100,000 to 200,000 families may be face more ECE fees

Between 100,000 and 200,000 New Zealand families may be facing additional fees for early childhood education

03 March 2011 For immediate release

New early childhood education programmes for those on welfare, outlined in the recently-released report of the Welfare Working Group, could cost between 100,000 and 200,000 families hundreds of dollars a year in additional fees for early childhood education.

In public comment, the release of which has been delayed by the Canterbury earthquake, Early Childhood Council CEO Peter Reynolds said today (03 March) his organisation was ‘deeply concerned by the increasing possibility Government will fund new programmes for those on welfare by slashing spending on ECE for working families’.

Mr Reynolds said his organisation ‘supported strongly’ the intention of the Government’s Welfare Working Group to direct specific early childhood education initiatives at the children of low-income and at-risk families.

‘We know those are the children who benefit most from early childhood education, and for the duration of their lives. And we have campaigned for years for new programmes that are directed toward them.

‘We are very concerned, however, about how the current Government will pay for its new services for low-income children.’

The Early Childhood Council was ‘highly suspicious’ it was the Government’s intention to pay for new ECE programmes for welfare recipients by reducing ECE funding for working families, Mr Reynolds said.

If this was done the likely results would be higher costs for between 100,000 and 200,000 working families and/or a reduction in the quality of services for their children.

Mr Reynolds said the Welfare Working Group had recommended the improved availability and affordability of early childhood education for people on welfare, and fully-subsidised early childhood education for more than 20 hours a week to assist welfare recipients into work.

It had recommended also, for the children of ‘every recipient receiving a welfare benefit’, compulsory ECE for those aged three and over, and for those 18 months and over if families were participating in ‘an intensive early intervention parenting programme’.

Change of this kind would mean a large amount of new spending on ECE for low-income children, Mr Reynolds.

‘The big question is this: if the Government claims to have little or no new money for early childhood education, does this mean the new money for the children of welfare recipients is going to come from the pockets of working families?’

Working families, frequently struggling to pay off a mortgage or a car with restricted disposable income, made up the bulk of those accessing early childhood education, Mr Reynolds said. And revenue cuts that unfairly targeted these families ran the risk of decimating the sector.

Revenue cuts for more than 93,000 children announced in Budget 2010 had already caused large fee increases for families, reductions in both the proportion of qualified teachers on staff and teacher-child ratios, and reductions in expenditure on professional development for teachers, Mr Reynolds said.

The quality of early childhood education service was, he said, at risk of ‘serious damage’ were further revenue cuts implemented, ‘probably after the election’, to pay for policies generated by the Welfare Working Group.

Properly funded early childhood education was best seen as an investment rather than a cost, Mr Reynolds said, with American research by Legal Momentum having found that every dollar spent on early childhood education saved taxpayers up to $13 in future costs.

The Early Childhood Council is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. Its 1,100 member centres are both community-owned and commercially owned, employ more than 7,000 staff, and care for more than 50,000 children.

ENDS

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