are not meeting the needs <strong>of</strong> many students has been the creation <strong>of</strong> charter schools. Charter schools are publicly funded but run by independent nonpr<strong>of</strong>it boards; management can be either nonpr<strong>of</strong>it or for-pr<strong>of</strong>it, but currently there are very few for-pr<strong>of</strong>it operators. <strong>The</strong> ability <strong>of</strong> charter schools to improve school performance and close the achievement gap for students <strong>of</strong> color and those from low-income families is the subject <strong>of</strong> nationwide debate. Since 2000, charter school enrollment has increased from 0.3 million to 2.3 million nationwide, with 4.6 percent <strong>of</strong> public school students attending a charter school. <strong>The</strong> efficacy <strong>of</strong> charter schools varies greatly from school to school and state to state. According to a 2015 Center for Research on Education Outcomes study, urban charter schools have been especially effective for students in poverty, who gain the equivalent <strong>of</strong> 40 days <strong>of</strong> additional learning per year in math and 28 additional days in reading compared to traditional public school students (CREDO, 2015). Earning potential will continue to be tied to education – and specifically to college majors. For students who do attend and graduate from college, there is a wide disparity in employment and earnings based on their major. Degree majors that provide technical training (such as engineering, math, or computer science), or majors that are geared toward growing parts <strong>of</strong> the economy (such as education and health) have done relatively well. At the other end <strong>of</strong> the spectrum, those with majors that provide less technical and more general training, such as leisure and hospitality, communications, the liberal arts, and even the social sciences and business, have not tended to fare particularly well in recent years. This has led to a relatively new phenomenon <strong>of</strong> well-educated households not being able to afford basic necessities. For example, the median annual salaries <strong>of</strong> college-educated workers age 25 to 59 years old range from $39,000 for an early childhood educator to $136,000 for a petroleum engineer (PayScale, 2014; Abel, Deitz, & Su, 2014; Carnevale, Cheah, & Hanson, 2015). 38 UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT – THE CONSEQUENCES OF INSUFFICIENT HOUSEHOLD INCOME
UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT – THE CONSEQUENCES OF INSUFFICIENT HOUSEHOLD INCOME 39
- Page 1 and 2: ALICE: THE CONSEQUENCES OF INSUFFIC
- Page 3 and 4: THE ALICE RESEARCH TEAM The United
- Page 5 and 6: ALICE: BRINGING HARDSHIP INTO FOCUS
- Page 7 and 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ....
- Page 9 and 10: ...AND FOR ALL FAMILIES IMPACT ON T
- Page 11 and 12: • The ALICE Threshold - a bare-mi
- Page 13 and 14: The purpose of this report is to pr
- Page 15 and 16: Figure 3. Monthly Housing Costs and
- Page 17 and 18: In 2014, the U.S. states with the h
- Page 19 and 20: No mother ever envisions finding he
- Page 21 and 22: Long-term effects on health and wel
- Page 23 and 24: friends grew to 7.7 million people
- Page 25 and 26: twice as much as redevelopment of i
- Page 27 and 28: UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT - THE CONSE
- Page 29 and 30: Figure 5. Monthly Child Care Costs
- Page 31 and 32: and accredited child care center fo
- Page 33 and 34: Having a child with special needs h
- Page 35 and 36: The slow progress in national enrol
- Page 37 and 38: Loss of education advancement: Near
- Page 39 and 40: Strategy 8: Drop out of High School
- Page 41 and 42: time students and 76 percent of par
- Page 43: • Closing the education achieveme
- Page 47 and 48: Figure 7. Monthly Food Costs and Pe
- Page 49 and 50: • For children, lack of sufficien
- Page 51 and 52: Stigma: For many families, using pu
- Page 53 and 54: FUTURE TRENDS: FEEDING ALICE More y
- Page 55 and 56: UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT - THE CONSE
- Page 57 and 58: $26,960 annually (if full time, yea
- Page 59 and 60: Difficulty accessing health care: U
- Page 61 and 62: Despite working full time (and havi
- Page 63 and 64: Additional costs of longer commutes
- Page 65 and 66: UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT - THE CONSE
- Page 67 and 68: • Health and financial stability
- Page 69 and 70: of seniors living in poverty have h
- Page 71 and 72: educational consequences of untreat
- Page 73 and 74: survey said cost was the primary re
- Page 75 and 76: had to use their own money or modif
- Page 77 and 78: others, such as caregivers of elder
- Page 79 and 80: the minimum income required to rece
- Page 81 and 82: UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT - THE CONSE
- Page 83 and 84: In the states with the most regress
- Page 85 and 86: children under the age of 18 make u
- Page 87 and 88: UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT - THE CONSE
- Page 89 and 90: • Assistance. Public and nonprofi
- Page 91 and 92: UNITED WAY ALICE REPORT - THE CONSE
- Page 93 and 94: Aron, L., Honberg, R., & Duckworth,
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Carnevale, A., Rose, S., & Cheah, B
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Cunningham, A., & Kienzl, G. (2011)
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Glover, R., Miller, J., & Sadowski,
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Johnson, R. (2015). Housing Costs a
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Mayer, C., & Pence, K. (2008). Subp
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Perez, G. (2016). Latino State of E
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Stetser, M., & Stillwell, R. (2014,
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United Way ALICE Project. (2016). 2