Deal struck for "pay parity" in early childhood education

A member of the board at the Robin Hood Foundation has died. Alex Navab, a native of Iran, fled the country after the 1979 Islamic revolution. He later received a master’s in business from Harvard University and began his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. He later served on the board at Robin Hood and New York Presbyterian Hospital, as well as a trustee at Columbia University, his undergrad alma mater. He died at age 53 while on vacation, Bloomberg reported.

President Trump has signed into a law a bill that requires the electronic filing of nonprofit tax returns. The “Taxpayer First Act” would also require that these forms be released to the public in an easily accessible way, Philanthropy News Digest reports. Until fairly recently, these forms – even those that were electronically filed – were only available and sold by the IRS as static, non-searchable images, which greatly limited their usefulness.  

Citizens Committee for New York City has a new board member. Tatiana Gutierrez is an attorney who currently works at Nixon Peabody, where she focuses on affordable housing law and related issues. She received both her B.A. and law degrees from Georgetown University, according to a press release. She also serves on the board at Women in Housing Finance and Young New Yorkers for the Philharmonic Benefits Committee.

There is a new program director for arts and cultural heritage at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Emil Kang will lead the foundation’s grantmaking program on the arts as well as promoting them more generally, according to a press release. He most recently worked as the executive and artistic director of Carolina Performing Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

SCO Family of Services raised more than $300,000 at a June 20 gala. The nonprofit then followed up by raising more than $100,000 at a June 12 golf fundraiser. More than 150 people took part in the 39th annual Madonna Heights Golf Classic held in Muttontown, Long Island. Proceeds from the event will benefit Madonna Heights, a 56-acre facility in Dix Hills that helps women and girls recover from trauma. 

Nonprofits are celebrating an agreement to implement “salary parity” in early childhood education citywide. The city contracts with many nonprofits to deliver pre-K and other educational programming on behalf of the city, but there was a significant difference in the funding the city would provide for teachers at nonprofits compared to those that worked for the city Department of Education. 

That could change following an agreement among Mayor Bill de Blasio, the City Council, nonprofits, and organized labor. The goal is to equalize the pay between certified early childhood education teachers and entry-rate Department of Education salaries by October 1, 2021, according to a July 9 press release.

In response to the agreement, Susan Stamler, executive director of United Neighborhood Houses released the following statement:

“Early childhood education staff work hard every day at community-based organizations (CBOs) to educate and care for New York City children and deserve fair compensation for their work. We applaud today’s announcement that New York City will fund a path towards salary parity for teachers, staff, and directors at CBOs with their counterparts in public schools. We appreciate the dedication of DC 37, DC 1707, and the Day Care Council, as well as our city’s leaders, to this historic agreement. 

“As a leader of Campaign for Children, a coalition of over 150 organizations, we know that today’s announcement is a product of years of advocating for high quality early childhood education. In 2016, UNH issued two reports, Losing the Best and Starting Strong, to demonstrate the high performance of CBO programs and offer a new vision for an early childhood system. In 2018, UNH and SeaChange Capital issued a report on a true cost analysis of early childhood education programs in settlement houses that advocated for key investments in the system, including salary parity and more realistic indirect rates.”

Jennifer March of the CCC, meanwhile, had her own take:

“Early childhood education has a transformative impact on children and families — setting the foundation for children’s school success and life-long learning and providing parents with a vital resource that allows them to remain employed and be upwardly mobile. These outcomes are made possible by the teachers, directors and larger early education workforce in community-based and school-based settings across the city. Yet, historically early education teachers in community based organizations (CBOs) have been inadequately compensated in comparison to their Department of Education (DOE) peers, with wide and growing gaps in salaries.

“Today’s labor agreement marks a momentous accomplishment in addressing these pay disparities, providing the CBO workforce with the fairness and respect they have earned and providing children and families with the stability they need from their early education programs.”