It wouldn't help me. Our early childhood educators already start at $25—a bit more, actually. What I urge us to do is to not throw out numbers. I think throwing out numbers—the wage should be $19, $25 or $30, or match a school board or whatever—is actually doing us a disservice. I really think we need to do job evaluations to see the scopes, depths and responsibilities of the role of early childhood educators, see who is in ratio to them, and then determine the appropriate salary based on other comparators.
Yes, $25 an hour might sound wonderful to somebody who's currently making $19, but to somebody else who's not.... We need to evaluate the job and value the job more appropriately.