Diana McClarien is the Vice President of Start Early’s Early Learning Network.
Teachers are the beating heart of any Head Start program. Research confirms what families already know: that children benefit from consistent, responsive relationships with skilled teachers. At Start Early, we see this reality every day across our Early Learning Network. The teachers and home visitors we work alongside are deeply committed professionals, but dedication alone cannot sustain a workforce.
As someone who has spent more than two decades in Head Start leadership, and through my own research on teacher turnover in early childhood education, I have seen firsthand that compensation, benefits, and professional support directly determine whether qualified educators stay or leave. When programs cannot retain skilled staff, children lose trusted relationships, families lose critical support, and programs lose experienced educators who are hard to replace. Investing in competitive wages and benefits is not just about supporting staff; it is about protecting the quality of services children and families depend on.
There’s no denying the value of the Head Start workforce. Yet, across the country, Head Start teachers often work for wages that do not reflect the value of this work. Head Start teachers’ qualifications have risen sharply, with 68 percent of lead teachers holding a bachelor’s degree in 2023, but the average salary of a Head Start teacher still only hovers nationally around $40,000, compared to about $63,000 for a kindergarten teacher.
