Efforts in California and other states to raise the quality of child care and preschool programs are being undermined by the low wages that workers earn in jobs that now require more skills and education, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education released Tuesday.

In California, preschool teachers were paid an average salary of $31,720 in 2015, about half of what California kindergarten teachers earned that year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the report said.

The report, “High Quality Early Learning Settings Depend on a High-Quality Workforce,” comes as several states, including California, are putting much greater emphasis on improving education programs for young children as studies have shown that the first five years – particularly the first three years – are critical to a child’s brain development and the potential for future learning.

Thousands of private and state-operated preschools in California are being rated annually in a Quality Rating and Improvement System that puts an emphasis on continuous improvement, such as the quality of teacher-student interactions and higher-education credits and degrees.

[For more of this story, written by Michael Collier, go to https://edsource.org/2016/low-...l-report-says/565759]