NZ – Parents using childcare ‘worse off’

Parents of children in early childhood education will be out of pocket despite Prime Minister John Key’s assurance that no-one will be “worse off” after receiving tax cuts.

The Government is being accused of breaking an election promise and parents fear extra fees will prevent some from sending young children to childcare.

One Porirua childcare centre has already warned parents they face $50 a week more in fees after the Government axed the top subsidy for the 20 hours early childhood education scheme in its annual Budget.

And centres around the country are doing their sums, with the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) warning that the shortfall will be passed on to parents, with some facing up to $60 extra a week.

But Education Minister Anne Tolley said those numbers were “speculation” and many centres were likely to decide against fee increases. Mr Key said tax cuts, announced in the May 20 Budget, meant middle- and low-income earners would not be worse off, even after a 2.5 per cent GST increase.

Childcare centres with more than 80 per cent qualified teachers will have their subsidy cut from $12.45 an hour to $10.88, per child. About half the country’s early childhood operators will be affected.

Porirua First Five Childcare Centre treasurer David Codwell said there was no choice but to increase fees for care over the free 20 hours scheme, meaning fees for a fulltime child could increase by $50.

Parents had been “shocked” but understanding when they found out, he said. The parent-run centre had been very affordable, but that would change for many.

“We run it as cheap as we can.”

Kirsty McKay, 36, of Wellington, is an early childhood teacher. Her daughter Emiliana Gonzalez-McKay, 3, attends about 25 hours a week at the Victoria University creche.

Parents were in a holding pattern waiting to hear what costs would be passed on, she said.

“A lot of low-income families and single-parent families aren’t going to be able to afford to keep their children in early childhood education.”

If her daughter was still attending fulltime it would have been untenable for her, she said.

Mrs Tolley said cutting the top subsidy would encourage educators with more qualified staff to cut back to the 80 per cent level, freeing teachers to move to schools with a lower percentage of qualified staff. “As long as they are maintaining 80 per cent they are meeting our requirements.”

Fees were the responsibility of centres, not the Government, she said.

NZEI vice-president Judith Nowotarski said quality of education would be undermined. “Centres may be forced to replace qualified staff with unqualified staff.”

Labour’s early childhood spokeswoman Sue Moroney said teachers were not pieces to be moved around, but people with ties to certain locations who were unlikely to move to fit the Government’s plan. The Government had broken its election promise, and the change negated the tax cut for many families.

“It actually has them on the losing side of the balance sheet.”

Mrs Tolley said the Government had kept the promise, because access to the free hours remained unchanged.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/3756169/Parents-using-childcare-worse-off

US – Exposing Preschool Children To Art and Science

Preschool children in Detroit can look forward to more science and arts experiences in the next three years.

PNC, the nation’s fifth largest bank, will invest more than 2 million dollars in science and arts education for early elementary kids in Detroit.

About 200 hundred children are expected to participate in the first year of the program and organizers hope to expand it to more students over three years.

“One of the core tenets is training the trainer, where we actually go in and we give the teachers the tools that they need,” says David Boyle, the regional president for PNC Financial Services in Michigan, “And then we partner with the two organizations for them to extend that learning outside the school through fieldtrips, through hands-on learning and parents get to be involved.”

Boyle says the Detroit Public Schools expressed a need for more science and arts education which led to the choice of partners. PNC plans to announce similar initiatives in Kalamazoo, Lansing and Grand Rapids in June.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/news.newsmain/article/7/0/1655961/Education/Exposing.Preschool.Children.To.Art.and.Science.

US – Better data for better learning

A $17.4 million federal grant will help the state track students from preschool to college and determine what works best.

As high school students around the state don caps and gowns in graduation ceremonies, we wonder how many of them are truly prepared to enter the world, either through a career or college.

Remediation rates compiled by the Colorado Department of Higher Education paint a troubling picture on this front. More than half of recent Colorado high school graduates who went to two-year colleges in 2009 needed remedial classes in at least one subject, and nearly 20 percent of those going to four-year schools needed remedial classes.

Last week, the state received a $17.4 million federal grant that comes wrapped in the dreams and aspirations of education reformers who believe data will show the way to better educate our children.

We share their high hopes, and look forward to seeing the sophisticated data system that will track student progress from preschool to college, highlighting what works best and what is ineffective.

The data system being devised by the Colorado Department of Education should be able to look at our current crop of graduates and their prior experiences in the state’s education system to figure out why they need remediation and how to address the situation.

That’s just one example of the potential this robust data system has to shape educational reform in coming years.

Richard Wenning, Colorado Department of Education associate commissioner, told us it will be able to track student readiness from the moment they enter the system, through K-12, and upon their entry to higher education or the workforce.

Some questions that could be answered include whether concurrent enrollment — the program in which students are enrolled in high school while taking college classes — ends in better student outcomes.

Wenning said it could show the return on public investment in education.

The data could give educators an important tool to use in carrying out legislation passed in recent years, such as the controversial teacher tenure bill and 2009’s Senate Bill 163, which creates a new school accreditation process based in part on performance.

Wenning told us he hopes the data will reshape discussions about education, putting an emphasis on solutions instead of debating evidence.

We hope so, too. A system that provides a holistic way of looking at the efficacy of Colorado public education will provide invaluable information for taxpayers, parents and educators.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_15177946

Child care costs means it’s cheaper to send kids to school early

THE soaring cost of childcare is forcing thousands of parents to pack their children off to school before they turn five and can cope in the classroom.

Childcare and early learning centres claim up to 80 per cent of children in their care are being sent to school too early as families avoid spiralling fees of up to $100 a day.

Children become eligible for school at 4 1/2 years but early learning centres said some were so traumatised in their first year at kindergarten they returned to childcare.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal that a new generation of parents faces even more pressure to take the school option when increased regulation forces fees even higher and cuts available early learning places.

One mother of a 4 1/2- year-old boy said she sent him to school because she could not afford childcare but he later returned to his early learning centre three days a week when he failed to make the transition.

Another mum with twins said she could not wait to send them to school because of the savings she would make.

A public primary school principal said he encouraged children to start when they became eligible.

“It is better to get them in and going than to wait for another year,” he said.

“The NAPLAN [National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy] test data doesn’t show much difference between the younger kids and the older ones. A lot of parents send their kids to school as soon as they become eligible, in order to save money.”

Catholic principal Danuta Maka from Our Lady Queen of Peace at Greystanes said only a small percentage of her parents demanded their children start school contrary to advice.

An exclusive survey commissioned by The Daily Telegraph found more than 70 per cent of parents planned to send their children to school as soon as they were legally eligible. Fourteen per cent said this was because school was cheaper than childcare.

The survey found 28 per cent of parents were using relatives or friends to care for their children because they could not afford childcare.

Childcare NSW president Lyn Connolly said it was “outrageous” that schools took so many 4 1/2-year-olds despite advice they were not ready for school.

“We have had children go to school and return to us as late as July or August,” she said.

“It’s huge . . . 80 per cent of children we see are going to school too early. Only one in five families are holding their children back.

“I think the reason is economic.”

Childcare operators claim more stringent regulation including the lowering of staff/child ratios would cut available places and force fees up by $14-$24 a day.

Ms Connolly said there were already 65,700 vacancies across Australia and more centres would become unviable unless families received greater help through the childcare benefit.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/child-care-costs-means-its-cheaper-to-send-kids-to-school-early/story-e6frf7l6-1225872738450

Labor attacks another child care option: after school sport to be defunded

While the Minister for Sport and Minister for Early Childhood Education, Child Care and Youth was proudly announcing a brand new Learning Framework for Outside School Hours Care programs yesterday, 3250 schools offering 150,000 children the federally funded Active After-school Communities Program were reeling with the news that she has cut off their funding after December.

Dr Sharman Stone, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Childcare and the Shadow Minister for the Status of Women, said after-school programs are of critical importance to help working parents meet the care needs of their 5 to 12 year olds.

“Activities like the Active After-school Communities Program provide supervision and care while helping children learn to tackle obesity, to develop fitness and enjoy sport.

“You have to wonder what is going on in Minister Ellis’ portfolio if she is busy launching a ‘framework document’ at the same time that the staff running existing after-school programs are being told to pack their bags in December.

“The childcare sector is coming under heavy attack from the Rudd Labor Government. They apparently see it as easy prey for cut-backs in what is an increasingly cash-strapped economy. The Child Care Rebate was capped in the budget, despite child care fees having to increase by up to $22 per child per day to accommodate the new Child Care Quality Framework. Labor is now rushing this change through parliament.

“The Establishment Grants for Family Day Care have also been slashed, as well as special funding for remote services.

“Now it is the turn of the Active After-school Communities Program to feel the pain. The existing and highly successful program does not need a new learning framework. There is no point launching documents when the funding for the program is to be terminated (albeit after the election).”

http://australia.to/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3045:labor-attacks-another-child-care-option-after-school-sport-to-be-defunded&catid=101:australian-news&Itemid=167

Scotland – Childcare costs set to rocket after nurseries hit by rates rises of 300%

PARENTS face rising fees for childcare because increases in business rates are leaving privately run nurseries strapped for cash, industry leaders claim.

Privately run nurseries, on which the majority of Scottish parents depend for childcare, have seen rates rise by as much as 300 per cent after the recent revaluation of property.

The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) Scotland says the situation is worse north of the Border because there is no transitional period as in England.

This means rises applied immediately from last month, landing private nurseries with extra costs of thousands of pounds, unlike in England where any significant rise can be spread across the year. Nursery owners say charges to parents will have to rise to avoid closure.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of NDNA Scotland, described the rises as “significant” and warned it was a huge issue for nurseries and parents.

She said: “Following a change in the way these are calculated, we have been hearing from members whose rates have risen by thousands and thousands of pounds.

“Some are seeing 300 per cent increases, which is a massive cost pressure for nurseries as many are small businesses.

“The problem has been compounded by the fact that, in Scotland, there is no transitional period, so any rise has applied from this April.”

She warned there had been no time for nurseries to plan and adjust to the rises.

Ms Tanuku added: “This potentially also has a huge impact upon parents, as if they are to remain open, nurseries will have little choice but to review fees.”

Daily rates for nursery care vary in the private sector but are around £40-60, and many charge a joining fee, for example £75.

Business rates are re-evaluated every five years and, north of the Border, the Scottish Government is responsible.

Nursery owners from Fife are expected to protest about the rates rises outside the Scottish Parliament on Thursday.

They hope Fife Labour MSP Marilyn Livingstone will raise the issue at First Minister’s question next week.

A Scottish Government spokesman claimed that the average business would save £1,300 under the revaluation and a transition scheme would cost the public purse £77m next year.

He said: “In England, the transitional relief scheme has reduced the average saving to only £770 – almost half the £1,300 saving in Scotland.

“In Scotland, a traditional transitional relief scheme would have resulted in an estimated transfer of funds from a large part of the private sector, amounting to almost £77m in 2010-11 alone.

“In the current economic climate, such outcomes would have been impossible to justify.”

“Our clear focus is on delivering economic recovery and ensuring Scotland’s return to economic growth is sustained.”

http://www.scotsman.com/news/Childcare-costs–set-to.6328447.jp

Australia – Rise in WA born drug babies new figures reveal

THE number of WA babies born with addictions to illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin is soaring, new figures reveal.

King Edward Memorial Hospital figures show that 230 mothers and their drug-addicted newborns were treated at the hospital’s withdrawal clinic in the first five months of this year.

Last year’s total number at WA’s only specialist maternity hospital was 300.

Australia’s most prominent child health expert, Fiona Stanley, said it was heartbreaking to watch an infant struggle with an addiction to illicit substances such as cocaine and heroin.

“It’s why I gave up clinical work. I couldn’t bear to see all these kids suffering,” Prof Stanley said.

“These babies are jittery. They’re irritable and have tremors. They cry in a high-pitched way and don’t hold their temperatures well. They almost look as though they need a hit.”

Mental Health Minister Graham Jacobs said that babies born to drug-abusing mothers were at 0severe risk of abnormalities, including deformities.

“There are also long-term problems associated with retarding brain development in the baby,” he said.

Dr Jacobs said the WA Government would pump more money into local action groups that provide education to teenage mothers.

He also wants high schools to teach teenagers about the risks of taking drugs or drinking alcohol during pregnancy.

“We have to make a difference on the ground locally in communities,” Dr Jacobs said.

Prof Stanley said official Health Department figures that showed at least one WA baby was born every week with a drug addiction were just the tip of the iceberg.

“Not many mothers are willing to come forward and admit to taking illegal drugs during pregnancy,” she said.

“Women who take drugs are also more likely to smoke and drink, which can also cause abnormalities in the baby.”

Prof Stanley said drug-addicted mothers should use their pregnancies to inspire them to go clean.

“Pregnancy is a fabulous opportunity for mums who are addicted to start thinking about looking after themselves better because their baby is more important than drugs,” she said.

“Women should be delaying their pregnancies until they have overcome their addictions.”

Prof Stanley said medical staff needed to pay close attention to signs of drug addiction among pregnant women.

There also needed to be clear communication across government agencies in the health and education systems to ensure babies born with drug addictions had continued support throughout childhood.

Adults Surviving Child Abuse chairwoman Cathy Kezelman said the WA Government must closely monitor all babies born with drug addictions.

“If you’re born with an addiction then it implies that the environment into which you’re going to be raised won’t be the most appropriate for proper care,” Dr Kezelman said.

http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/rise-in-wa-born-drugs-babies/story-e6frg153-1225872910088

Canada – ‘Teachers, ECEs equal partners’

The success of Ontario’s all-day kindergarten depends on ensuring early childhood educators and teachers are equal partners in the classroom, according to a panel of educators at an ECE conference in Hamilton yesterday.

The panel, including Charles Pascal, the premier’s adviser on early learning, and executives of the elementary and secondary school teachers’ unions, were cheerleaders for the new program. But they outlined how they believe it would work. They emphasized the importance of keeping it a play-based education program.

Teachers’ federations representatives on the panel, which was part of the Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario (AECEO) conference at the Hamilton Convention Centre, welcomed ECEs to the classroom and praised their work with young children.

Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said the view by some people who see ECEs as nothing more than glorified babysitters has to end because ECEs contribute so much to a child’s development.

Jim Ryan, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association, was applauded when he said ECEs will not be assistants or support workers in the classroom, but equal partners with teachers, answering not to the teacher, but the principal. He also praised the new teaching model.

“When we invest in early childhood, it pays massive dividends in our society. We’ve seen it in Quebec and in Scandinavia. It’s also a huge tool to defeating poverty.”

Ryan also thanked ECEs for “coming into our classrooms and giving play the credit it deserves.”

He blasted the province for their emphasis on testing and measurement standards. Schools, especially in the U.S., “have been destroyed by the culture of testing,” he said. “They are strangling and crushing the fun out of education, and that’s not the way to move education forward. Introducing play learning is a rescue for the education system. I hope it spreads through the rest of the education system.”

Not to engage in play learning strangles creativity , he said.

Rachel Langford, AECEO board member and Ryerson University’s ECE director, said with teachers and ECEs working together, the best aspects of both professions can “establish something truly great in Canadian education.”

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/777906

Notes from the margin: kids count

IT’S AFTERNOON peak hour in Gisborne and a rush of cars arrives at Twin Oaks Childcare Centre. Headlights shine on the nearby Calder Freeway, as commuters drive to and from Melbourne, 45 minutes south-east. But here, traffic is busy with parents collecting their offspring.

The number of children at Twin Oaks has more than tripled in less than 18 months, to about 70, since the centre was salvaged from the failed ABC chain.

Demand for places in the surrounding local Macedon Ranges Shire is expected to grow 25 per cent by 2026, to 822, as families seek cheaper housing outside Melbourne. Both centres are in the federal electorate of McEwen, the most marginal seat after the previous election – 23 per cent of the population is aged 14 and under, says the census. In Australia, it is 19.8 per cent.

Playing in the autumn leaves at Twin Oaks is 18-month-old Sienna Billman. Mother Louise, 24, drops her daughter here up to five days a week, while she studies counselling in Melbourne and her husband, Brendan, commutes to work for Telstra in Clayton. She nominates paid parental leave, the cost of petrol and federal budget plans to cut its cap on the childcare rebate among her biggest concerns.

Louise voted Labor in 2007 but is not sure how she’ll vote this year. ”It’s a lose-lose situation. I did vote for Kevin Rudd and I feel let down by that. But I don’t want to vote for Tony Abbott either … It’s difficult, because the parties seem so close in their positives and negatives.”

Competing offers of paid parental leave by the main political parties don’t seem to have swayed these voters. Chef Jason Standring, 38, collecting his children Allana, 11, and Harrison, six, from after-school care, is more worried about long hospital waiting lists and unemployment levels. Life is a struggle at times. He and wife Josephine, a registered nurse, live from pay packet to pay packet, with little savings and a $190,000 mortgage on their three-bedroom Gisborne home. Childcare is expensive, he says. He worries, too, about teacher shortages in the area.

Anne McLennan, the council’s director of community wellbeing, says there is growing need for more preschool places and sporting facilities.

Demand is driven, in large part, by families seeking more affordable housing while commuting to work in Melbourne or at the city’s airports. About 18 per cent of the population in McEwen are technicians or trade workers. In Gisborne, the average house price is $402,500 against $580,000 in Melbourne, according to Residex.

Meanwhile, about 400 people across the Macedon Ranges Shire are on a waiting list for low-income housing, Ms McLennan says.

The area is popular, too, among high-income professionals seeking a rural lifestyle and easy access to childcare. Twin Oaks owner Maryanne Hussey says two families have booked childcare places in the past week, before moving to the area because of shortages in Melbourne. Her childcare centre has places for 130 children and is only about half full. It’s a different story in McEwen’s less wealthy southern stretches, which are bulging with new residential estates. The director of a childcare centre in South Morang, in Melbourne’s outer north, with 150 places, says he has waiting lists of up to 20 children, three days a week.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/notes-from-the-margin-kids-count-20100529-wmlb.html

Thousands of children part of ambitious early childhood study

More than 2,500 three year-olds attending over 250 education and care services in Victoria and Queensland are now part of Australia’s largest ever early childhood education study. The E4Kids study, led by the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education in partnership with the Queensland University of Technology, the Queensland and Victorian Governments, Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne), the University of Toronto and the Institute of Education, London, aims to help improve early childhood education and care in Australia.

Fifty researchers started working with children attending a wide range of childcare settings at the end of March.

The five-year international study will explore how Australian early childhood education and care programs contribute to children’s learning and development. The results will inform the $3.3bn invested annually in early childhood education and care.

The children involved have been chosen to represent a broad cross-section of Australian society. Approximately 35 per cent of participants are classified as ‘disadvantaged’, approximately 25 per cent of Victorian participants are from regional areas and approximately ten per cent of Queensland participants are from remote areas.

Professor Collette Tayler, Chair of Early Childhood Education and Care at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, is leading the study. She believes its results will play an important role in State and Federal Government policy.

“Early childhood education and care is receiving increasing attention from the Australian State and Federal Governments, and that is to be welcomed,” she says.

“We know from studies in North America and the UK in particular that quality early childhood education and care programs increase children’s attainment levels throughout their education and into adulthood. And similarly, lack of a quality program can predict poor progress.

“But we don’t yet know what program elements make a significant impact on a child’s learning and development. This study will discover what these are, enabling policy makers and educators to make evidence-based decisions into the future.”

The study is partly funded by a $2.2m Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the largest ARC grant ever awarded to an education study. The study’s full title is Effective Early Education Experiences.

http://www.unisaustralia.com/2010/05/28/thousands-of-children-part-of-ambitious-early-childhood-study/