Jackie Myers: Public investment has made it possible for my child care program to thrive

This commentary is by Jackie Myers, executive director and co-owner of Myers Prouty Children’s Campuses. It was published in VT Digger on October 6, 2024.

I opened my first child care program out of necessity. Recent public investment has made it possible for my program to thrive.

I had a difficult childhood and was pregnant at 15 years old. I was intent on making sure my son had a better childhood than I did, and that determination grew into a passion for ensuring that every child gets a better start.

I initially served six children. That’s how I met Michelle Prouty — who similarly served half a dozen kids in her home. We dreamed of starting a child care center together. With some risk and a lot of hard work, we have run the Myers Prouty Children’s Campuses for 30 years, which now consists of eight programs in the Bennington area. We recently won the Bennington Banner and Manchester Journal’s readers choice award for “best center based childcare and preschool.”

We serve a vulnerable population with complex family situations. Because of my own childhood experiences, I understand the importance of providing all children with quality care. At our programs, that looks like love, stability and positive learning opportunities. Our staff knows that creating a safe environment is critically important.

We also have additional support staff in our classrooms and reserve a part-time child care space in every classroom for children that the Department for Children and Families may have in custody. Public investment has not only made it possible to serve our community in this way, but increased our capacity to do so.

The first funds from Act 76, our state’s newest child care law, allowed us to replace the well-loved furnishings in every classroom. Additional public investment allowed us to create two new programs and a total of 75 new child care spaces that directly addressed community needs. We opened an infant program with 28 new spaces in March; a new afterschool program with 35 spaces opened last August; and we created 12 new toddler spaces in an existing program.

With the increased reimbursements from the state for families using child care tuition assistance, we established a wellness team. We hired a registered nurse, increased our part-time behavior interventionist to full-time and will hire a nutritionist. These positions will work alongside our program’s family support manager to serve both students and their families.

In total, we employ 70 educators and serve about 220 families — many of whom benefit directly from Act 76 funding. The new law expanded the eligibility requirements for child care tuition assistance, which is a program that helps Vermont families pay for quality child care. We’ve been helping families through the application process, and every family that has applied has received tuition assistance.

Just last year, we charged families $250 per week because they couldn’t afford more, even though it meant we, as business owners, took the financial hit in order to provide this essential service to the community. Michelle and I pay ourselves significantly less than what administrators typically earn and prioritize good salaries for the early childhood educators working in our program. This ensures we can hire and retain good staff.

This is a widespread issue in the child care system: many parents can’t afford to pay more and many educators can’t afford to be paid less; but it takes significant resources to run a quality program. Act 76 gets to the root of this issue by channeling more public funds into the system.

Our program is an amazing case study for the progress made possible by public investment in child care. It also demonstrates that the job is not done. I want to thank our child care champion legislators for their work to solve our child care crisis. I encourage everyone to get involved with Vermont’s child care campaign, so that we can ensure every Vermont child gets the best possible start.