House Speaker Robert DeLeo wants to improve the quality of early childhood education in Massachusetts by increasing salaries and career opportunities for underpaid pre-kindergarten educators.

DeLeo announced major legislation and funding for training and professional development for early education and care professionals. The median income for early childhood educators is between $25,000 and $27,000, barely more than the state's poverty line.

"We must acknowledge that we are at a tipping point. We're facing a 30 percent turnover rate in the EEC workforce. It's a workforce that quite frankly, I believe is in crisis," DeLeo said at a press conference Wednesday.

DeLeo's plan would create ways to measure the quality of Pre-K programs in order to establish tiers of compensation for trained and successful teachers.

A commission report on early education states that approximately 10,000 licensed child care centers in the state serve over 240,000 children and employ around 90,000 educators. There are 14,813 children under six years old on the Department of Early Childhood Education's waiting list of financial assistance.

The bill will be based on a report by a special commission that studied the early education system. The commission included several business groups, which believe improved early education results in not only better students, but also economic development opportunities for the educators themselves. DeLeo called the commission's report "an inventive step forward," for education in the state.

"Quality EEC can dramatically improve children's lives, preparing them for fulfilling futures while also bettering the lives of parents to go to work knowing that their children are well cared-for," DeLeo said.

The report determined that low wages contributeds to high turnover, making it difficult for community-based programs to stay staffed. The average kindergarten teacher earns $67,000 a year, the report states, 168 percent more than the average early educator.

Research has shown that Pre-K programs improve student's likelihood of graduating high school and college.
According to the commission, Pre-K increases high school graduation rates 31 percent and college attendance by over 80 percent. 

"It leads to gainful employment later in life, with better health outcomes, and decreases the chances of incarceration and the need for social services," the commission wrote in an advisory on their report.

The commission suggests an investment of $16,000 to $18,000 per pre-kindergarten age child annually returns a "total public benefit" of over $700,000 over the life of the child.