Petition update

Thanks the thousands of people who have signed the petition and especially to those of you who collected the signatures which we know is not an easy job. The petition was presented on the 15th June 2007 to MP Heather Roy who attended our weekly Friday morning coffee group to receive the 3375 signatures. She presented the petition to Parliament on Tuesday 19th June 2007 and we hope it will be presented to the education select commitee for consideration next week.
With this we hope there will be a lot more media attention and public discussion about it so please continue to help us bring the issue to the public and politician's attention by the means listed below- write to your local MP, Hon. Steve Maharey, Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, and MPs who are interested and have been asking questions about it in parliament such as Heather Roy, Katherine Rich, Paula Bennett, John Key, Brian Donnelly, Rodney Hyde, Moana Mackey and others. Tell them how it is affecting you and your family personally with real examples. You can ask for a meeting with them especially your local MP. You can also write to your local paper or ring a radio station.


Early Childhood Council Update

Below is a link to the ECC website and the brochure they have gone to the effort of producing on why your centre won't be offering the 20 hours for free if it isn't.

"Free ECE Parent Information Brochure
There is expected to be a very mixed uptake of the government's Free ECE policy for three and four year olds. The ECC has produced an information brochure to help parents understand why many centres have decided not to opt in to Free ECE, and to seek their help to convince the government to make the necessary changes to the policy, so that all families can benefit as promised. The brochure is available to download from this record."

the link to the download of the ECC brochure

http://www.ecc.org.nz/articles/index.php?rt=1&rid=1015

Letter to the select commitee (below is the letter we have forwarded on with our petition for their consideration)

Mr Brian Donnelly M.P
Chair of the Education
and Science Select Committee 15 June 2007


Dear Mr Donnelly (and members of the Education and Science Select Committee),

Please find attached 3351 signatures for a petition requesting that the Government honour its promise of 20 hours free education for all 3 and 4 year olds from July 2007. The signatures represent parents who were excited about receiving 20 hours free childhood education for 3 and 4 year olds and are becoming increasingly disappointed as they see that it will not be delivered to ALL 3 and 4 year olds from 1 July 2007 and it will NOT BE FREE. We would like to make an oral submission in support of the petition and would be prepared to make ourselves available at a time convenient to the Committee either in person or via video conference link if that is possible.

Many parents are feeling frustrated as they try to plan and budget for their children’s’ pre-school education. Unfortunately there are few examples around the country of families actually receiving the 20 hours of childhood education for FREE. Most are either not getting it at all, are having to pay optional charges without knowing how long the provider will continue to opt in to the scheme, or they are paying more in other areas (with increased charges for their under threes or for additional hours after the 6 hour daily or 20 hour weekly limit). We are also aware of examples where families have been told that their centre will be offering the 20 hours but will only continue to educate children if their family agrees to switch from part-time to full-time hours.

The reality is that the Government has simply increased its funding for the early childhood education sector or another way of putting it, has provided further subsidies for parents of 3 and 4 years olds. This is clearly not what was promised and we are concerned that even if providers do end up offering the 20 free hours that the financial benefit to families will be severely compromised by centres recouping their costs from parents in others ways.
It is no use blaming the providers (and in particular the private sector) for not offering the scheme. The Government knew that they were dependent on the centres in delivering their promise and now must make it happen. After all, the promise was made to the parents (with the power to vote) not the early childhood providers.

We want you to understand why parents feel so let down about this broken promise. Besides the obvious financial savings, which could automatically make a huge difference to families, many parents we have spoken to have told us that the delivery of 20 free hours of early childhood education for their 3 and 4 year olds would have led to other significant changes in their lives. The four most common outcomes mentioned are: -

- The opportunity to continue or return to a career. The 20 free hours would improve the financial money-go-round situation faced by many working parents;
- The opportunity to take some time away from work and spend more time with the family while the children are so young (especially after the birth of a second or third child). We understand that some parents work simply to afford early childhood education for their child. This is especially likely in areas where public kindergartens are not available until children are as old as 4 and private alternatives must be used.
- The opportunity to afford to have another baby. Many families can only afford the expense of early childhood education for one child at a time, but the 20 hours free funding could have enabled families to plan another child because 20 hours’ free childcare for the first child would be provided under the scheme.
- To increase the opportunity to access pre-school when it was not previously available to a family due to financial constraints.

The potential impact on families around New Zealand of this promise was therefore significant and many people are relying on its successful implementation. It is our belief that the 20 hours free policy should have resulted in families having greater choice and flexibility to provide quality early childhood education to their 3 and 4 year olds yet the way that the scheme has been presented has, for many, only caused disappointment, confusion and uncertainty.

We also want to explain why we have asked for additional funding. As busy parents we don’t understand the various funding models behind the early childhood sector but with the Government promising 20 free hours and the centres saying they can’t afford to deliver that without compromising on the quality of care, the solution seemed obvious – increase the funding. Locally, we know of sessional centres who say that even if they did participate in the scheme, that the funding would only cover $3- $4 per 3 hour session, when families currently pay around $20. This has naturally made us concerned that in some cases the funding rates are inadequate. In fact, we are not so concerned about how the Government remedies the situation as long as all 3 and 4 year olds can access the 20 free hours as promised and that this happens as close to 1 July 2007 as possible.

Finally we should like to emphasise our expectation that “free” really means without payment. The reality is that most of the centres who have indicated they will opt in (including many not-for-profit organisations like the Auckland Kindergarten Association) will be requesting payment on top of the “free” hours. If even the public kindergartens can’t offer the scheme without requesting additional money from parents, it goes without saying that for-profit providers are likely to be substantially under-funded and will have to request payments from families. We note the concerns of the providers about enforcing payments as set out in the recent parent brochure produced by the Early Childhood Council (which are now appearing in the centres that our children attend). Although we are reminded by the Education Minister in the Ministry’s brochure that if families don’t want to pay the optional charges they don’t have to, the reality is not that simple. If one family refuses to pay an optional charge, this could jeopardise the future participation of their child’s centre in the scheme, because centres say they are only participating on a trial basis and will withdraw if they do not successfully recover all of their costs. This results in a moral dilemma for families, as they will not want to be the ones to force their centre to pull out or be exposed to any animosity from other parents. Parents can’t just remove a child from one centre and walk into another. Waiting lists can be more than a year long and alternative centres may not exist in the area. Of course, this is all hypothetical, because none of our centres are participating in any event.
We now would urge the Education and Science Select Committee to do whatever is necessary to remedy this situation and enable ALL our 3 and 4 year olds to have the best start possible.