Learning Care Group Pass on employment with Learning Care Group Haggerty Michigan

If anyone is looking for a long-term employment opportunity in the childcare field, avoid employment with the Learning Care Group, at all odds.  I was employed as a Director with them for four years.  Although, initially the job was going smoothly, things took a drastic turn, once the budget was raised and enrollments could not be increased. 

While the company portrays an image of the child always comes first, I soon realized what really mattered to them - the almighty dollar.  Although the school was ranked top in revenue and labor hours, they would not give ample labor hours to maintain the child/teacher ratio required by the state.  This, resulting in state inspections which sited the school as inadequate.  The children suffered greatly from this, forcing them to be transferred to a different classroom at the end of the day. At pick-up time, it took several classrooms for parents to locate their child(ren).

Another great setback was the need for qualified, degreed teachers who would accept no more than $8 or $9 tops, as a starting rate of pay per hour.  With the amount of work required and dealing with severe behavior problem children - no one with any sense would accept, or at least continue employment over a month.  This resulted in constant turn-over and retraining staff.  Also, there has not been any pay rate increases for their staff for over 5 years.

They were always seeking ways to increase their private pay family base, although they would accept a small tuition rate for the state funded children and write off the remainder of the tuition.  It seemed rather uncanny to have the working families pay a much higher tuition rate, although they were the ones truly struggling to make ends meet.  And yes, they were treated diffently than the state funded children.  Behavior problems from these children were greatly overlooked, since Learning Care Group received twice as much money in tuition.

Upper management was not supportive, or knowledgeable about day-to-day operations in the school and did not have an education background or prior on-the-job experience.  Needless to say, an accountant has no business being a supervisor of a childcare center.  But, once again, with the main interest being "MONEY", this made this employee an asset to corporate, while not interested in the education background needed to support the centers in running successfully.

The hours are long, but a truly committed employee as myself, overlooked this. Unfortunatly, I chose to move on to a company that does put the children first.  Better for me to be unemployed from the Learning Care Group - and I hope this persuades others to move in the same direction.

Please avoid employment with them!!