Imagine shares its blueprint for successful care model with Bloomberg Radio

Written by: Imagine Early Learning Centers
Posted in:
Imagine Early Learning Photo

Those who know child care know that quality care is synonymous with loving, capable, and dependable teachers. And yet it can be difficult to find and keep the teachers and staffers who are so essential to good care.

Across the board, staffing in early childhood education is an enormous challenge.

Nationwide, nearly a third of daycare centers report that 20% or more of their staff leave on an annual basis. Such high turnover directly impacts the quality of care and drives up pressure and stress on the industry as a whole.

But there’s good news – we can change the industry. 

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to explain to Joan Doniger of Bloomberg News how Imagine  is “re-imagining” the state of childcare by bringing financial inclusion and ownership directly to our staff. 

I believe the industry’s staffing challenges belie an underlying truth about working in childcare: most people enter the field because they love caring for and educating children. People who leave the industry do so often because of basic economic constraints, not because they don’t love their job. 

Here at Imagine, we’re innovating every way we can. One of our proudest innovations is becoming an employee-owned business, or ESOP. All of our employees who have been with us for more than one year receive – at no cost – shares in the company. Those shares accumulate and grow, and serve as a qualified retirement benefit. Through the ESOP structure, our workers are getting cost-free retirement savings, incentives for long term commitment, and a role in making decisions about Imagine, from the big to the small. 

As an ESOP, we’ve found a way to start to change the staffing paradigm that has so long plagued the industry. We are so proud that we have a way to give back to our teachers who give their all to your children.

Hear more from my interview with Joan at Bloomberg about how we believe that ESOPs can foundationally transform the industry.

Thanks for being part of changing this industry for the better.

Laura Tulchin
Chief Strategy Officer Imagine Early Learning Centers