Marica Cox Mitchell

Passionate about early ed, educator voice and leadership, panAfrican cultures, eBay bidding and thrift stores. All opinions are my own.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@ehaspel Perhaps this means that a more inclusive and effective child care system includes clear and funded options for families - BOTH early childhood education programs AND “trusted caregivers”.

https://t.co/7bFhFA0opX

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

Compensation is tied to quality. We know that the well-being and expertise of early childhood educators who care for young children have an impact on the quality of services children receive. This has been reemphasized through the data from the @wevisionearlyed
initiative.

[Bainum Family Fdn @BainumFdn]

Early childhood educators — we hear you and we stand with you. As a funder focused on creating a society where all children thrive, equitable compensation for early childhood educators has and will continue to be a priority for us. Read our full statement here: https://t.co/6Hk1rKhCB1

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

QRIS & state systems won’t fund educator compensation or professional org accreditation, but fund raters & coaches from private companies. Who’s profiting off state systems? What is their proximity to young children and the profession? Proximity comes with a pay & power penalty.

[Bainum Family Fdn @BainumFdn]

Lack of accessible child care costs the nation $120 billion and Virginia $3.1 billion annually in foregone wages, lost productivity, and unrealized tax revenue.

[Bainum Family Fdn @BainumFdn]

TOMORROW at 12:30pm! We’ll be joining the Campaign for Grade-level Reading in a #F2F webinar conversation engaging in dialogue around the role philanthropy can play in supporting early childhood educators. Join us! Register ➡️https://t.co/rm4DdDCiji

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

Excited to be the keynote speaker for Boston University's Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being 2023 Keynote Lecture!

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

If we are really rethinking QRIS, perhaps we should also be open to questioning its existence. Other industries/professions don’t have QRIS because they are expected and funded to meet their industry-led/profession-defined standards. These standards are the baseline for all.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@JulieKashen @llhogan7 @NAEYC @nafcc @Egroginsky That fuzzy feeling you get when you see some of your favorite ECE colleagues pushing to make the ideal child care real.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@ehaspel @KatieAlbitz @EarlyLearnNatn Indeed! We have to decouple labor participation and child care; and it’s more like forced labor participation for families using child care subsidies. Certainly child care (like 3rd grade) supports labor participation, but this is not the primary purpose of child care.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

ECE advocates - Nearly every profession has industry standards. It’s hard to co-create & unite under them, but it’s impossible to deliver consistent quality & demand respect w/out them. Without industry standards, professions (& those they serve) are play-dough for the powerful.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

There’s a shortage of truck drivers with CDLs. Let’s hire cyclists since they know how wheels & brakes work. Insane idea, isn’t it?🤯 Just as insane as hiring non-teachers to fill teacher vacancies instead of using policies & public funding to fix the teacher pipeline issues.🙄

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@LBornfreund Precisely…or influence family choice for that matter.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

QRIS can destabilize the early ed sector it’s funded to support by 1) supplanting early ed standards & codes, 2) paying the rating industry well & educators poorly, 3) giving a few govt staff the most power to define & assess quality, 4) constantly shifting for new trends.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@Volcoucou @lynette_fraga @lisagklein Great panel indeed👏🏽. The conversation today shows that there’s lots to learn from VT. That closest to the pain & power quote is my favorite from Ayanna Pressley.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

Thank you! “Child care”, “daycare”, and “providers” oversimplify the intellectually, physically, and emotionally complex work that early childhood educators do. These labels also oversimplify child development. Reimagining or fixing “child care” means reframing the language.

[Dan Wuori @DanWuori]

Read an unfortunately framed news story this morning about inflation’s effect on #childcare costs. Like many recent stories, the piece makes extensive use of the term “daycare” and includes a prominent reference to the rising price of “watching your child.” 🧵

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@SaraLang This is why using workforce productivity as the *sole* rationale for supporting early ed makes me cringe.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

Telling early childhood educators to practice “self-care” w/out giving them what they’ve asked for (like planning time, wellness & PD days, compensation & benefits, autonomy & respect) is gaslighting. Ain’t no amount of candles & tea will do what policies & public $ ought to do.

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@idaroseflorez You’re reminding me about what I miss most about ECE conferences. The opportunity to unravel these complexities and the mental models that reinforce inequities….over carbs and a drink, or two.😉

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

On one hand “child care systems” have limited $$ & can’t pay educators. On the other hand, they duplicate national profession-driven systems, accreditation, certifications & standards…then fund “crosswalks” to show the duplication and fund research that reveal the same gaps.😵‍💫

[Marica Cox Mitchell @mcoxmitchell]

@idaroseflorez It’s complex. Distrust, overreach and disrespect lead to government policies displacing profession-driven systems. This is not the case in other professions where gov’t policies defer to profession-driven systems & standards on matters related to professional practice.