MADISON (SPECTRUM NEWS) — A team of Madison’s educational leaders are gearing up for a talk with a technology giant, former Google and Alphabet CEO Eric Schmidt.
Monday afternoon, the ‘We Care for Kids Project’ team assembled for another practice session. The group has spent hundreds of hours over the last few months fine tuning the presentation they will give Schmidt in June.
The goal is to have Schmidt non-profit Schmidt Futures invest $13 million in Dane County’s childcare professionals. Those funds would supplement their wages and bring the minimum wage for their special line of work to $15 per hour.
Madison’s Early Care & Education Manager Coral Manning is on the grant team. She believes the need is now.
‘We’re asking these individuals [childcare workers] to not only attain education for themselves, but to also be with our children for sometimes 8 to 10 hours per day and
in order to go home to their families and meet their own needs, they deserve a higher wage than they are paid,’ she said.
The team’s pitch has made it to the the top five entries from thousands of submissions across the country.
By the way, there were more than 40 entries coming out of the University of Wisconsin and you can learn more about them during a special presentation April 3rd. More information on those and that event, can be found here.