Pay Equity: Berna Artis and Owen Schochet
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It seemed fair to pay early childhood educators the same as K-12 teachers with similar education, experience, and skill. Taxpayers and policymakers in Washington, DC, agreed, setting up the Pay Equity Fund and increasing ECE salaries by $15,000 - $20,000 per year. The move stabilized the ECE workforce and opened more childcare and preschool slots for families, but each year, it’s a struggle to maintain funding. NAEYC’s Daniel Hains talks with DCAEYC Executive Director Berna Artis and Mathematica Senior Researcher Owen Schochet about what’s working, what’s threatened, and what DC’s experiment signals about the fate of similar pay equity efforts around the country.
Host
Daniel Hains
NAEYC Chief Policy and Professional Advancement Officer
Daniel Hains leads NAEYC’s federal and state policy and advocacy, higher education accreditation, and professional recognition efforts and works with NAEYC’s members and affiliates to implement NAEYC’s non-partisan early childhood education policy agenda.
Guests
Berna Artis
Executive Director, DCAEYC
Berna Artis is a passionate educator and leader with over 25 years of experience in early childhood education. She holds a bachelor’s in Teaching English as a Second Language and a master’s in Early Childhood Education. A former high school teacher and a lead teacher in a classroom for 2-year-olds, she transitioned into her first leadership role in 2006. Berna is deeply committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion, consistently advocating for quality education for all children and families, especially those from underrepresented communities. Before leading DCAEYC as executive director, she served eight years on the DCAEYC Board (four as vice president of programs and four as board president.) Berna also contributes her expertise to numerous committees and initiatives, including the SECDCC Program Quality Committee, a K–8 school board, and the DC Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Task Force. Berna also is an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia, where she teaches and mentors aspiring early childhood educators.
Owen Schochet, Ph.D., MPP
Senior Researcher, Mathematica
Owen Schochet is a nationally recognized expert specializing in quantitative approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of public programs and policies that serve young children, families, and educators. He has served in leadership roles on several studies for federal, local government, and foundation clients. These studies include programs for people with low incomes offering services related to employment, childcare and early education, economic well-being, and nutrition. Schochet currently directs the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund Impact and Cost Effectiveness (PEF Impact) and the Child and Adult Care Food Program Participation Among Childcare Providers Data Analysis (CACFP PAC) studies. He is an alumnus of the Child Development and Social Policy Lab at Georgetown University, a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow, and a recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Koppitz Fellowship. He holds a Ph.D. in Human Development and Public Policy (Psychology) and an MPP from Georgetown University.