Maureen [00:00:09]:

For legislators to hear from early childhood educators saying one thing and then the business community coming together and saying “What they say is correct, we agree with them 100%.” That is very unique. What legislator is going to say to a businessperson then, “Yeah, no, I don’t want your jobs here.” They’re not going to say that. And we need the childcare slots in order to keep people employed in our state. So I think it’s a great partnership when the business community can come in and say, this is important. We need these changes.

 

Amanda [00:00:46]:

That’s the voice of Maureen McGuinness, President and CEO of the Triangle East Chamber in North Carolina. She’s here in the first installment of our two-part childcare series to talk about the North Carolina Early Education Coalition and how different entities across the state are collaborating on advocacy and other work to grow their care capacity. I’m Amanda Ellis, and you’re listening to Inside America’s Best Cities, a podcast for chamber, economic development, and talent attraction professionals. Learn more about this podcast at livabilitymedia.com and with that, let’s jump in. Welcome to Inside America’s Best Cities. We’re so excited to hear from you today about some childcare insights.

 

Maureen [00:01:33]:

I’m so happy to have the opportunity to speak with you about this.

 

Amanda [00:01:37]:

Kick us off, if you don’t mind, by telling us a little bit about your state’s, North Carolina’s, early education coalition and who’s involved.

 

Maureen [00:01:46]:

So we have the North Carolina Childcare Coalition, and it’s a group of business leaders and Chambers of Commerce, and we are working together to help solve the care crisis here in North Carolina. North Carolina is no different than the other communities in the US in that we have a problem with finding enough open slots in daycare centers and early childhood. Our coalition is made up of manufacturers, banks, car dealerships, law firms, and other employers, as well as the Chambers, as I mentioned. And our goal is to expand access to safe, high-quality childcare in our state in order to meet current and future workforce needs.

 

Amanda [00:02:32]:

And how long has that been around the coalition?

 

Maureen [00:02:36]:

I believe it’s been about 18 months that we’ve been working together on this.

 

Amanda [00:02:43]:

So, pretty new. Are you aware of any other state coalitions that are similar, or is this pretty unique?

 

Maureen [00:02:51]:

I do think what we’re doing in North Carolina is unique in that we do have a wide variety of businesses who have signed on to this and said that this is an important topic for them and that they recognize the need of working on this as a business community.

 

Amanda [00:03:10]:

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too, that the engagement of all different types of businesses and stakeholders seemed like it was a unique component. So, you started touching on this a little bit already. But why is this a priority for you all? Why does it matter for your chamber? And do you get questions about that from your stakeholders, or. Everybody gets it.

 

Maureen [00:03:30]:

Well, it’s very interesting. So, Johnson County is booming, and because of that, we have a lot of jobs. And so, as a chamber, we have several different workforce development initiatives. And we start here in the county with middle school, helping grow our own local talent. And we also have a recruiting program nationally trying to bring talent in. But we also would like to look at why are women not in the workforce. So, we started looking at that, and, of course, childcare became the issue. And so about two years ago, we started assessing the issue, and we spoke to business leaders in our community about how childcare impacted them. And in 2022, at our State of the Region event, childcare and early childhood education was listed among the top three issues for our business members as a priority for them in their business. And my team and I listened to our members, and we heard stories about bank vice presidents who had to leave their career because they could not find childcare. So, we had women who were leaving for four years at a time when they were highly trained at what they did. And then we also spoke with human resource professionals who found great candidates for the jobs, but the candidates had to decline the position because they couldn’t find childcare. Another issue is that good, quality early childhood education lays the groundwork for school readiness. And if you enter school not ready to learn, you’re going to have a hard time playing catch up. And so early childhood education is a two-generational workforce issue. And so, our businesses see that as an issue. So, once we assessed that situation and we had key members who understood that the next step was educating the rest of our members. And as we shared that information, they were like, “Ah, yeah, I get that. That is important.” And we are very active in the North Carolina Chamber. And so when they came to us with the coalition, we said, you know, that would be something that we join. One of the things that we found in our county and then also in the state is that early childhood education advocacy had been siloed, that early childhood educators were advocating on their behalf, and the business community was not. So this was a way for us to partner.

 

Amanda [00:05:57]:

Is that mainly what your engagement looks like is more of from an advocacy standpoint, or are there other things you would add?

 

Maureen [00:06:04]:

So, right now, there’s been a lot of advocacy, but some of the companies that are part of the coalition are also companies that are looking for company-sponsored childcare and are looking for best practices. So depending on where they are in the state, coalition members have been able to connect them with resources, help them with best practices and that kind of thing.

 

Amanda [00:06:30]:

And you mentioned just now feedback from local HR people, local professionals, and that sort of thing. Was that from mostly before the pandemic, after, or both?

 

Maureen [00:06:41]:

After the pandemic. So I think that that’s another similarity for our community as well as nationwide, that there was a challenge with childcare before the pandemic, and it just increased dramatically after the pandemic.

 

Amanda [00:06:54]:

Well, and it makes you wonder, where did it all go? I mean, I guess some people leaving jobs in that industry, just like others maybe brought the capacity down, but it’s interesting to think about.

 

Maureen [00:07:05]:

Well, yes. So that is one thing. We know that during the pandemic, there were a number of people who left that industry because there were childcare facilities that were not considered essential. And so those facilities were shut down. And so those people did get jobs in other fields after the pandemic, and they did not return to their original career, and they were making more money. So they might have enjoyed the value of early childhood education, but financially they are making more.

 

Amanda [00:07:38]:

Yeah. And it’s not an easy job, and that requires some specialized training and certifications, usually to then not always make as much money as you could in a different field. So makes sense when you think about it that way, but it’s also so incredibly important.

 

Maureen [00:07:55]:

Absolutely.

 

Amanda [00:07:56]:

So what have been some of the coalition’s outcomes so far?

 

Maureen [00:08:00]:

So the state of North Carolina created a new position. That position is the care business liaison, and that position is housed in the Department of Commerce. And this position will develop strategies employers can use to provide childcare support for their employees. So that is one of the outcomes of the work of the coalition. The coalition also advocated for the passage of the Family Childcare Home Expansion Bill, and that bill will allow for some home-based childcare facilities to accept up to ten children. There’s some additional work being done right now on the actual implementation of that bill. And in addition, we advocated for the passage of a tri-share test pilot program. So tri share is when the parent, the government, and the company all pay a portion of care.

 

Maureen [00:09:00]:

Right now, Michigan and Kentucky have Tri-Share programs, and so we will be experimenting with that in North Carolina. So I would say those were three wins this past year in North Carolina.

 

Amanda [00:09:12]:

That last one really makes a lot of sense about the cost division.

 

Maureen [00:09:16]:

Yes.

 

Amanda [00:09:16]:

I haven’t heard it framed that way. So, thinking about our listeners, if someone wanted to replicate something like this coalition effort, what would be a good place for them to start?

 

Maureen [00:09:25]:

So for us here in North Carolina, the work started with our state chamber. So I would advocate that you start with your state chamber and be involved with your state chamber. We are also involved with the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and there are a lot of great resources with them. I did a fellowship with them, their business leads fellowship, and we received a lot of education on several different workforce development issues, including early childhood education. My cohort had peers from Michigan and Kentucky, the two states that did have the Tri-Share program, and so we were able to learn how those programs worked. I think it’s important to understand the regulations in your state and have conversations with the childcare providers on what are the barriers for those regulations. So in our community, our chamber is really engaged with our partnership for children, and we’re able to understand that some of the current legislation does present some barriers to hiring, barriers to opening home-based childcare. And so some tweaks to legislation could have some significant impact on increasing the number of people participating in this workforce.

 

Amanda [00:10:44]:

Could you give a specific example of one of those pieces of legislation that could maybe use tweaking?

 

Maureen [00:10:50]:

So we have the STAR system as far as how care centers are rated, and you need a certain number of people on staff with bachelor’s degrees in order to achieve stars. In order to have a bachelor’s degree, obviously, you go to college and there can be a certain amount of debt. So as a coalition, we are looking at that and saying, could maybe this be an associate’s level degree to still maintain that STAR quality? That is a bachelor’s degree necessary for that? Another one also is what was passed, and that is the changes to how many children can be in a home-based setting. In certain situations, it’s looked at, and there are regulations to still keep it safe and still keep the children safe and still keep the childcare provider aware of what’s happening in the household. But monitoring and making some small changes does allow the person running the facility to increase their income and also open up additional slots.

 

Amanda [00:11:59]:

Yeah, that all makes so much sense. And while we’re on that topic, so since a lot of this work does seem focused around advocacy efforts, could you share a little bit about what you feel like is the unique power and influence that chambers have to make a difference through advocacy with things like this?

 

Maureen [00:12:17]:

Well, let me start with my career. So, earlier in my career, I worked for an educational organization, and we would advocate for one specific issue, and we made no progress, really. We were just seen as a bunch of educators with one myopic focus on this issue. This is the business and childcare providers all talking about the same thing. And when you think about it, for legislators to hear from early childhood educators saying one thing and then the business community coming together and saying what they say is correct, we agree with them 100%. That is very unique. What legislator is going to say to a business person, yeah, no, I don’t want your jobs here. They’re not going to say that. And we need the childcare slots in order to keep people employed in our state. So that gives us a unique advantage over the childcare industry because they are looked at as a service provider, whereas we have a little bit more of a pull. So I think it’s a great partnership when the business community can come in and say, this is important, we need these changes.

 

Amanda [00:13:31]:

And that’s one of the things chambers do best. Right. Correct partnerships and bring those things together. What are some tactics or community approaches to some of these childcare challenges that you’ve gleaned from just your involvement here? Learning more about this, whether it’s something you all are looking at implementing or not, what are some things you might throw out for listeners to be thinking about?

 

Maureen [00:13:52]:

Well, I think it’s important for people to understand that childcare is not just a daycare center. There are several different varieties and options of early childhood care for people to look at. So this is not just a one-size-fits-all approach and that every family has to look at what’s going to work out for them, and that childcare is not just a nine-to-five business. We do have people who do shift work. What are we doing for people who are working on the third shift? So the solutions aren’t easy solutions, they’re complex solutions. And each community has to look at what’s right for them. So you have to look at a mix of faith-based childcare centers, center-based childcare, home-based childcare, au pairs, nannies, and then there still is that whole traditional grandparents being involved. I think that that’s one of the things, too, that makes our childcare situation unique right now is that people used to live close to their families and grandparents would pitch in and help. Well, grandparents are working longer and they’re not available. And in some cases, you live far away from family, so they can’t help. So it is not a very, oh, well, here’s the solution. Every community is going to be a little bit different.

 

Amanda [00:15:10]:

Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about it from the grandparents’ standpoint either, but that makes a lot of sense that those two trends would be happening at the same time because, yeah, people are staying in the workforce longer, staying healthier longer, which are good things, too, in their own ways.

 

Maureen [00:15:23]:

Absolutely.

 

Amanda [00:15:24]:

But, yeah, and just people spreading out more in some ways than they used to and not necessarily having those same resources. That definitely makes sense. Anything else you’d like to add to our conversation or take childcare takeaways for listeners or do you feel like we covered it?

 

Maureen [00:15:38]:

I think childcare is going to evolve as each generation evolves. So I think we’re going to see changing legislation. I think as the industry becomes more involved in this, I think we’re going to see changes that are going to help everyone, that are going to help families, that are going to help business, and I think it’s going to improve things for the childcare consumer as well as the business community.

 

Amanda [00:16:07]:

I think you’re right. Hopefully you’re right. So for some context, we always wrap up with a fun question that I’m getting to. So you have several different towns that fall under your territory. Can you describe the layout of that just for context?

 

Maureen [00:16:24]:

Yeah, sure. So we have Princeton, Wilson’s Mills, Selma, Kenly, Smithfield, Micro, Archer’s Lodge, Pine Level, and then we have a really unique one, which is the Cleveland community. Cleveland is an unincorporated community. It’s very bustling. Each have their own unique flavor. So Princeton, very family-centered. Sports is really important there. Wilson’s Mills is rural. When I first moved here, I lived there. Selma has a great arts scene happening there. Kenly bills themselves as being Friendly Kenly and Smithfield is the county seat. And so there is a nice downtown, very walkable. The Noose River runs through it, so there’s a riverwalk there. The town of Micro is super cute. Some neat restaurants there. Archer’s Lodge is an area that’s starting to grow. And Pine Level, another cute all-American kind of place. And then again, the Cleveland area is just super unique. It’s bustling. And they’ve just got some great parks over there.

 

Amanda [00:17:38]:

So we always ask as our wrap-up question about kind of where you’re at. So that’s why I wanted to go over that for context. And then if you had to give one bucket list item in your community that someone visiting should be sure to do, what would you pick? I know you’ve thrown out a few, but if you could only pick one or two things, what would you say?

 

Maureen [00:17:56]:

Okay, well, as a Northerner who’s now moved to North Carolina, I really enjoy eating here. There’s so many great places to eat. But I would say, like, if you stopped at the Old North State Food Hall, you have a choice because there’s ten different restaurants in there, and so you have your choice of places, and it is the only food hall on an interstate in the whole United States. So that would be an interesting thing to do.

 

Amanda [00:18:25]:

Has it been there a long time?

 

Maureen [00:18:27]:

No, I think it’s open about, it was a year in September that it’s been open.

 

Amanda [00:18:31]:

Because food halls are so trendy right now. But that’s actually a great point. They’re always like places you wouldn’t go if you really were trying to pass, you know what I mean? Just trying to pass through quickly on a road trip.

 

Maureen [00:18:44]:

Right. But so if you’re traveling between Florida and New York, it’s the halfway point. And so if you are like, oh, I don’t want to eat at another fast food place, it’s the perfect thing because you can get Indian, you could get Cuban, you can get Italian, and it’s all like, amazing.

 

Amanda [00:19:03]:

That’s really awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us to share a little bit of that. I know our listeners will get a lot out of this interview. Thank you so much.

 

Maureen [00:19:11]:

Thank you.

 

Amanda [00:19:17]:

Thanks for listening to the Livability podcast, where we take you Inside America’s Best Cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid-sized cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and review this show wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also learn more about us at livabilitymedia.com. Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email me at [email protected]. Until next time, from Livability, I’m Amanda Ellis, sharing the stories of America’s most promising places.