New Parents and the Economics of Paid Leave.

Many parents return to work soon after a child’s birth. In fact, in the United States, 1 in 4 mothers, primarily those with lower income, return just two weeks after delivering their child.
 
 CT Paid Leave offers up to 12 weeks of income replacement to parents to bond with their child.
 
 Commissioner Beth Bye from the Office of Early Childhood, is an education specialist, and she was an early advocate for CT Paid Leave. She joins me for a discussion about the economic benefits of paid leave, which includes parents saving thousands of dollars in childcare expenses.
 
 For more information about the Office of Early Childhood : https://www.ctoec.org

To apply for benefits got to: CT Paid Leave Authority (PFMLA)| Home | Official Site 

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Transcript

Nancy Barrow: 0:01

Hello Connecticut, and welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. The title basically says it all. I'm Nancy Barrow, and I will be delving into this new state program and how it can help you and your family. This podcast will give you information you should know about Connecticut Paid Leave and maybe just a little bit more Connecticut paid leave brings peace of mind to your home, family and workplace. Welcome to The Paid Leave Podcast. We are talking about the economic benefits of Connecticut Paid Leave. And research shows that children in the prenatal to three year old stage is the most important because it lays the foundation for their cognitive and emotional development. It's important that infants and toddlers get nurturing care and stimulating interactions to help their brains grow during this time. For parents, it's not always possible to stay at home during that period, maybe for financial reasons or maybe personal choice, but many parents return to work soon after a child's birth. One in four mothers, primarily those with lower income, return within just two weeks, even though they want to take longer leave if they could afford it. My guest is Commissioner Beth Bye from the Office of Early Childhood she's an education specialist, a leader in education advocacy and a leader in politics with a focus on early childhood. She first ran and won a seat on the West Hartford school board way back in 2001 and as a senator, she was an early child care advocate, and we appreciate the supporter that she was of Connecticut Paid Leave. Welcome to the podcast, Commissioner, do you miss being a senator?

Beth Bye: 1:43

Not at all. I enjoyed it. I think, you know, there's a time that and I had my turn, and I really enjoyed it, and I think I did my best. I did a good job. We passed on important items, including the original funding for paid leave to fund the study when I was Chair of Appropriations. That was an important priority. But no, I love being commissioner at the Office of Early Childhood. I've worked in childcare since I was 18, so this is land that I know. And I've also worked in Birth to Three when I was at crack. So I know that world home visiting is a little new to me. It's it's really great working for Governor Lamont when I ran, you know, I was always the only woman in the West Hartford delegation. Mostly I represented West Hartford that was the largest population. Now, West Hartford has all women representatives in the House and Derek slapp In the Senate, who's great and a good advocate for women. I think we need allies as well as women. We need both. We haven't come far enough, but we've come a long way to think that West Hartford's whole delegation is made up of women.

Nancy Barrow: 2:43

How was the past legislative session to early childhood issues? Any wins for you?

Beth Bye: 2:48

Yeah, definitely some wins. I think you'd be hard pressed to find another two year budget that had increases as large as this budget, we passed 11% a year increase for our CARE for Kids, which is a child care subsidy. When I was in the Senate, we used to scrap for one or 2% Governor Lamont and OEC made an agreement with 1199 for 11% a year, increase for three years, and we are also applying that to child care center. So that's a big, big improvement. We also increased the rates for our school readiness and child daycare programs. So for families that need childcare, we've increased those rates because programs have been having a hard time making it fiscally and so those rates were increased 18% on top of last year, the infant toddler rates were increased 50% Wow. So I think it was, you know, in terms of money, it was really good. But also in terms of some social justice issues, the legislature passed a bill that now presumptively allows families that have children in foster care to get child care supports without needing to go through, you know, the complex milieu, and also, same for families experiencing homelessness, they will be eligible for care for kids. So you know, if a family's in a shelter with their child, you know they can access preschool and child care, and they go the front of the line. That's wonderful. So those were some big wins. We're also allowing communities to turn their preschool spaces into infant toddler spaces, if that better meets their community need. And we know in Connecticut, I think we were number one in the kids count for preschool access, so we have enough preschool but we don't have enough infant toddler care.

Nancy Barrow: 4:37

Well, it's a tough business right now. Yeah, the business

Beth Bye: 4:41

model hasn't worked for 40 years. Parents can't afford to pay the full cost of high quality care. And as you so correctly, started this podcast with information that those first five years are so critical, and the first three years you know even more. So you know we've got to. Get our priorities straight like they have in many other countries, by making sure families have access to high quality care.

Nancy Barrow: 5:08

Why is it that early child care providers have some of the lowest wages in the state? I know that you said that it's changing like you know, there was a provision that's changing. But why are they the lowest wages in the state.

Beth Bye: 5:21

I think, well, in the country. I mean, this is, this is a, this is a national problem, and it requires a national and federal response to really fix it. But you really, you know, we're learning a lot about through lines. You have to look historically. This kind of work was often not compensated in the economy. So it didn't really have a value, if you will. Now we certainly see a value and a hardcore value. We know that the lack of infant toddler care alone cost Connecticut $1.2 billion a year in economic activity, right? So now we can put a price tag on it. When, when economic researchers study this, we think they're more than 40,000 women who want to work who are not in the labor force in Connecticut because of a lack of child care. So there really are costs to our economy. You know, the governor, you'll often hear him talk about we need 100,000 workers. Well, a lot of those are women, and childcare could solve a lot of that, but traditionally, it's women's work from women's work, so as soon as it becomes more expensive than it's worth it for the women who usually has a lower salary to work, then the family keeps the child home, and so there's this artificial cap on what programs can charge. It's not a it's not a supply and demand, classic business, right? Because if so, infant care would be $2,000 a week, because so many people need it, but parents can't afford to pay $2,000 a week. So you know which the costs are probably more like$700 a week, but the most expensive places are 500 so programs are fundraising. They're taking after school kids running summer camps, doing, if they're doing it right, you know, doing a lot of things to make sure that's high quality, but, but it's you can't make it on infant, toddler care alone, you just the budget just doesn't work.

Nancy Barrow: 7:25

Well with the child care crisis. How does Connecticut paid leave lessen at least a little of the stress on the overburdened child care system?

Beth Bye: 7:34

I think paid leave does more than just I mean, we know it does a lot of things. I mean, first of all, I just had my first grandchild about 11 days ago

Nancy Barrow: 7:44

My gosh, congratulations!

Beth Bye: 7:47

Yes, and I see that brand new baby and that family adapting to a brand new baby. And when you started by saying, many families go back after two weeks, she would be getting ready now, and that's just hard to fathom how they would do that given the demands of a new baby and just all that. And instead, they're using paid leave, and they're able to stay home. And really, I see what they're doing. They're learning how this who this little creature is, what her personality is, how to respond to her. All that is supporting the baby's brain health and the baby's brain development. So, you know, paid leave allows for that for kids across the state, and so they're building those executive function skills and self regulation starts at birth. You know, learning how to put themselves to sleep, you know, learning how to play and settle down without being nursed. You know, for a little while, all those things are happening in those early years, and parents are having time to really get to know their child. And also, I find our son and daughter in law are reading a lot about child development. If they were racing back to work, they would not be growing their background knowledge about how to best support this child. But one of the really neat findings about paid leave is we had some management consultants come in and just spend 10 weeks studying Connecticut, looking for what the real demand for infant and toddler care was, and so when they looked at everything, we realized we hadn't counted the impact of paid leave, and that paid leave is saving Connecticut the need for about 8000 infant, toddler spaces. So that's a wow, that's a big deal. Yeah, economically, that's a big deal. It really is. It really is. So it's good for the families, and it opens up those spaces for parents who are ready to go back to work so it's a good thing.

Nancy Barrow: 9:50

So how do you make child care more affordable for lower income families and marginalized communities? That's a real problem.

Beth Bye: 9:58

Yeah, and I think in. Connecticut, we're so different than other states. You know, we're a small state, and we have more than $300 million assigned to this every year. Most states, even states like Massachusetts, mostly just use the federal funds that come in. So Connecticut has 15,000 children in state supported Child Care classrooms. Now, parents have a copay. No matter how much they make, they have a copay so that they're they're responsible for about paying up to about 10% of their income for child care, which, which is, you know, can be a lot. So we have those, and then we support about 21,000 families with the child care subsidy, meaning it's a voucher that the parents can take with them to family. Child care home even also a center and helps them. And again, with that, they also have a copay based on their income. So so we're helping a whole lot of families in Connecticut. There's about 35,000 cohorts. They're not, you can't add them because there's some overlap. But you know, we know we're helping more than 25,000 families a year afford child care. But I would say that's probably maybe 20% of the families in that income category that need help. So we're proud of it, but it's still not enough.

Nancy Barrow: 11:25

So I know what you do in your office is also get licensing for child care businesses and so many of those failed during the pandemic. Have you seen an uptick in any of the licensing?

Beth Bye: 11:39

Yeah, I would say it, we would we thought we could lose up to 40% of child care programs during the pandemic because of the lower enrollment and keeping the businesses open. But the federal government, this is where, like people have to pay attention to that American rescue plan really save child care in Connecticut, we lost just about 1% of our programs, one and a half percent, maybe less than we lost in the three years before the pandemic, because we were able to get out significant checks to both support programs and also to enhance the wages to try to hold on to some of the workforce. Now, enrollments aren't back to where they were because programs haven't been able to recruit enough workers to open all their classrooms, which hurts their bottom line. So you know, they're still really struggling. But Governor Lamont was really clear that we had to shore this up, and we applied the money quickly and just this, just this month, we sent out another $50 million in wage supports for early childhood educators, thanks to the legislature and Governor Lamont prioritizing this last session. So, and we'll do one more round of stabilization this summer for programs and high need communities so.

Nancy Barrow: 13:02

And is it really just as simple as getting a better income for these childcare workers to to attract them to the field?

Beth Bye: 13:11

Well, that, and you know, status as well. I was in Eastern Connecticut last week, and the woman from the community colleges was saying they've seen a 65% drop in in early childhood education. Majors like parents and kids are looking for a return on their investment now with colleges, and they're finding, you know, they look at early childhood and even if they want to be teachers, they're like, Well, I can't afford to do that. So we're really starting to work with high schools. We're working on getting the wages improved and and marketing that this is a great career. It's been such a great career for me. I spent, you know, 25 years in classrooms and as an administrator. And just the impact you can have is is amazing. But we've gotta, we gotta work on the wages first and foremost.

Nancy Barrow: 14:06

Well, let's talk about your journey from educator in the field and to now the commissioner to the Office of Early Childhood. How did you get there?

Beth Bye: 14:14

I think there two events in my life that led me to be Commissioner. One was I was a pre med major in college, but I was putting myself through college, and so I worked a lot in the summer and camps, etc. So I'd always worked with kids, and I needed a work study job. And I was walking from my dorm to my class, and I saw there was a little daycare center to the left, it was an infant toddler center. I walked over, asked if they had work study they did, and I got a job at the Durham infant center. And you know, it's so different now, but to go back in history to 1980 child care was. Seen as social justice work and feminist work. So this was a parent Co Op child care center for women to go to graduate school, and so you worked alongside parents in this incredibly high quality setting. And I was sort of hooked, and one of the parents was a child development professor. And I thought, well, let me try to take child development. So when I combine child development, which really is a science class in many ways, sure, and I love sciences with that, I ended up working all four years there. I served on the board my last two years, and just wanted to study. And then went and got my master's in developmental psychology, and I always loved politics, so my minor was policy politics, and was lucky enough to land in a graduate school where we studied the impact of child care in regulations in three states. So I was in hundreds of programs are doing ratings as a graduate student and and was really lucky in grad school to have a professor that was in the thick of that debate around, is infant, toddler care bad for kids? And so that was the first event that just changed me, and I knew this was my passion. And and then when I was working in, I was working in at the time, I was working in Darien at a YWCA, and my boss suggested I get involved with South Fairfield, A.E.Y.C. which was the Association for Education and Young Children, and they had a committee on worthy wages, because working in childcare, you know, I just kept losing all my teachers. So like in 1991 I was part of a march in Stanford for fair wages. That's where I met Julie Kushner. As part of that, we came up and worked on school readiness. You know that worthy wages committee kept meeting, and I'd never been in the legislature before, but we worked to get money passed for school readiness to start child care and preschool in the lowest income communities in Connecticut. And it was one of those things where the first year we couldn't pass $500,000 it came back the next year. So this was the beginning of my advocacy life, and welfare reform had passed, and Chef versus O'Neill was lost. And so the legislature was looking for a way that year to not bus kids and to deal with the women having to go back to work at 21 months, which was a draconian, you know, welfare change. And so we we couldn't get $500,000 in 1995 and I think it was 1996 or 97 we got $40 million and and state funded preschool started all over Connecticut. And I was like, if this kind of change can happen in one year, imagine, and I would say I would compare this last legislative session the closest thing we've had since 1996 to people recognizing we got to do something. And this is important. I'm sorry that was a little long winded, but those were the two events.

Nancy Barrow: 18:21

I appreciate that. It's a good thing you didn't go to med school. You know, we would have lost out on someone who's who's been such an advocate. And speaking of that, you were really supporting paid leave when it was even just eight weeks.

Beth Bye: 18:35

I was there planting a tiny seed. It was really the work of Guelph and other organizations that just worked so hard for so many years. They never gave up, and they stayed so pleasant in the face of, you know, losing year after year. It's just a really good example of how you have to stick with

Nancy Barrow: 18:55

it. What were the early discussions like around paid leave?

Beth Bye: 18:59

I think it really felt out of reach. I can remember Betty Gallo, who was a lobbyist, and I think it was Kate Farrar at the time at Guelph, or even maybe pre Kate, where we were just, you know, they'd come talk to us and say this wasn't true in any state. And the year I was chair of approach, when we passed this, the state was cutting a billion dollars a year because of the fiscal downturn. Just didn't really feel doable. But Betty felt like, if we can just fund a study, you know, let's just look into it, fund a study. So that was what it looked like in the early years. And I think Betty, you know, was one of the best lobbyist up at the Capitol. And I think she was right. We just had to stay after it and take it in steps, so that that was where, where I was engaged at the very beginning with Tony Walker to fund a study. Very interesting and be a lot of reach. I can't believe. Here and existing and benefiting little children's brains and families every day.

Nancy Barrow: 20:04

Yeah, and, and if you have to take care of someone you love, no matter what that family looks like, that the broad definition of family. I mean, it's such a beautiful

Beth Bye: 20:12

It's fabulous. I have two sisters with Huntington's thing. disease, and so I help them out. And, and I just know that having the ability what it means to them that they have siblings, or we have seven kids in our family, but to have siblings who have the ability to get time off from work to help them, it helps the whole family. You know, you're not people aren't running out at eight at night to do laundry. You know, people are taking paid time off from work to help them and, and it's a real difference.

Nancy Barrow: 20:46

Yeah, and it's good we have Connecticut FMLA too to give you your job back. So it's that

Beth Bye: 20:51

Exactly all of it!

Nancy Barrow: 20:52

Um, tell me a little bit about the Blue Ribbon Panel on child care. It's, it's a new program, right? So can you tell me what is happening?

Beth Bye: 21:00

So Governor Lamont really wanted to put some different minds and big minds at a table to spend 10 or 11 months really studying how we can attack this problem in Connecticut from a lot of different angles, the child care system, the child care system, you know, it really doesn't work for families. It's too expensive. Whether you're a family that makes $20,000 a year or $100,000 a year, child care is too expensive for you to pay off your student loans, have a home and pay for child care. So it's business leaders, it's child care directors, it's public school superintendents, CBIA folks that are that have been in corporate America. We have, you know, the head of HR for Yale, New Haven health, just an electric boat, human resource lead to, you know, just to get people to table, to bring the problems to the fore and and try to come up with a five year plan for our state to address these challenges so it's broken into equity and access, making sure parents have access and equitable access. Workforce. What are we going to do about our workforce, and what that means for the quality of programming? Then systems. What are some state systems that could be simplified or enhanced to make the system work better? And then fiscally? What do we need to do fiscally to address this challenge? So the plan is due in December, which is super ambitious. We've spent almost three years before the pandemic doing strategic planning and so that that helps us, but it is great to have both experienced early childhood educators and new minds at the table, sure, business minds and things like that. Yeah, they just think differently. Yeah, so and child care providers are businesses, and when these business executives try to see, wow, this really doesn't work that well. No matter how much you scrimp and save and whatever your business model in early childhood, it's hard to make the bottom line work. So we're looking for ways to help a lot of times in the US, we get hung up on looking at what other states are doing? I've been lucky to participate in the Salzburg Global Seminar and been very tight with in learning about the plan in the EU and in Germany for infant and toddler care. And that is where we, last year, added 1300 infant toddler spaces. Most states are doing this thing where they try to come down to pre K for like they start that way, but in Germany, they started with infants and toddlers. And so Monica lutke, from Germany has been super helpful to me, providing, you know, some guidance, and we've been able to add 1300 infant toddler spaces using data. Basically, we look at it as a childcare desert, and does it have a lot of high need families? And we assigned 1300 new infant toddler spaces in the past 12 months, which is significant. We doubled the number of state funded infant toddler spaces, which means for families are affordable because there's a copay, but the state pays the largest portion. We also have, as I said, increased the rate for subsidy for infant toddler care significantly. We had done that three years ago, so we built that 11% for three years on top of a base that was already higher. So part of it is impacting the part of the system that we control at OEC. Paid leave helps some families need less of it, and then we're really leaning into family, child. Care. It's a really great solution for our youngest learners, and we have great family child care supports throughout the state. Thanks to some funding from four CT, we were able to support family child care across the state. We had had just five small pilots, but now we've been able to permanently fund. We use the funding, the philanthropy to test it, and now we're using federal funds to support family child care programs across the state and their infant toddler care tends to be a little more affordable for families. And I think, as a developmental psychologist, I will say, you know, those small settings are also can be really nice for young children's brains, where it's just a little less noise and stimulation. One of my children did great in infant toddler care at a center, and the other one was overstimulated. And even though I was director of a center, I sent her to a family child care home three days a week, and she came with me two days a week. So they can be really good options for some families. So we're trying to enhance those have really been dropping off over the past decade, and we've been able to flatten that curve and maintain more and we want to even expand more into family child care.

Nancy Barrow: 26:17

It's really interesting that you've drawn from Europe. They really have an interesting philosophy. There a different philosophy than I think that we as Americans have.

Beth Bye: 26:26

In a way, yes, but you know, Germany is not that different, and it's not a coincidence. You know, Germany has a lot of manufacturing. They have this need for a manufacturing workforce, as does Connecticut and so starting with infants and toddlers was something that that they were very purposeful about. And so I do think Germany's not that difference. The biggest difference we just spent some time at a research institute this spring in Germany.

Nancy Barrow: 26:58

Well, you know, we're still struggling to get a national paid leave program. And you know, the countries that don't have it are Palau, Micronesia, you know it. So we're struggling in the same way, different, differently.

Beth Bye: 27:11

Connecticut's leading the way.

Nancy Barrow: 27:13

You're right.

Beth Bye: 27:14

We are a role model. And I think, you know, it's important for us to feature this in our Blue Ribbon plan, so that when other states look at how did Connecticut get there, the paid leave is part of the story.

Nancy Barrow: 27:25

Sure, and part of the solution, exactly, besides the job you have now, what has been your favorite job and why?

Beth Bye: 27:33

That's a really good question. I think my favorite job, I have to go way back. My favorite job was teaching fifth grade. I loved being a toddler teacher, and then I just did one year while I was, you know, waiting to get into graduate school, and it was just so fun being in a school culture, being around 10 year olds all day. I i really do like being around children and families and and I should say, you know, being Director of School for Young Children in West Hartford was just a delight because we were able to build a new school, and we were able to bring in children from Hartford and West Hartford who otherwise wouldn't have access. And it was a lab school, and working with the families has always been one of my favorite things, but that year with 10 year olds. I just think of those kids and I smile. The relationships you build as a teacher are there's nothing there's nothing like them. So I think when I retire, I will be back in direct care somehow.

Nancy Barrow: 28:35

So do you think you'll be a teacher again?

Beth Bye: 28:38

Yeah, I don't know if I'll be a teacher. I do think something like child life. You know, my wife has significant health issues and is doing pretty well right now, very well right now, but I just have always felt comfortable in hospitals, which is probably the pre-med. And as a child life specialist, you get to support parents at the really vulnerable phase. And and you could, you could. So I think about, I already have my master's in child development, it wouldn't be too hard. And, yeah, so that's what I think next. I'm I've got a few years, but they've got work to do next. It will be direct care with with people I don't want to be in charge anymore. When this, when this is over, this has been the hardest in charge job I've ever had!

Nancy Barrow: 29:20

I bet, I bet it has been. And before we end the podcast, I just want to bring it back to Connecticut paid leave for a minute. What are you most proud of when you reflect on your involvement with Connecticut Paid Leave?

Beth Bye: 29:31

I'm really proud to have voted for it and and been supporting it from the beginning. But more than anything, I'm proud of the advocates, because it was such a sustained effort. And it just shows that you know when you're on the right side of history, sometimes it takes, especially if you're early, it takes extra time, but to see it and to see family members be able to take advantage. Of it. And look at that little baby Ivy, and think what a difference it makes for her parents to have paid leave, because you've also forced the hands of private companies to offer paid leave in many ways, if they don't want to participate. So I think it's just, I think it's remarkable. It is going to we're going to, we're going to look back on Connecticut and say this state really showed the way, because 12 weeks is not insignificant, and we didn't start small. I'm really proud to be part of the Lamont administration where, you know, he wants to make it a family friendly state, which is means he believes in the future as do we, you know, and let's start early. Let's invest early. And that's what this does, and it puts it in the hands of the parents, and I know it's for other family members as well. But as a developmental psychology person, I see it's going to make a huge difference for those low brains forever.

Nancy Barrow: 30:59

Which is really what the bottom line is, right?

Beth Bye: 31:01

Bottom line.

Nancy Barrow: 31:02

Commissioner Beth, by thank you so much for being on the

Beth Bye: 31:05

Thank you for having me. This is great.

Nancy Barrow: 31:07

Thank you so much for sharing such good information about the Office of Early Childhood too. It's so valuable to parents and families.

Beth Bye: 31:13

We're so lucky. It's a great office.

Nancy Barrow: 31:15

For more information on the Office of Early Childhood, go to ctoec.org, and to set up an account and apply for benefits, please go to ctpaidleave.org This has been another edition of the paid leave podcast. Please like and subscribe so you'll be notified about new podcasts that become available. Connecticut Paid Leave is a public act with a personal purpose. I'm Nancy Barrow, and thanks for listening.