Rally addresses salaries

Child-care employees, parents, students and concerned community members gathered Monday at the Sample Gates to rally for higher wages and benefits for IU's child-care employees. The event, organized by an ad hoc committee of parents and teachers, wanted to draw attention to the low pay at the child-care centers.\nEight of the 25 lowest-paid full-time employees on the Bloomington campus work for one of the campus child-care centers, including the three lowest-paid employees, according to data from the Office of Financial Management Services.\n"We pay the people who mow our lawns more than we pay our day care teachers," said C.J. Hawking, a United Methodist pastor who has had a child in University childcare for two years. "I find it deplorable that my child's teacher, who works full-time and is a single parent herself, does not receive any health care benefits."\nAccording to the IU Child Care Survey conducted in October 1999, the average salary for lead teachers at IU's three child-care sites, Hoosier Courts, Campus View and Campus Children's, is $18,200. The lowest yearly salary for an assistant teacher is $13,728.\n"I could go to a kindergarten elsewhere and make $27,000 a year, but I like preschool and want to teach preschool," said child-care assistant teacher Sarah Sparks, who makes $18,115.\nBloomington Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis said he was not aware the wages were so low until it was brought to his attention in September.\n"I was handed a petition at the Sept. 17 rededication of Hoosier Courts by a number of parents expressing concern," he said. "We obviously want to get them wages comparable to other Big Ten schools."\nResults from the Child Care Survey show that IU's subsidies per child ranks ninth among the Big Ten schools. \n"We are asking for an increase of $125,000 a year," said Andrea Wohl, a parent of two children in University child care and one of the leaders of the ad hoc committee. "We also want to get benefits for those workers who aren't receiving any."\nFour of the 20 employees receive no benefits, including health insurance, paid vacation, sick days, paid holidays and pension.\nTamara Hibel, who has been an assistant teacher at Campus View for two and a half years, is one of the four without benefits.\n"I'm 30 years old, and I have no health insurance, and I do as much as the lead teachers there and the assistant teachers at the other centers," she said. "The Campus View center is the only one where the assistants don't receive any benefits."\nHibel worked elsewhere during the summer, but returned to IU on the promise that benefits and wages would increase.\nSo far, wages have not increased and benefits have not appeared, but Division of Labor Studies Assistant Professor Steven Ashby, who has a 3-year-old in child care, said the parents and teachers committee is pleased so far by the response they have had from the University.\n"We are out here because we want to educate the entire community to the problem," he said. "We are asking the University to increase the amount of subsidy they give the child-care centers."\nAshby also said raising fees for students to be enrolled is not the answer to the problem. \n"People cannot afford to pay any higher," he said. "They are already paying 3 to 4 percent more every year to enroll their children."\nGros Louis said the major problem with increasing the subsidies to the program is determining where the money will come from, and sources for the money are being researched.\nCarrie Vrabel, a sophomore who attended the rally, said she also thought the source of money was an issue.\n"It's important to know that this issue doesn't only affect the people who have children in child care," she said. "We're students, we're part of the University, and part of the money comes from us."\nBoth Gros Louis and concerned committee members stressed that the gathering today was a rally, not a protest.\n"Some of the parents did not think things were happening fast enough," Gros Louis said. "Today was a rally to raise public concern."\nMembers of the committee will meet with Gros Louis and Associate Vice Chancellor Bruce Jacobs Wednesday to discuss the issue further.