Early Childhood Education Funding Sensible, Affordable.

This financial year, the Government will invest $1.4 billion in Early Childhood Education (ECE). That’s an increase of $200 million over the previous financial year. So it is simply not true to say that funding for ECE has been reduced. The per-child funding of ECE is now $7600 per child per year. This compares to an average of $5528 for a primary school student and $6733 for a student at secondary school. Despite Dr Clark’s scaremongering, 20 hours free ECE is still in place.

However, while the goal of the previous Government was to increase participation in ECE, the massive increase in government funding has resulted in just a 1% increase in participation and in some parts of the country up to 40% of pre-school children are missing out on ECE. So we are making sure that funding reaches those children who need it the most. We are investing $91.8 million over the next four years in five intensive community-led participation projects in high priority areas. This will lead to an additional 3,500 places in ECE, targeted at Maori, Pasifika, and children from lower socio-economic areas.

So why all the fuss about ECE? Put simply, this is about the qualifications of the staff into whose care we entrust our children. The previous Labour Government committed to a goal of 80 % qualified ECE teachers by 2010 and 100% by 2012. This unrealistic target would have led to up to a thousand ECE centres having to close. At the moment only 67 % of teachers in the sector are registered. We amended the target to 80% by 2012.

In Budget 2010 we also announced that we would align funding to the 80% goal. Thus, prior to 1 February 2011, in a facility where the mix and age of children required say 5 staff, the Government would fund all five if they were registered teachers. After 1 February funding will be for up to four registered teachers and one unregistered staff member. The unregistered staff member could be an experienced teacher aide or parent of grown children returning to the workforce but without formal qualifications.

The staffing adjustment could be achieved by attrition. ECE centres have had eight months’ notice of this change and with the turnover in the sector of around 20%, there was plenty of opportunity to do so. Furthermore, given the demand for registered teachers, no registered teacher would be out of a job. The likely impact would be an increase in the proportion of registered teachers in those ECE centres that presently have numbers below 80%.

The union that represents ECE teachers, NZEI, cites research that qualified teachers are a key factor in the provision of quality early childhood education that provides the most benefit for children. I agree with this. However, given the care and safety aspects of ECE I have no doubt that an experienced parent or caregiver can make a meaningful contribution to an ECE facility as part of a team led by registered teachers without compromising educational outcomes.

Dunedin’s ECE facilities were faced with choices in response to the Government’s funding change. Disappointingly, some ECE centres have chosen to burden already financially constrained parents with a fee increase based on the ideological belief that the 80% model would materially compromise the quality of ECE. As the parent of a preschool child, I strongly disagree with this view. What is also disappointing is that some ECE centres unilaterally increased fees without asking parents if they would be happy with the staffing model the Government is funding. My child’s ECE facility wrote to parents outlining the four options the centre was considering. The options did not include the 80% model which avoids the need for fee increases. It did not ask parents whether they would be satisfied with a staffing complement that would avoid the need to increase fees.

In affirming Labour’s commitment to restoring the goal of funding 100% registered teachers, Dr Clark makes no attempt to explain how this (and many other hollow Labour promises) will be funded or how much debt a Labour Government would be prepared to burden those same children with repaying in the future.

My Government’s response is sensible in the constrained economic circumstances without compromising the quality of ECE in New Zealand. I believe this as much as a parent as I do as a politician.