At his April 29 press conference, Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves announced plans to host a community-wide summit at the end of May focused on solving the city’s ongoing childcare crisis – an issue Inweekly has been covering since May 2023. On Thursday, the mayor will give us the specific details at his weekly presser.
- What we know so far: The summit will bring together the Children’s Trust, daycare providers, the Early Learning Coalition (ELC), and childcare experts from across Florida to develop actionable solutions to a problem that affects families across all income levels in our community.
“I have not met anybody in the city yet that tells me that we’ve solved the childcare crisis,” Mayor Reeves stated at his April 29 press conference.
He added, “It’s kind of like the same way that we’ve solved the housing crisis. And so I think we have a general consensus that at every income level, whether you’re paying a thousand dollars a month for a kid at a church or you’re subsidized, that we don’t have enough seats for our kids.”
A Crisis with Multiple Dimensions
When Inweekly first reported on this issue in May 2023, Pensacola faced significant childcare and early development program reductions due to a lack of qualified workers. Pensacola State College had announced the closure of its campus daycare operated by Campfire USA, while several local churches were scaling back their childcare programs.
- Meanwhile, the Early Learning Coalition had $22 million in funding to help parents pay for childcare but maintained a waiting list of 568 children because facilities were operating at only 76% capacity due to staffing shortages.
The Business Impact of Childcare Shortages
Mayor Reeves emphasized that the childcare crisis impacts Pensacola’s economy in multiple ways:
“There are very few topics in this world that you can knock off really three things,” the Mayor explained. “Number one, the workforce aspect of this. How many architects, engineers, construction workers do we have at home right now because they can’t get somebody because they can’t get childcare?”
According to statistics shared by the Mayor from the Florida Chamber, approximately 15% of parents with young children in Florida have left their jobs and returned home in the past six months due to childcare issues.
The economic impact extends beyond individual families. As reported in our December 2023 coverage, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation estimated that childcare-related absences and employee turnover cost employers between $375 and $500 per working-aged adult. The 2018-2019 National Survey of Children’s Health found that parents of two million children under age 5 “had to quit a job, not take a job, or greatly change their job because of problems with child care.”
Previous Attempts at Solutions
In December 2023, Inweekly reported on a partnership between the Early Learning Coalition, Business and Leadership Institute for Early Learning, Florida Small Business Development Center at UWF, and Wells Fargo to launch a mentorship program for childcare providers. The initiative aimed to teach childcare facility operators better business practices to help them operate more efficiently and retain staff.
- Despite having bumped salaries to the $15-20 per hour range, Bruce Watson, executive director of the Early Learning Coalition of Escambia County, reported that while this prevented mass staff exodus, vacancies remained unfilled. The ELC was serving only about 70% of the children it served pre-COVID.
The county’s childcare crisis has long-term implications for education outcomes. In fall 2022, Escambia County tied for 46th out of 67 counties with a 45% kindergarten readiness rate, below the state average of 49%. This correlates with Escambia County Public Schools consistently ranking in the bottom third among Florida school districts.
Looking Ahead to the Summit
Mayor Reeves’ initiative represents an important step toward addressing this complex issue. The upcoming summit aims to bring together the largest contingent of stakeholders ever assembled locally to address this issue, from the Early Learning Coalition to current daycare providers and state experts.
As we await more details about the specific date and agenda for the summit, one thing is clear: Pensacola’s leadership recognizes that solving the childcare crisis is essential not just for families but for our entire community’s economic future.
Inweekly will continue to follow this developing story and provide coverage of the Mayor’s childcare summit when it takes place at the end of May.
Our children are our future. Teachers and Daycare workers are woefully underpaid. How can we increase their hourly wage? While increasing the “gross” wage is difficult, we can reduce their “net” wage by eliminating or drastically reducing income taxes for teachers and daycare workers.