The Early Educator Investment Collaborative (EEIC) has published an opinion piece on The Hill about the urgent need to “redesign the preparation and compensation pathways for early educators” in the wake of the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19.

The piece is authored by EEIC co-chairs Sarah Vecchiotti, vice president for research and program innovation at the Foundation for Child Development, and Rebecca Gomez, program officer for the Education program at the Heising-Simons Foundation.

“The low wages paid to even the most educated early childhood professionals aren’t enough to withstand continued economic upheavals for families,” the authors note. “There are promising solutions. Some states and municipalities have partially addressed this issue by paying prekindergarten teachers the same as their K-12 counterparts. Now is the time to make such efforts national and system-wide for early care and education.”

Read the full op-ed at The Hill.

Last week, Rebecca Gomez also shared a blog post on our Foundation website about the essential role early educators play in “providing critical early learning experiences during a child’s first years of life and supporting parents to work and to further their child’s learning outside of the classroom.” Check out that blog post here.

EEIC is a group of early childhood funders working to advance the highest standards of educator quality, support educators’ preparation and professional learning, and achieve professional compensation that reflects the transformational value of early childhood educators. The Heising-Simons Foundation is a founding member of EEIC, alongside the Foundation for Child Development, Buffet Early Childhood Fund, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Ballmer Group, the Bezos Family Foundation, the Stranahan Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Learn more about EEIC here.