Guest blog by Lisa Lamb, Summer Intern at Early Milestones Colorado
Each day, early childhood education (ECE) professionals step into whirlwinds of learning and living. They ensure that our youngest children have what they need to learn. They build relationships with families. They manage countless details related to health and safety regulations.
And their day doesn’t end when the children head home. They track student learning, prepare lessons, take required state training, and reply to parent messages. They often finish these tasks before rushing off to a second or third part-time job to pay for necessities like food, rent, and gas.
A child’s brain forms over one million new neural connections every second during these early years.1 ECE professionals build intelligence and foster social, emotional, and self-directed learning. We simply can’t keep treating this workforce as if it were a babysitting service.
They hold what can be called the soul economy in their hands. The soul economy is the vital, intangible wealth of human potential, emotional intelligence, and social development that forms the bedrock of any community.
Yet, compensation for ECE professionals in Colorado sits well below the living wage, making it impossible to afford local housing and life necessities. Many rely on Medicaid to support their own families.2
The ECE workforce is staffed mainly by women, who make up over 96% of the field nationally and in Colorado.2 Colorado women earn about 88 cents for each dollar men bring in. This pay gap is a critical issue for the female-dominated ECE field.3
This gap widens for women of color. White women in Colorado earn significantly higher median annual salaries compared to their Black and Latina counterparts in the same roles.2
My view is shaped by my experience working in every role that a licensed child care center needs to function well. I have carried the weight of each of these responsibilities. From the physical exhaustion of 10-hour workdays to the administrative stress of balancing tight budgets, I understand the severity of the ECE workforce’s burnout crisis. This attrition is a continued policy failure with a deeply gendered inequity.
Spanning over 18 years, I started as a volunteer, then served as an assistant teacher, and finally took over as lead teacher in a Montessori preschool classroom. Then, I served as the founder, executive director, director, and lead teacher at Shining Mountains Montessori School (SMMS) in Buena Vista. Finally, I took a step back to help plan SMMS’s infant and toddler program.
Now, I am returning to the classroom as a co-lead and assistant director to help guide our school as it triples in size. I have been deeply involved in the demanding work and learning curves of running a childcare center. I have worked on everything from managing tight budgets and grants to navigating complex licensing rules.
What keeps me grounded is the quiet magic of early childhood development. I believe our most important responsibility is to foster joy, independence, and kindness so that each child can face an uncertain future with confidence and humanity.
By guiding children’s emotional and social regulation, we give them the tools to reach their potential and choose peaceful solutions to difficulties. Dr. Maria Montessori taught us that children thrive in prepared living and learning environments.4 Such success is only possible with supportive (and supported) adults and educators to guide them on their journey to becoming and belonging.
Over the last two years, the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) has taken steps to help. Programs like the expanded Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Consultation, free ECE coursework, and local and state grants for workforce retention show growing support to ECE professional well-being.
As Colorado continues its initiatives, such as Universal Preschool (UPK) and ongoing QRIS and licensing reforms, these programs still risk collapsing under the weight of workforce burnout.5
ECE is a public service that impacts every one of us. In my graduate studies in ECE Policy at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, I am exploring an ECE Relational Resilience Investment (ERRI) framework. ERRI proposes that local and state funding should flow directly to the ECE workforce. The framework focuses on four pillars:
- Fair Pay Initiatives: Matching ECE wages and benefits to local K-12 public school scales so professionals can earn a living wage.
- Paid Time for Reflection: Guaranteeing daily planning hours, so ECE professionals leave work after the children leave.
- Mental Health Support: Providing funding for mental health care so ECE professionals can process the stress and secondary trauma of the job.
- Direct Self-Care Funds: Offering yearly stipends for wellness support, honoring the ECE professional as a whole person.
ERRI recognizes that true quality grows in the relationship between a child who feels safe and adults who feel fully supported.6 It’s time for Colorado’s state leaders, philanthropic partners, and ECE advocates to create frameworks like ERRI as a baseline metric for quality care.
We must stop praising sacrifice and start funding dignity. Building a bright future for our children is our ultimate mandate.
References
1 National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2014). Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Stress_Disrupts_Architecture_Developing_Brain-1.pdf
2 Early Childhood Workforce Index 2024 – CSCCE. (2024). Berkeley.Edu. https://cscce.berkeley.edu/workforce-index-2024/
3 USAFacts. (2025, September 24). What is the current gender pay gap in Colorado? USAFacts. https://usafacts.org/answers/what-is-the-gender-pay-gap-in-the-us/state/colorado/
4 Montessori, M. (1967). The Absorbent Mind.
5 Samuels, C. A. (2022, February 3). We struggle to measure quality child care — and even more to fund it. The Hechinger Report. https://hechingerreport.org/we-struggle-to-measure-quality-child-care-and-even-more-to-fund-it/
6 An Unsustainable Status Quo. (2025). https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/our-work/public-policy-advocacy/feb_2025_an_unsustainable_status_quo_final_0.pdf
7 Examining the Mental Health of Early Childhood Professionals and Children Early in the Pandemic | The Children’s Equity Project. (2023). Cep.Asu. Edu. https://cep.asu.edu/resources/mental-health-report
keyTakeaways
Child care is brain-building, not babysitting. A child’s brain makes over a million new connections every single second during the first three years of life.1 ECE professionals are the builders of intelligence, resilience, and economic foundations.
Our current system relies on unfair sacrifices. We expect highly trained ECE professionals to take on emotional and legal responsibilities while struggling to survive on poverty wages.2 Our child care system survives by taxing the physical and financial health of the ECE workforce.7
Funding dignity is the only solution. We must treat child care as a public good.6 By matching wages and benefits to K-12 public schools, offering consistent mental health support, and providing paid planning time, Colorado can save this profession before it disappears.
