Rural child care providers join up to stay open

In Gering, Nebraska, Trevor Teichroeb is the new face of child care. The kids made Play-Doh yesterday.

A K-through-five technology teacher, Teichroeb also runs this after-school program. We need positive male role models in the field that can connect with our children.

In a profession where just 3% of US preschool and kindergarten educators are male, Teichroeb is part of a push to close the childcare gap in the US. Why do you think there aren't more men in this profession? There's a perception that it's a job for women, and we do need more men.

Recruiting more men into early-childhood education is one solution for a growing problem in America. Nearly 4 million kids can't get a spot in licensed child care. That cost states an average of $1 billion every year in lost economic activity from parents missing work or stepping back from their jobs entirely, jobs needed to support their families. We have 93 counties, and 90% of those counties, we have more children than what we have childcare slots for. Our labor pool, at times, is very shallow.

Alan Garey is in charge of Dundee County Schools in rural southwestern Nebraska. He told us while politicians debate subsidies and roll out tax credits, on the ground, communities like his are getting creative out of necessity. A quarter of teachers in his district struggled to find their own child care. The community got together and started trying to come up with a common plan that we could all work with.

Garey, along with fifth-generation rancher Scott Lutz, helped lead a districtwide effort to pool early child care education into one central location. The county pulled together $3 million for the facility, more than half from grants and donations. No small feat for a community that largely lives paycheck to paycheck. What does this community look like if there aren't young families? I hate to say this but a bunch of old guys like me, and then operations like this don't exist. Maybe you'll be an engineer someday.

Back in Gering, Teichroeb hopes to inspire a new generation of caregivers. High-school senior [? Jayden ?] Morales is already answering that call, working for the after-school program. Do you see [? Jayden ?] kind of carrying that torch? Absolutely. We need to get back to that aspect in America, focusing on our families and our children and taking care of each other.

Rewriting what childcare looks like, one community-- I like your creativity.

--and one caregiver at a time. For Eye on America, I'm Jonathan Vigliotti in Benkelman, Nebraska.