DELAWARE — Allyson Reich did not always know she wanted to pursue a career in early child care work.
When she enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan University in 2023, her major was undecided.
It wasn’t until she took an introductory childhood education course her freshman year that she decided to change her major to inclusive elementary education.
The class required Reich to participate in 20 lab hours at the Ohio Wesleyan Early Childhood Center: the university’s preschool.
“I came in, I got to observe the classes— I was with the yellow giraffes (classroom), and I saw this is a really cool opportunity. I love hanging out with these kids. And I think I want to pursue something in younger education,” Reich said.
Now a junior, Reich has been working as a teacher’s aide at the center for three years.
“I saw how big of an impact the teachers had on all the kids and how great the kids are. Just being able to be in a classroom, I realized I really like this,” Reich said.
A win-win scenario for the preschool and university students
On-campus preschools aren’t uncommon, but they are unique to other centers because they enlist college students as workers.
“Our purpose is twofold: number one is to provide high-quality, early-childhood programming for the local community,” said Ohio Wesleyan ECC Director Kellie Hall.
”We’re the lab school for the university, so our other purpose is to provide a space for college students to have hands-on experiences with young children,” she added.
During a semester, Hall said there are around 30 paid teacher aides, such as Reich, and 60 additional unpaid students. Those students are there for program or class requirements.
Most students are education majors, but the ECC collaborates with other departments as much as possible.
For example, human health and kinetics majors have performed assessments on the preschoolers, one of which resulted in the students realizing the preschoolers struggle with upper-body strength. So, Hall added a pull-up bar to the playground.
Hall also works with environmental studies students to help build garden boxes, which the preschoolers tend to in the spring.
Kelly Gumm, director of the Esther Jetter Preschool at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, said her program follows a similar format.
This year, Gumm has seven part-time student workers, all of whom make minimum wage. In any given semester, she has eight to 15 unpaid Early Childhood Education majors who are required to attend a three-hour block once a week during one semester for their program.
The paid workers include early childhood education, youth and family ministry and social work students.
After their time at the preschools, students walk away with in-field experience they can put on their résumés.
Student workers keep costs down in a low-profit business
The OWU ECC only employs five full-time head teachers staff members, including Hall, who is also an OWU professor and the ECC director.
Why doesn’t Hall hire another full-time teacher? She likes to do it all, even if it stretches her thin.
“It takes a lot of energy and time to do all three things, but I get to still do all those teaching pieces,” Hall said. “I think it’s really important for the OWU students to see I’m doing it.”
It would also be costly to employ another full-time teacher, and the center already operates on a tight budget, like most child care centers do.
Gumm shared similar insights. MVNU’s Esther Jetter preschool operates with only two full-time teachers.
“Even with the lower wages and unpaid field students, it’s still financially challenging. However, without them, we wouldn’t have the quality program we currently experience. It would be much more difficult to stay open.”
Kelly gumm, director of the esther jetter preschool
“Even with the lower wages and unpaid field students, it’s still financially challenging,” Gumm wrote in an email.
“However, without them, we wouldn’t have the quality program we currently experience,” she added. “It would be much more difficult to stay open too.”
Ohio’s hourly median wage across all industries is $23.11, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That adds up to $47,140 annually for a full-time worker.
The median wage for a full-time child care worker is just $28,230 a year — about $13.57 an hour.
“They’re here because they love this model and the benefits are really good, but the pay is still not what it should be for what we do here,” Hall said.
“I feel like there’s recognition, but they’re not being paid accordingly,” Hall said. “It’s not an easy fix or we would have fixed it by now.”
Raising salaries is not the solution
Raising teacher salaries would require the center to increase tuition, which would put a strain on parents, who already pay high costs for child care across the state.
Only parents with very low incomes qualify for child care assistance. Meanwhile, state reimbursement rates often don’t reflect the true cost to provide care. Child care providers also have to meet extra requirements to receive state-funded child care subsidies, which means filling out lots of extra paperwork.
“I really wish that we could service more families in the community, but we just don’t have the resources to help with the subsidized part,” Hall said. “That just takes a lot of admin work that we don’t have (the capacity to do).”
Yearly tuition rates for the OWU ECC are:
- $1,634 for 3-4 year-olds enrolled in the Tuesday/Thursday morning schedule.
- $2,438 for 3-4 year-olds enrolled in the Monday/Wednesday/Friday morning schedule.
- $2,438 for 4-5 year-olds enrolled in the Monday/Wednesday/Friday morning or afternoon schedule.
- $3,968 for 4-5 year-olds enrolled in the Monday-Friday morning or afternoon schedule.
Both the MVNU and OWU preschools rely on tuition to fund most of their operations, but Hall said she is fortunate to not have to worry about paying for rent or utilities for the center because they are covered by the university.
The school year is divided into two 15.5-week terms to accommodate the Ohio Wesleyan student calendar.
Hall said those rates are comparable to similar programs in the area, despite the slightly shorter schedule than other centers. That pricing reflect’s the center’s highly-regarded status.
“In the Delaware Moms Group [on Facebook], when somebody asks for preschool, we’re usually the top recommendation. Families tell other families, and then they come. We have this very good reputation, so I don’t spend any money advertising,” Hall said.
How do the preschoolers benefit?
The preschoolers enrolled in these university preschool programs receive more attention and supervision through lower student-to-teacher ratios.
Hall said the ratio is always at least 10 preschoolers to two adults, but there are usually three or four.
This semester at MVNU’s preschool, the student-teacher ratios are 20:5 for the 3-year-olds, between 24:5 and 24:7 for the 4-year-olds and between 24:4 and 24:6 in the five-year-old classrooms.
“It allows us to really do high-quality work with children and allows children to get individual attention. And that’s another thing that makes us different,” Hall said.
Both centers also follow an emergent curriculum, which means learning plans are based on the interests, questions and curiosity of the children, rather than a pre-set agenda.
For example, one of the classes at the ECC had various lessons related to the Winter Olympics two weeks ago because the students were interested in the games.
But both Hall and Gumm said the greatest strength of their centers is the role university students play.
“Working together, the preschool students benefit from experienced teachers as
well as teacher candidates who are young, energetic and have fresh ideas,” Gumm said.
Both centers also collaborate with university students in other departments too. Each year, the Esther Jetter preschoolers attend the art, music and movement class’s presentation of Goldilocks, and the students love it.
Gumm also reads children’s books written and illustrated by an MVNU art class. The children reviewed the books after.
Both centers do much more than just preparing preschoolers for kindergarten.
For Gumm, it’s most important the students walk away social and emotional skills and a love for school.
“We want them to know that school is a great place to be and have a great school experience so they’re excited about going to school,” Gumm said. “Their ideas are valued and they are engaged when they’re there and people are going to pay attention to their feelings.”
Gumm said she could not teach that lesson without the help of her university students.