[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 122 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 122
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should designate
May 1, 2003, as ``National Child Care Worthy Wage Day''.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 29, 2003
Mr. Corzine (for himself, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Feingold, Mr.
Kerry, Mrs. Murray, and Mr. Kennedy) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should designate
May 1, 2003, as ``National Child Care Worthy Wage Day''.
Whereas approximately 14,000,000 children are in out-of-home care during part or
all of the day so that their parents may work;
Whereas the average salary of early childhood educators is $16,000 per year, and
only one third of these educators have health insurance and even fewer
have a pension plan;
Whereas low wages make it difficult to attract qualified individuals to the
early childhood education profession and impair the quality of child
care and other early childhood education programs, which is directly
linked to the quality of early childhood educators;
Whereas the turnover rate of early childhood educators is approximately 30
percent per year because low wages and a lack of benefits make it
difficult to retain high quality educators;
Whereas research has demonstrated that young children require caring
relationships and a consistent presence in their lives for their
positive development;
Whereas the compensation of early childhood educators must be commensurate with
the important job of helping the young children of the United States
develop the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual skills they
need to be ready for school;
Whereas the cost of adequate compensation for early childhood educators cannot
be funded by further burdening parents with higher child care fees, but
requires instead public as well as private resources to ensure that
quality care and education is accessible for all families; and
Whereas the Center for the Child Care Workforce and other early childhood
education organizations recognize May 1st as National Child Care Worthy
Wage Day: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
SECTION 1. DESIGNATION OF NATIONAL CHILD CARE WORTHY WAGE DAY.
(a) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate that the
President should designate May 1, 2003, as ``National Child Care Worthy
Wage Day''.
(b) Proclamation.--The Senate requests the President to issue a
proclamation--
(1) designating May 1, 2003, as ``National Child Care
Worthy Wage Day''; and
(2) calling on the people of the United States to observe
``National Child Care Worthy Wage Day'' by--
(A) honoring early childhood educators and programs
in their communities; and
(B) working together to resolve the early childhood
educator compensation crisis.
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