- [Michelle] Tonight, what's being done to get more people to work in child care?

- We need something to set us apart because we need people to come into this industry.

- [Pamela] Then, local soldiers who served in the war in Iraq and Rhode Island refugees take their stories to Trinity Rep's stage.

- Because if you're not heard and seen, you're forgotten.

- Finally, what Rhode Islanders have to say about the direction of the state with Ted Nesi.

(bright music) (bright music continues) Good evening, and welcome to "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We begin with a story about the cost of child care.

- It's an economic issue that can drive parents out of the workforce.

For some, it's more expensive than their mortgage or rent.

And parents who work in the industry are not exempt from the high costs.

Tonight we explore how a pilot program in Rhode Island is incentivizing people to work with children.

- When you're supervising and don't have enough people to work in the industry but you're receiving all these calls of families that need care, it can stress you out.

- Does anybody know what this means?

- Sit down.

- Sit.

- Sit down.

- Yeah, sit!

- [Michelle] Running a child care center can look like child's play.

- [All] There's Thursday and then there's Friday.

- [Michelle] Students are eager to learn, and teachers get to watch them reach milestones.

- [All] I pledge allegiance to the flag.

- [Michelle] But coordinating it all is a delicate balancing act for Amy Vogel, the CEO of Dr. Day Care.

It's the largest for-profit chain of child care centers in Rhode Island, with eight locations across the state.

Vogel says finding and retaining qualified teachers is the hardest part of the job.

Without enough teachers, classrooms are forced to stay closed and families are left without someone to watch their children.

- We have wait lists, and sometimes we have to stop tours because we know we can't service families till 2026, 2027.

- Do you have an idea how many closed classrooms exist across those eight locations?

- I'm saying 20%.

- [Michelle] Vogel has been working in the industry for nearly two decades.

She says staffing was always an issue, but the pandemic made it worse.

- [All] One, two, three.

- [Michelle] She lost about 30% of her workforce during COVID.

She says low wages make it difficult to keep employees.

In 2023, the median wage for a child care provider in Rhode Island was $16.91 per hour.

That's in the same range or below what parking lot attendants, housekeepers, and retail sales workers make.

- For what child care educators do day in and day out, they'll never get paid enough.

- I love the kids.

This is my passion.

How are you feeling?

- [Kids] Better!

- Low wages long kept teacher Yeisha Pereira from putting her own children in daycare.

She's been caring for other people's kids at a non-profit called Children's Friend for 10 years.

What is it like to be a child care provider but not be able to afford the very care that you're providing other people?

- It was stress, it was hard.

Frustrated, I was mad, angry.

How much is this?

- [Michelle] Angry because Pereira, who's a single mom of two, says it was hard to find someone to watch her now five-year-old daughter while she was working and her teenage son was in school.

She says it was so bad she considered quitting her job.

- I was asking for people, borrow money.

(chuckles) Can you borrow this money?

Like, every time, every Friday, I was sitting down, checking a list, making a list.

I was crying, crying, crying, and crying.

It was terrible.

It's frustrating.

And, you know, it's hard because, I'm sorry, it just remind me all the stuff that I have pass.

It's not easy being a single mom.

- Child care is truly the foundation of Rhode Island's economy.

- [Michelle] Nicole Chiello is the assistant director for the Office of Child Care at the Rhode Island Department of Human Services.

She knows Pereira is hardly the only employee who's wrestled with quitting her job.

On average in Rhode Island, it costs nearly $17,000 a year to have an infant in a child care center, - Minimum wage in Rhode Island is $15 an hour.

And up until very recently, if you were married and had one child and were making minimum wage, you were unable to even qualify for subsidized care because you were considered making too much money.

So, it made so much more sense for a two-parent household for one of those parents to kind of just stay home and watch the child.

- These are all my colors, from here all the way up to the end.

- [Michelle] It's a story Scott Weldon has heard before.

He's the president and CEO of Rhody Rug.

The company is based in Lincoln and manufactures braided rugs.

Weldon employs about 30 people but says in the last year and a half, he's lost three employees for reasons beyond his control.

- I lost three employees due to it not being economical for them to work anymore because of the child care for their small children.

- [Michelle] He remembers an employee calling after she had a baby.

- She's like, 'I'm not gonna be able to afford to come to work and pay child care, or it's gonna be about even, so it's not worth coming back to work."

- [Michelle] Weldon says replacing a great employee is difficult and expensive.

He's tried to make the workplace friendlier for his colleagues.

- Our hours used to be 8:00 to 4:30, and we took it to a vote to the employees, and we went from 6:00 to 2:30 so a lot of our moms could be home in time for their kids so that they don't have to spend the extra money for child care.

And we were totally fine with that.

So it's not a situation on our end that we're not trying to help out, it's things that are out of our control.

- [Michelle] State Representative Grace Diaz says one way to get more people into the workforce is to start with the child care sector.

She recently introduced a bill that subsidizes the cost of child care for child care workers based on their family income.

- The Child Care for Educators is a program that came from the needs of retaining staff for every single child care centers in the state of Rhode Island.

- The Child Care Assistance Program for Child Care Staff began as a pilot program in 2023 and was extended for another year.

Diaz hopes lawmakers will soon make it permanent.

To date, more than 400 child care workers have enrolled in it.

We're going on having this program for about a year and a half.

You're saying it's a success.

How do you quantify that success?

- It's easier because the numbers talking by themselves.

For example, more than half of the centers in Rhode Island report that they have a staff, at least one staff benefiting from that.

- I want bread, please.

- [Michelle] Pereira's enrolled in the program.

She says it allowed her to put her daughter in child care for free while she worked and finished her schooling.

- Good job, five!

Five, you did a good job!

- [Michelle] She's now a lead teacher making more money.

She says it's improved her quality of life.

- I wake up every morning, get my daughter dressed, go to school with no problem.

I don't have to worry about who's gonna take care every single day.

I had no worries, I just come to work happy.

- [Michelle] The program has cost the state nearly $5 million.

Back at Dr. Day Care, Vogel says it's been a selling point when talking with candidates.

Over the years, she's lost many employees to the public school system, where they can make more money.

- It's almost like we're offering an employee benefit.

So if you come and work for us and you get free child care, you're saving yourselves anywhere from 250 to $350 a week.

So if you multiply that times 52 weeks, you can add that on as a benefit to their salary.

- What happens if that program is not made permanent and it's dissolved at the end of the fiscal year?

- I will be sad.

(chuckles) I just think it's one thing that sets us apart in the child care industry compared to other industries, and we need that.

We need something to set us apart because we need people to come into this industry.

Because if we don't have them come into the industry, there's gonna be a lot less child care available for families that need it, and you're gonna have a whole 'nother economic issue.

- And what letter's this?

- [Child] Z.

- [Michelle] Pereira is grateful the program has allowed her to stay in a profession she's passionate about.

- You like cheese, pepperoni, what do you put?

- Pepperoni.

- They make you smile every day.

The hugs, care.

They say, "I love you."

And when the parents, when the parents say thank you to you, that's the best thing.

- We asked Speaker Joe Shekarchi if he supports making the pilot program permanent.

He said he will carefully consider extending the funding, but it has to be reviewed in the context of the budget challenges the state faces this year.

Up next, it's been more than two decades since the United States invaded Iraq to overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein.

Recently, some Rhode Island veterans took their war stories to the stage.

An original play produced at Trinity Rep Theater in Providence portrays the soldiers and the consequences of conflict.

A word of warning, the issues discussed in this story may be disturbing to some viewers.

- American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations.

(explosion booming) - [Pamela] It began as shock and awe.

U.S. troops invading Iraq in March of 2003.

A prolonged conflict.

- [Soldier] Fire!

(missile pops) - [Pamela] 4,000 U.S. service members died.

Ty Smith survived his tour of duty in Iraq yet is still recovering from the trauma.

- I joined the military right after high school, so all I knew was kind of that lifestyle, culminating on a 16-month deployment.

That was pretty intense.

Operation Stand Down, Ty speaking.

- [Pamela] Smith is director of Veteran Services at Operation Stand Down Rhode Island, an organization assisting vets with food, housing, and other support.

Smith was part of a combat team of Calvary Scouts, where he witnessed the unspeakable horrors of war.

- Stories of your friends not coming home, somebody you know not coming home who you saw yesterday.

Seeing dead bodies, seeing dead children.

- The cacophony of just madness and sound and wind.

- [Pamela] Smith's real-life drama of service and sacrifice is one of the main threads woven into an original play produced by Trinity Rep Theater in Providence.

It's called "Someone Will Remember Us," inspired by the stories of local military members.

- So I enlisted to the Army right after high school.

- Actor Dereks Thomas portrays Smith.

The last we saw Thomas, he was playing Fezziwig in this season's Trinity production of "A Christmas Carol."

He's accustomed to playing fictional characters.

What is it like to actually portray somebody in real life?

- It's challenging, and the challenges is trying to wrestle with the text and find the humanity in it and deliver it authentically.

I really got used to embracing lacing up my boots, I slowed down because I just felt like I'm gonna die today.

I know we're always performing and acting, but there's an element that you have to get to the truth.

- [Pamela] Thomas says the play unearths common ground for Rhode Island soldiers, resettled refugees, and even the audience.

- There's some fear in it, there's also some humor when you're showing up and you're like, "How the hell did I get here?"

You know.

You know, there's these little seeds of universal understanding.

- A lot of veterans I know don't talk about their war experience.

You have been out there telling your story and now sharing it.

Why did you do that?

- Well, it's been a long journey.

Whether you're a veteran or a civilian, we're all in these moments of transition.

And for me, it took many years to get to this point where I could talk about an experience, I can share that with relative strangers, share it with my own family.

When I first got back from Iraq, I knew that there was something that I was working through that I couldn't do by myself, that I needed not only the community, but I needed a little bit of education, I needed to go to school, and I really needed to work on this process of who am I outside of being a soldier.

- [Pamela] Smith says many veterans do want to share their wartime memories.

- If you listen, they'll tell their stories, if you give 'em time to explain.

- Smith and other veterans began talking about their experiences with this woman, playwright Deborah Salem Smith of Barrington.

She had previously written the play "Boots On The Ground" for Trinity Rep early on during the war in Iraq, also based on the testimonies of Rhode Island soldiers.

This time, her mission with her co-creators was hours-long interviews with Iraqis who had to flee their country and returning veterans.

Why did you want to write the second act of a war story?

- It had been on my mind off and on.

You know, it's a small state, so I would sometimes still run into people I interviewed for the first "Boots On The Ground."

And the war had continued to really impact people.

And there was just a lot of unexpected hope and perseverance and thoughtfulness.

We could do this project again in 10 years, and we'd still be seeing the ripple effect.

I think how it changed, you know, people are still moving, people are still trying to rebuild their lives.

- [Pamela] People like Kamal Elias, a refugee in Rhode Island.

- I was a teacher in Iraq, and I worked as a volunteer interpreter with the troops, with the American U.S. forces.

And I was at the hospital, so for a while, helping them and helping patients.

- What was the tipping point for you to escape?

- Nobody's safe, and especially I'm from minority, or from a different religion.

So it's no longer a minority, a different religion, And we were targeted by radicals.

Let's say ISIS, you know, Al-Qaeda, ISIS.

They were attacking whoever disagrees with them, whoever was not as supportive for them.

- [Pamela] Actor Jade Ziane plays Elias in "Someone Will Remember Us."

- They kill people.

We flee to the mountain for our life, I take nothing but my phone and the clothes that I wear and my master degree thesis about love.

- [Pamela] Elias says he was able to rescue this one copy of his thesis on the love poetry of the ancient Greek writer Sappho, and it holds great meaning for him.

- I thought that we need to talk about love in the time of war.

- [Pamela] And it is from Sappho's verses that the play takes its title.

Presently, Elias is teaching English to immigrants at Dorcas International Institute in Providence.

Elias says being an educator is the role he truly cherishes.

- I want to let the world know what we have been through.

and I want to know everyone here, we are not just here.

Like, we work, we do everything.

- [Pamela] And Elias says he is glad to add his story to the history of America, especially in the form of theater.

- Arts, acting, even plays, videos, movies is a language by itself but language that has no borders, that stops at no point, is a train of messages that visit everyone.

- It's the resilience of human spirit and the will to make something of yourself.

It can never be squashed as long as you have the heart for it, and I think that Kamal's story is a perfect example of that.

♪ Lets get loud ♪ ♪ Ain't nobody gotta tell ya what you gotta do ♪ - [Pamela] While the play does incorporate some comedy, the tragedy is inescapable.

Ty Smith says when his Iraqi interpreter who had been his close companion was assassinated by terrorists, he showed no emotion until he went home months later.

Here is the scene.

- Yeah, I got back from the airport, m-my wife had dinner.

I mean, how does this world experience, to go from, like, sharing a bedroom with four other dudes, and it's this nice little apartment.

And here's dinner.

And here's someone who loves me at this table.

And she was like- - [Wife] How was it?

- And I just immediately started crying.

- Really having that moment with my young son at the time and my wife.

How am I gonna integrate?

Who am I now?

How do they see me, and how do I see them?

All right.

- [Pamela] Smith says he is still dealing with the loss.

He has gone on to earn a degree from Brown University and relishes working with local veterans.

His actor alter ego says Smith's journey is something everyone can ponder after the curtain comes down.

- Ordinary people can go through these harrowing, extraordinary events and still come out resilient on the other side.

And from experiencing that journey, there's a little seed of faith and hope and resilience that maybe we can all take away.

- [Pamela] Smith says it's a conversation that's lacking in the community, but he believes this play may serve as an icebreaker.

- We are quick to go, "Happy Veterans Day," "Happy Memorial Day," "Thank you for your service."

Well, we don't really push past that conversation.

And when we do, we figure out better ways to work together, because if you're not heard and seen, you're forgotten.

- On tonight's episode of "Weekly Insight," Michelle and our contributor, WPRI 12's politics editor Ted Nesi, look into ethics allegations surrounding Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and his wife's work.

But first, what a poll by the state's largest union group reveals.

- Ted, it's nice to see you.

Let's start by breaking down this new poll of Rhode Island voters that was commissioned by the state AFL-CIO.

We should note, even though the survey was paid for by union leaders, it was conducted by someone who you know very well who is reputable.

- Yes, Joe Fleming, Fleming & Associates up in Cumberland.

He's been doing polls for Channel 12 for over 40 years now.

And the union hired him, as you said.

They did choose the questions, of course, but Joe collected the survey data from voters in the independent way that he always does.

- One of the questions that sticks out to me is what's often called the right track/wrong track question.

Nearly half of Rhode Island voters, 48%, say the state is going in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, only 29% say the state is moving in the right direction.

I don't think Rhode Island state officials wanna hear this.

(chuckles) - No, though they might be a little used to hearing this, actually, Michelle.

It is a great question, because you can track voters' shifting moods over time with this, when you look at how the answer evolves across polls they do at the national level too.

So I have 15 years of Joe Fleming data, 17 different polls where he's asked this question, all the way back to 2010.

And I only saw one poll in that collection, Michelle, where more Rhode Islanders said the state was in the right direction than the wrong direction.

So, this negativity is not a new phenomenon, but I will say this finding was a little more negative than we'd seen in recent years, so we'll have to watch to see if that means people are feeling more pessimistic, if that's a growing thing, or if this was just a little bit of a blip in the data and it's sort of the same baseline kinda grumpiness we've seen in the electorate.

- But overall, there's a trend of pessimism, you're finding.

- Absolutely.

- Okay, the union also asked about a number of policy proposals that labor leaders are pushing at the State House, and they had to be pleased with what they learned.

The poll shows 70% support for increasing the minimum wage to $20 an hour by 2030, it's currently $15 an hour.

69% support for banning smoking at the state's two casinos, 64% for a ban on assault weapons, and there was nearly unanimous support for banning cell phone use in schools.

There's obviously a reason the union is pushing these results and showing them publicly.

- Yes, they're trying to sway lawmakers to actually vote on those bills, Michelle.

You know, sometimes you'll hear frustrations from, whether it's union leaders or business leaders or lobbyists for a different organization when they're up at the State House who feel like state lawmakers have a perception that a certain issue is more controversial or more unpopular than the advocates really think it is.

But it's expensive to do these kind of polls, which is why you don't see it happen that often.

Clearly, the AFL-CIO felt this was a good investment in data that would help them advance their arguments as they're trying to get actual floor votes in all these issues in the House and Senate in the coming months.

- Okay, let's turn now to events in Washington, D.C. For the second time in recent weeks, tech billionaire and White House advisor Elon Musk has used social media to criticize a major Rhode Island official.

First, we saw Federal Judge John McConnell being criticized for his rulings on the federal funding freeze, and now it's U.S.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

So what's happening between Musk and Whitehouse?

- So this all involves Senator Whitehouse's wife, Sandra.

She is a marine biologist, and she's worked for many years as a consultant to various environmental groups, notably the Ocean Conservancy.

Conservative critics of Whitehouse have long argued that there's a conflict there because Whitehouse is a major environmental advocate, he's voted for many laws that at times have created funding streams which end up being used by the Ocean Conservancy.

So this week a conservative group called FACT filed an ethics complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee about that issue.

Elon Musk was touting that complaint on X.

- And we should note, Senator Whitehouse has called the suggestion of a conflict of interest, quote, smears.

You discovered the committee has already looked into this and dismissed it.

- Yes, last, about a year ago, actually, Michelle, a different conservative group called Judicial Watch filed a similar complaint raising the same arguments.

The ethics committee dismissed that last August, saying they had reviewed it, they did not find any conflicts.

I also talked to a former deputy chief counsel of the Congressional Ethics Panel who said that generally lawmakers can vote on these kinds of bills even if it benefits their spouse if it's broad.

So we'll have to see if Whitehouse's critics are satisfied by that.

- Thank you, Ted.

- Good to be here.

- Finally tonight, we have important news to share about a major community concern.

Rhode Island PBS and The Public's Radio are embarking on a project to bring you in-depth, continuing coverage on the Washington Bridge.

- Our reporting will reach across all of our programming with a variety of stories showcasing how this structure is affecting our daily lives.

Here's a first look.

- [Commentator] This is a lifeline right here, this bridge connects so much.

(suspenseful music) - [Announcer] Breaking Point: The Washington Bridge.

A community-centered project that asks the hard questions about life in our state today.

- And now it's, you're going into over a year.

- [Reporter] Governor McKee and DOT Director Alviti say the state is on the right track now.

- [Announcer] Access all the latest news on demand at ripbs.org/breakingpoint.

- It's a community-led project, and we want to hear from you.

Please send us your stories and ask us your questions at ripbs.org/breakingpoint or scan the QR code at the bottom of your screen.

- There's so many interesting stories, and we're eager to be able to tell them.

- Yeah, we'd love to hear from business owners, people who commute over the bridge on a regular basis.

- Even about people's social lives and how it's affected getting together with family and friends.

- Yeah, that's taken a toll for many, yeah.

And that's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of "Rhode Island PBS Weekly."

Until then, please follow us on Facebook and YouTube, and you can visit us online to see all of our stories and past episodes at ripbs.org/weekly or listen to our podcast on your favorite streaming platform.

Goodnight.

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