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.

Table of Potential Savings for your family

The Petition

We need the government to hear our concerns. Please take the time to sign the petition and get as many of your family and friends to do the same.

To sign our petition requesting:

that the House of Representatives acts to ensure that the Labour-led Government fulfils its
election promise that “20 hours free education will be provided for three and four year olds at any licensed teacher-led service in New Zealand from July 2007” and allocates any funding
necessary to enable this to happen

either:

a) print out the petition directly from this blog by double clicking on the JPEG above and print it out

or b) alternatively please email 20hoursfree.please@gmail.com with "petition" in the subject header. We will send you an authorised and printable version of the petition.

The petition should be sent to:

20hoursfree.please

Private Bag MBEM107

Auckland 1142

and be received by May 31st 2007.

Useful Links

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/497100/1116156
Then click on ‘Related Video – Subsidised Childcare’ to watch video clip of Close-up (TVNZ) article on the policy .

Early Childhood Council NZ (site includes many links to press reports on this subject)
http://www.ecc.org.nz/

Early Childhood Council NZ media release dated 30 March 07 http://www.ecc.org.nz/mediareleases/index.php?rt=20&rid=977

Early Childhood Council NZ media release/ survey dated 1 Feb 07
http://www.ecc.org.nz/mediareleases/index.php?rt=20&rid=950

Ministry of Education
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/

TeamUp (Min of Ed)
http://www.teamup.co.nz/default.htm

Auckland Kindergarten Association press release dated 8 March 07
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0703/S00018.htm

Education Forum press release dated 30 March 07
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0703/S00123.htm

New Zealand Kindergarten press release dated 30 March 07
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0703/S00121.htm

Parliament reporting- TheyWorkForYou
http://www.google.co.nz/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie=UTF-8&rls=SKPB,SKPB:2006-49,SKPB:en&q=theyworkforyou+nz

Parents fear cost of ‘free hours’ childcare- Dominion Post 11 April 07
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4021824a7694.html

This little piggy went to day care – The Aucklander
http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/news/story.cfm?storyID=3725521

National Party press release dated 3 May 2007
http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleId=10108

NZ Childcare Association
http://www.nzchildcare.ac.nz/

Contact us

Whether you are a parent or early childhood provider please let us know what your centre is doing. We want to form a clear picture of what is going on around the country so that we can build up accurate information about how many children are able to benefit from the scheme and just how many are missing out. Send us a message at 20hoursfree.please@gmail.com

20 Hours Free. Please

What to do if you are an Early Childhood Centre or Home-based provider to help your 3 and 4 year olds to get their 20 free hours

You could print out the petition ( see in the Petition section) along with this letter to parents below. Do this by highlighting the letter and then select copy and paste it into a word document.

If this all sounds too complicated we are more than happy to email to you a printer friendly format of both the letter to parents and the petition - simply send an email to 20freehours.please@gmail.com with flyer for parents and petition in the subject box


Dear Parent or Caregiver,

We are a group of motivated parents who have started a petition regarding the Government’s 20 Hours Free policy. We have called our group “20 Hours Free. Please” and our aim is to raise awareness amongst other parents about what the Government promised for three and four year olds and why many children, like ours, are likely to miss out when the scheme becomes operational from 1 July 2007.

Our petition requests that sufficient funding is allocated to make this work for families and centres. We understand that many ECE providers would like to offer this scheme but are unable to due to insufficient funding and the inability to charge top-ups to parents (and that this concern applies to both private and not-for-profit centres).

We recognise the great importance of the opportunity presented by this scheme for Kiwi families and why it is crucial that we don’t let this chance pass us by at this time. Not only does the scheme have the potential to encourage higher participation in ECE, but it also gives families the choice as to whether to work more or less hours.

Help us ensure that as many families as possible are able to benefit from the 20 hours free policy and that it is not just a lottery for the lucky few. Please sign our petition and better still visit us at http://20hoursfree.blogspot.com and learn more about this issue. You can also print off more copies of our petition and help us by circulating them in your community.

Signed petitions should be returned by 31 May to:

20 Hours Free. Please
Private Bag MBEMI07
Auckland 1142

Thank you for your time.

20 Hours Free. Please
20hoursfree.please@gmail.com

Comprehensive Review of Research

What did the Government promise for three and four year olds?

During the run-up to the last General Election, the Labour party announced that:-

“…20 hours free education will be able to be provided for three and four year olds at any licensed teacher-led service in New Zealand from July 2007……Under Labour families accessing these services will be around $90 a week better off (or $4,680 per year) for each child as it reaches the eligible age.”

This was a fantastic promise and many parents were no doubt thrilled at the prospect of some financial help in providing quality early childhood education for their child. Earlier this year, advertising for the scheme began, including TV ads and flyers that were distributed in public kindergartens and elsewhere. The flyers advise:-

“One of the best things you can do for your child is to start their education early- it gives them a strong foundation for learning and life……From 1 July 2007, it will be easier to start your child’s learning early because up to 20 hours of early childhood education will be free for three and four year olds.”


Where can my eligible child receive their 20 hours free early childhood education?

Any child of three and four years old who attends a “teacher-led” Early Childhood Education (ECE) centre or home based service is eligible to receive up to 20 free hours early childhood education. Teacher-led services include public and privately run sessional kindergartens, daycare centres, home based services and some community run centres. Playcentres and most kohanga reo will not be eligible because they are not teacher-led. (It seems that the Government’s intention behind the 20 free hours policy was not just to improve our pre-schoolers’ education, but also to encourage women back to paid work given the current skills shortage in the market.)

The big catch however, is that the centre has to decide whether to opt into the Government’s initiative. At the moment, it seems that a large proportion of providers will not be able to offer the scheme to children attending their centres or service (see below for an explanation as to why this is the case). The big picture will become clearer from 1 July as to exactly how many services will be offering the 20 free hours, but at the moment the uptake looks certain to be disappointing.

The Government has no figures available to show just how many services intend to opt in, so all we have to work from is what we know from the centres that our children attend and from discussions we have had with other parents both locally and elsewhere across the country. The picture looks fairly bleak. This position is backed up by a survey conducted by the Early Childhood Council (ECC) (which represents many independently run kindergartens, daycare providers and some community-run centres), which found:-

“The likely uptake of 20 hours free ECE by early childhood centres was low and likely to get lower…[with] only 23.9% of centres answering ‘yes’ to the question ‘will your centre be opting into the Free ECE?’.”

The ECC has also stated that while only 23.9% of centres had said ‘yes’, 46% remained undecided, with three quarters of those anticipating that they would not participate. It seems that if you live in the city you are more likely to miss out- see below for a breakdown of the survey results for your area:-
Greater Auckland – 12% (North Shore, Waitakere, Auckland and Manukau combined)
Greater Wellington- 29% (Wellington, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt)
Christchurch- 19%
Tauranga –25%
Hamilton 22%

When it comes to the participation of public kindergartens the good news is that many public kindergartens outside Auckland have recently said that they will participate (although they do have some reservations about the funding levels and whether they can continue to function on them, particularly if their overheads go up. However the Auckland Kindergarten Association (AKA) still remains undecided. Around 9,000 children attend the 107 public kindergartens within Auckland (according to the AKA this figure represents about 10% of the children in NZ attending ECE).

Even if all public kindergartens did offer the scheme, it is clear there will still be a huge number of pre-schoolers who will miss out on the 20 free hours because many children are waiting well past their third birthday (in some areas this can be as late as the child’s fourth birthday) to access a public kindergarten place. Therefore the status quo will remain the same and families waiting for places at public kindergartens will therefore have to either:-

a) opt not to send their child to pre-school until they get a place where they can access the 20 hours free; or
b) fund a private kindergarten until a place comes up (see our table below for the cost implications of this.)

The 20 hours free policy should have ensured that families would no longer be faced with this dilemma.


Can the Ministry of Education help me find a service in my area offering the scheme?

Don’t expect any help from the Government’s 0800 20 44 33 number or the TeamUp website in finding a participating service. When we rung the helpline in late March, the call-centre operator was unable to give us any information other than to provide a yellow-pages style breakdown of Early Childhood Education services that existed in a particular area. He did not know that the public kindergartens in Auckland were not participating and was under the impression that all centres given on the list were offering the scheme. That is simply not the case; as the Ministry of Education webpage explains:-

“It will be up to individual services to decide whether to offer Free ECE, so parents need to contact services directly to discuss enrolment and Free ECE”.

This no doubt puts unfair pressure on the Early Childhood Education services themselves as the onus is on them to defend their position to parents who are expecting the 20 free hours for their child.


Why are so many services unwilling to opt into the scheme?

When the Government first announced the 20 hours free scheme, there was much excitement and anticipation amongst early childhood providers. As Helen Clark recently said the plan for 20 free hours a week of pre-school education for 3 and 4 year olds was “one of the most significant extensions to the education system since the introduction of free secondary education in the 1930s”.

However, the bombshell for providers came in the week before Christmas last year, when the Government finally announced the rates that the centres would receive to cover the fees that they currently receive from parents. The Early Childhood Council (ECC) on its website explains that the reason so many centres are not willing to offer the scheme is not because centres disagree with the principle of free early childhood education. Instead, as they explain in their press release dated 1 Feb 2007:-

“Reasons respondents gave for not offering free ECE were that they could not maintain quality with the amount of money the Government was offering, that the rates would not cover their costs, that offering free ECE would send them broke, that costs of administration would be ‘huge’, and that the Government’s proposed voluntary payments from parents were too uncertain to allow for an approach to budgeting that could maintain quality.The most common reason respondents gave for not taking part in 20 free hours was that the funding levels were less than or equal to what they were charging already.‘Most ‘undecided’ respondents indicated they were leaning toward not participating in 20 hours free. They commented on the jeopardy to quality of cutting teacher numbers, the impossibility of making ends meet at the rates announced, the fear free payment rates would not be adjusted for inflation and would erode over time, the fact that voluntary parental payments would not provide enough security of income, and the need for a compulsory top up fee so they could maintain the programmes they were delivering currently.”

According to the ECC, the Government is only offering between $1.02 and $4.60 an hour for services that are currently charged to parents at rates between $2 to $15 an hour. Sue Thorne, Chief Executive of the ECC states:-
‘The bottom line for most centres is as simple as the ABC we teach our children. Most centres, whether community-run or commercially run, will not be able to take up 20 hours free as it stands, because cutting much-loved childcare programmes is against everything they stand for.’Mrs Thorne also said the situation was best in those centres where costs were lowest, and worst in those centres in which costs were highest and 20 hours free was therefore least affordable. ‘Most centres in the rural South Island, for example, are opting in because they can afford to do so without cutting childcare programmes. This is because their land, labour and other costs are low. But in Auckland, for example, land that might cost $50,000 in the rural South Island might cost $500,000 or more. And staff 15% more’


Why is early childhood education so important for my child?

The government on its website reminds us all that “Quality education ensures that every Kiwi regardless of who they are and where they come from can achieve their full potential and contribute to New Zealand's society and economy.”

The results of research recently published by the NZ Council for Educational Research entitled 'Competent Children, Competent Learners' reinforces the importance of effective Early Childhood Education (ECE). As the Minister of Education, Steve Maharey, explains:-"The research shows making early progress in literacy and numeracy is an important factor in determining whether a student remains at school after they turn 16. …It indicates that students who left school before the age of 16 had demonstrated a pattern of poor achievement on the research tests from the age of five.”
There is no doubt that the Government recognises the importance of encouraging as many young children into early childhood education as possible and to that extent we applaud them. As the Ministry of Education website acknowledges:-

“Children don’t benefit from quality ECE if their participation is not intensive enough to create positive education outcomes. New Zealand has high ECE participation rates but children attend for relatively few hours per week, at around 14-17 hours per week for 3 and 4 year olds. That means a lot of children attending 9 hours or fewer per week.”

As we have previously explained, many parents would love to send their child to a pre-school at the age of three, but have been denied this experience due to the high costs of sending a child to a private kindergarten. This situation often arises due to the long waiting time for public kindergarten places (some children do not start until they are nearly four). When the Government made a promise to provide 20 free hours for all three and four year olds, it was effectively offering to solve the problem associated with a shortage of public kindergarten places. Now it seems that families who were expecting financial help to provide an early start to pre-school education for their child may be let down once again. It will no doubt be the children who suffer as we can see from the results of the research above.

Did the Governement always intend the free hours to be really "free"?

It is also becoming clear that the Government has done all of its calculations for working out the rates offered to services as follows :
“Free ECE funding rates have been set to fund 100% of the average cost of meeting the regulated requirement of teacher-led services which ensures a good level of quality early childhood education” (Steve Maharey in a letter to one of our group members dated 3 May 2007)

According to the Early Childhood Council 82% of providers offer services that exceed minimum requirements (a cost that is reflected in fees charged to parents). It is little wonder that services are unable to participate in this scheme if the rates offered by the Government will not pay for anything other than national averages for minimum standards. How did the Government ever expect this to work without acknowledging the fact that you can’t apply a uniform rate when providers do not offer uniform services at a uniform cost?

Has the Government misled us all along, safe in the knowledge that this was an impossible scheme to offer? “Free” was only ever going to mean free up to the cost of the provision of minimum regulated standards. Why then has the Government refused to allow top-ups, if they can see that the vast majority of centres can only offer this by charging contractual top-up fees. The Government must have been aware for some time that many parents were in line to miss out, particularly in high-cost areas where there are few community run and not-for-profit centres and at-home services available.

A National party press release dated 3 May 2007 suggests that the Education Minister was warned by his officials last year that there was a need to contain 'unrealistic expectations' in relation to the '20 hours free' policy. Paula Bennett MP states that

"Ministry officials told him there was a need to contain 'unrealistic expectations that could form around the word free'. "What possible other definition of 'free' is there? Is he concerned that parents might possibly think that 'free' means 'free'? .....If 'free' does not mean what parents, rightly, expect it to mean, why is the Government continuing to promote it as such? Parents and ECE deserve some honesty."

During Question Time on 3 May 2007, Mr Maharey said " this policy is a 10-year strategy that is halfway through. For example, we have 5,000 teachers in training right now to go into early childhood centres. "

The impression given to parents when this policy was first announced in July 2005 was not qualified in any way to say that there would be any roll out period. Mr Maharey in Parliament has said in recent weeks however that this scheme is only being "phased-in" from 1 July 2007 and that it was never the Government's intention to offer it to all 92,000 until 2012!

Basic Information

What did the Government promise for three and four year olds?

During the run-up to the last election, the Government promised that, if elected, all three and four year olds in teacher led services (including public and private kindergarten, daycare centres, home based services and most community-run centres) would be eligible to receive 20 free hours of early childhood education. Helen Clark recently described this policy as “one of the most significant extensions to the education system since the introduction of free secondary education in the 1930s”.

Where can my eligible child receive their 20 hours free early childhood education?

In theory, if your child is three or four years of age by 1st July 2007 and attends a teacher led Early Childhood Education service be it a public or private kindergarten, a daycare centre, a community centre, kohanga reo or a home-based education centre, then your child is eligible to receive 6 hours a day, up to a maximum of 20 hours a week. There is however a big catch that the electorate did not foresee when the Government initially announced this policy, in that it is up to individual centres to accept whether to opt into the scheme.

Although many early childhood providers were initially positive and enthusiastic about the introduction of this policy, the reality is that at present, it is estimated only a quarter of independently run centres surveyed by the Early Childhood Council will be participating from July. The Government has said that many centres are putting profits ahead of pre-schoolers education in choosing not to opt in. However it is already clear that it is not only the larger profit-making daycare franchises who are choosing to opt out, but many smaller community-run, not-for-profit centres (including all public kindergartens in Auckland) have also said they are not likely to be opting in.

The good news is that most public kindergartens outside Auckland will be offering the 20 free hours from July, although sadly, these public kindergartens will in no way be able to cater for all children in their region who are eligible to participate, so it is still crucial that we find a way to ensure that independently run centres are also able to participate.

What is clear is that for most families it will not be simply a question of stating “I want to enrol my child for 20 free hours free early childhood education here”.

Can the Ministry of Education help me find a service in my area offering the scheme?

The Government simply does not know at present which services will be offering the scheme. Centres and home based services have only just been given the registration forms and word is from centres that nobody official has asked them to date whether they intend to offer the 20 free hours. The TeamUp (Ministry of Education) website simply acts as a yellow pages to tell you which eligible services exist in your area. It is up to you to call local providers to find out whether they will be able to offer the scheme to your child. We anticipate that many services will not be able to offer the 20 free hours and those that are willing to participate are likely to have huge waiting lists, so it may be hard to find a place for your child.

Why are so many Early Childhood Education providers unwilling to opt into the scheme?

According to the Early Childhood Council (ECC), the Government is only offering between $1.02 and $4.60 an hour for services that are currently charged to parents at rates between $2 to $15 an hour. Early childhood providers say that they refuse to compromise standards, for example by dropping staffing levels, something which they say they would be forced to do if they agreed to the funding levels. The Government has also refused to allow the Early Childhood Education providers to charge top-up fees (because this would mean that the hours are no longer ‘free’). The result is that services either opt in and accept less money (which they say would lead to a reduction in services and standards of care) or opt out and ask parents to continue to pay for the quality of services that they have chosen for their child.

What are we (20freehours.please) distributing to Early Childhood education providers to inform them of the parents perspective and what we would like them to do to help us achieve the 20 free hours for our 3 and 4 year olds?


Dear Early Childhood Educator,

20 Hours Free. Please

We are a group of motivated parents who have started a petition regarding the Government’s 20 Hours Free policy. We have called our group “20 Hours Free. Please” and our aim is to raise awareness amongst other parents about what the Government promised for three and four year olds and why many children, like ours, are likely to miss out when the scheme becomes operational from 1 July 2007.

Our petition requests that sufficient funding is allocated to make this work for families and centres alike. We understand that many ECE providers would like to offer the scheme but are unable to due to the insufficient funding and the inability to charge top-ups to parents (and that this concern applies to both private and not-for-profit centres).

We do however recognise the great importance of the opportunity presented by this scheme for kiwi families and why it is important not to let this pass us by at this time. Not only does the scheme have the potential to encourage higher participation in ECE, but it also gives families the choice as to whether to work more or less hours.

In order to make a success of our petition we need as many signatures as we can to communicate to the Government that the electorate expects them to deliver on the promises they make. We hope that you can support us in achieving our aim of ensuring that as many families as possible are able to participate in the scheme, rather than just the lucky few. We need your help to make this happen.

Please print off the attached flyer (or write one that you prefer) together with our petition and collect the signatures of parents at your centre by 31 May to:

20 Hours Free. Please
Private Bag MBEMI07
Auckland 1142

20 Hours Free. Please

20hoursfree.please@gmail.com


Please help us by ensuring your Early Childhood Education provider knows about this petition, talk to them about it and get them to collect signatures from their staff and parents.

If my child receives 20 hours free ECE, how much will my family save each year?

We estimate that most families presently need to allocate between $5,000 -$10,000 per child of their pre-tax earnings to cover the costs of 20 hours a week of private or community-run daycare or kindergarten.

For a more detailed breakdown look under Comprehensive Review of Research

How can I help ensure that the Government fulfils its election promise?

Firstly help with our petition please. We need your signature to get action. With July 1 rapidly approaching, we need to put pressure on the Government to fulfil their pledge and either allocate more funding or allow top-up fees so that all Early Childhood Education providers are willing to participate from July this year. We are aiming to get 5,000 signatures by 1 June 2007 to petition the Government to honour their word. We need your help now because every signature counts and gets us closer to making the Government take notice that we are not going to let this slide and that as New Zealanders we are passionate about our children's education and we expect the Government to honour their election promise.

How 4 minutes can make years of difference to families.

Please email 20hoursfree.please@gmail.com and we will email you a copy of the petition.

Print it, sign it and post it back to
20 Hours Free.Please
Private Bag MBEM107,
Auckland 1142.

Please note: to create a valid petition, emailed or faxed forms are not accepted. If you'd like to help further, take the petition around people you know (people with or without children) - we need as many people as possible to create a loud voice.

It will only take 4 minutes, but it will create a better future for your family now and others in the future. New Zealand is a great country where we as kiwis can make a difference. Please don't let apathy win, speak up by signing up.

Other ways you can help:-

1) write to your local M.P to express your concerns about this issue and to explain how it affects your family

2) write to Steve Maharey, Minister of Education and Prime Minister Helen Clark, to express your concerns about this issue and to explain how it affects your family (email smaharey@ministers.govt.nz and pm@ministers.co.nz

3)make an appointment to visit your local M.P (better still go as a group) to discuss your concerns and to explain the implications for your family

4) write to your local and other national papers with your opinion.