{"id":324954,"date":"2025-10-22T22:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324954\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T22:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:47:12","slug":"how-fixing-child-care-could-boost-tarrant-countys-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324954\/","title":{"rendered":"How fixing child care could boost Tarrant County\u2019s economy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tarrant County needs about 2,000 more early childhood educators to fully staff existing child care centers.<\/p>\n<p>That shortage makes it harder for parents \u2014 especially mothers \u2014 to work, according to a new study analyzing North Texas\u2019 child care workforce released Wednesday. Child Care Associates and the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center\u2019s study examined how early educators are key to strengthening North Texas\u2019 economy and what is contributing to the shortage of such teachers in an industry <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2023\/08\/13\/fort-worth-parents-providers-struggle-to-make-child-care-affordable\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">long languishing with low wages and high costs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur early educators not only spark a young child\u2019s natural sense of wonder and curiosity but also empower parents to participate in the workforce,\u201d Kara Waddell, Child Care Associates president and CEO, said in a statement. \u201cTheir work fuels every other industry impacting our region\u2019s economic growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other Tarrant County takeaways from the study:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>13,368 child care seats are open.<\/li>\n<li>$33,801 is the average early educator wage \u2014 $15,828 less than the local living wage of $49,629.<\/li>\n<li>74% of children from birth to age 5 with working parents could be served with early childhood education if centers were fully staffed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Turning around the child care industry starts with higher education, Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need higher education at the table as well as business leaders and organizations like Child Care Associates,\u201d Parker said. \u201cWe need strategies not just in Fort Worth, but across North Texas to ensure our youngest Texans benefit from quality educators, and to ensure employers and working parents have the support of the child care sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tarrant County College officials plan to introduce a <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/03\/31\/more-early-childhood-educators-needed-a-proposed-tarrant-county-college-program-may-fill-the-need\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">bachelor\u2019s degree in early childhood education program<\/a> in fall 2026. Earlier this year, TCC leaders said the degree is needed to meet North Texas\u2019 growing demand for child care.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The study will go a long way toward building sustainable solutions for the region\u2019s early child care workforce, said Cynthia Osborne, executive director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough our analysis for Child Care Associates, we were able to provide a clearer picture of the region\u2019s child care supply and workforce needs \u2014 insights that can guide strategies to strengthen the system and better support children, families and educators across North Texas,\u201d Osborne said.<\/p>\n<p>Jacob Sanchez is education editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2025\/10\/22\/how-fixing-child-care-could-boost-tarrant-countys-economy\/mailto:jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">jacob.sanchez@fortworthreport.org<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_jacob_sanchez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">@_jacob_sanchez<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/about\/fort-worth-report-editorial-independence-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>Fort Worth Report is <a href=\"https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2024\/08\/25\/fort-worth-report-achieves-global-trust-certification-heres-what-it-means-for-our-community\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative<\/a> for adhering to standards for ethical journalism.<\/p>\n<p>Republish This Story<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"license\" rel=\"noreferrer license nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"88\" height=\"31\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" style=\"border-width:0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758084579_646_cc-by-nd-4.0.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tarrant County needs about 2,000 more early childhood educators to fully staff existing child care centers. That shortage&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":324955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,25710,63304,7371,7372,7375,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-324954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-child-care","10":"tag-early-childhood-education","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-tarrant-county","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115420256340782869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}