Melinda Yvonne Miller for #GaNeedsChildCare Story Bank - Teachers

Speaker: Melinda, Savannah, GA

Melinda: Hello, my name is Melinda. I live in Savannah, Georgia. I am an educator. I've been an educator for 13 years. I have worked with pre K through high school. One of the most difficult challenges for my parents is affordable child care, not good child care, but affordable child care. Most of my parents are single, be it male or female because we do have single dads out here raising children. Also, most of my parents work, but they feel like they're being penalized because they may make a little too much and can't receive assistance. How can a parent, especially a single parent with two or three children making minimum wage make too much for assistance with child care? Even those who may make a little more than minimum wage, which $10 isn't much, especially if you have two children, with the cost of living. How can that be too much to receive assistance for child care? I would love to have been a child care provider, but I'm afraid because of all the stories that I am hearing from people that I know who have been in the child care providing business for decades, who are losing children because the parents can't afford.

Melinda: I love educating children. It is my wholehearted belief that the younger we start teaching our children, the better advantages they will have. Children learn easier and quicker. the younger they are. I cannot stress how important early childhood is to an infant from 0 to 3 before they start. Pre-K is when the learning actually starts. But if parents are working and child is not in a proper child care setting, we are losing valuable years. The early years are the most valuable years when it comes to educating our children. We need adequate training for our child care providers. They can't do that if they don't receive assistance. Parents can't afford to pay for child care. If they don't receive assistance. Our children need our help. Our parents need help providing for their children.

Melinda: Some of the greatest challenges is a lack of resources, resources to provide the training, tools, equipments that we need. Daycare providers need, Pre-K providers need. Daycare is no longer a place where you just drop your children off and they sit for 8, 9, 10 hours to a mom or dad picks them up. Daycare is a place of early education, early training. Daycare is the place where our children learn to use the potty. Daycare is the place where our children learn to hold forks and spoons. Daycare is the place where our children learn just to sit and eat and drink at a table. Daycare is the place where our children learn to socialize. Daycare is the place where our children learn, get their first learning on technology. But without resources, daycares do not have the tools. A lot of them do not have the staff. Staff is a major resource for a lot of these child care providers because they cannot afford to pay for extra help. Our child care providers are lacking the resources and bodies and equipment.

Melinda: I think our elected officials already know that as a state, the United States, we are lagging. We are lagging behind. Our children are lagging academically because we do not provide our children from day one, from birth, all the necessary tools, equipment, resources that they need for advancement. Our country specializes on the minimum, the bare minimum. We cannot be in an advanced nation specializing on the bare minimum. Our providers need more than a basic minimum wage. Our children deserve more than a basic minimum source of care. I want our elected officials to know that it does not matter what AI or what other advancement our country makes if we don't make the investment in our children at an early age. Thank you.