It’s imperative that we support the teachers who build our economy and our future.
For nearly 20 years, my family has operated White House Child Care Centers in Reading, providing essential child care to working families. What began as a small endeavor — my mother, Maribel, caring for 12 children in a modest white house — has grown to serve a broader community of families. However, despite being licensed to care for more children, we face a critical challenge: we simply don’t have the staff to meet the demand.
The early childhood education sector is in crisis, and it’s affecting our ability to support local families. Like many child care providers across Pennsylvania, we struggle to recruit and retain qualified staff because these positions require specialized skills and we can’t afford to pay teachers what they are worth. Without qualified educators, we cannot provide the care that working parents rely on.
As a Temple University graduate with a degree in business management, I fully understood the scale of the problem. My mother’s vision for White House Child Care was to provide safe, nurturing care, but I quickly realized that to succeed, we needed to prioritize our staff. Offering a living wage became essential — not just to retain current teachers, but to recruit new talent. Yet, without enough educators, we are unable to serve the children and families in our community who need us most.
The COVID-19 pandemic made the vulnerabilities of our child care system painfully clear. With federal relief funding, I was able to raise wages and incentivize staff to pursue credentials, improving the quality of care we provide. However, that funding has dried up, and the staffing shortages persist.
A recent survey of 30 child care programs in Berks County showed we are not alone: 80% reported difficulties in recruiting staff. These programs collectively have 58 unfilled positions, which, if filled, could allow them to serve 458 more children. The issue is widespread: 92% of 1,140 child care programs statewide reported staffing shortages, leaving 3,038 positions vacant. If those positions were filled, programs could serve an additional 25,320 children across
Pennsylvania.
Why is it so difficult to fill these positions? The answer is simple: low wages. Child care workers in Pennsylvania earn so little that it’s impossible for most to cover basic living expenses. While early childhood education is a demanding profession that requires skilled workers., the compensation does not reflect its value. We are asking these workers to care for and educate our youngest citizens, yet the pay they receive is far below what’s necessary to support their own families.
This isn’t just a fairness issue; it’s an economic one. When families can’t find affordable, reliable child care, they can’t work. When parents — especially mothers — are forced to stay home because they can’t afford care, businesses lose employees, productivity suffers, and children miss out on critical early learning opportunities.
That’s why I’m calling on Gov. Josh Shapiro to prioritize child care teacher recruitment and retention in his 2025-2026 state budget proposal. Specifically, we need $284 million for a dedicated recruitment and retention initiative to help providers like us offer competitive wages and ensure the long-term sustainability of the child care workforce.
At White House Child Care, we are committed to providing high-quality education, but we cannot achieve the highest standards without the right staff. Pennsylvania’s child care crisis affects us all — families, businesses, and the economy. If we want to build a prosperous future, we must invest in the people who care for our children. The time to act is now.
Steve Lara is the general manager of White House Child Care Centers in Reading. His family’s business has been providing child care services to the community for 18 years.