Gov. Mike Parson on March 3 shared that he thinks a universal early childhood education expansion bill is necessary to improve readiness for the workforce.

“First of all, when we implemented Early Childhood (Care and Education), we (converged) all those agencies together and said we were going to reform how we do early childhood development in the state,” Parson said during a luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion with Missouri Press Association members. “If you go to Martin Luther King Boulevard in St. Louis, work the clergy up there and find out what the real problems are and how to get kids into the classrooms at school. How are we going to do that and how are we going to be able to do those outreaches to do that? How are we going to be able to use the clergies? The urban league to do that? How are we going to fund those steps to make sure they are going to help with these kids?”

Parson said it doesn’t have to be urban or downtown areas.

“The problem is in almost every one of our communities,” Parson said. “We have got to find out some other ways to get kids in an educational arena. Whatever it takes.”

He named pre-school and educational daycare as options to start educating children early.

“I think there are things we can sell in both chambers when we talk about daycare,” Parson went on. “Daycare is not just about babysitting. If you run a daycare center, you need to be trying to teach kids. Those are the kinds of things we’re trying to think outside the box.”

Being able to expand educational pre-school daycare services is about pulling children into education earlier, but it is also meeting children where they are — especially for those whose parents are employed in shift work.

“The other thing I need to talk to legislators about is shift work,” Parson said. “For most of us that have been around daycares in our communities, they’re only there in the daytime. Hundreds of thousands of people work shift work and need daycares available for swing shifts and midnight shifts.”

For years there has been a shift from the traditional student/parent education formula. 

“You have got some people today who have families while they are still in school,” Parson explained. “You’ve got people at universities who have children. I’d rather figure out a way to watch their kids than watch them drop out of school or drop out of universities or out of the workforce.”

Parson claims the issue is a bigger loss to taxpayers.

“If you can catch things on the front end, it is much cheaper to do it then than to wait until you have problems,” Parson said.

During the press luncheon, Parson also took on teacher salaries. The state has experienced an increasing teacher shortage, especially since the pandemic hit.

“The average pay base for a teacher in the state of Missouri is $25,000,” Parson said. “If you calculate that in your head, it’s about $12.50 an hour and that is who you want to give your kids over to.”

Teachers perform multiple tasks during the school day, including making sure that children are fed, have a daycare to go to and are being taken care of.

“That is the nature of a teacher,” Parson said. “The reason you become a teacher is not for money. But you have to want to do it.”

According to Parson, half of the workforce who decide to become teachers ultimately drop out of the profession. He thinks a lot of the issue comes back to salaries.

“That is something that we can do better,” Parson said. Legislators are working together to see the teacher base salary rate go up from $25,000 to $38,000 annually.

“Let me make sure I am clear here,” Parson said. We are going to pay 70 percent of that at the state level, but local levels have got to put in. I am a firm believer that whether it is workforce development or infrastructure, or any of those things, local levels have to buy in. If they are not interested in doing it, I don’t think it’s the state’s obligation to take on the full funding.”

If the salary increase goes through, it will move Missouri from dead last to around the 30-percent bracket.