REALITIES & REACTIONS

Hawke's Bay Rally for Funding Cuts.

Teachers wore green around the country to show their solidarity to fight funding cuts, stated Crayton-Brown from the Southland Times, after the government announced the removal of funding bands for centres with 81% - 100% qualified teachers.

ONE News announced the government’s $285,000 budget cuts as they came into effect on January 31 this year. ONE news stated that $70 million of annual government funding disappeared from our Early Childhood Centres,

Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa / NZ Childcare Association’s Chief Executive, Nancy Bell, said this decision has cost 2,000 services between $20,000 and $50,000 per year. A survey report on 199 Early Childhood Services, taken in October 2010 before funding cuts were introduced, showed that parent fees will increase while quality falls. Parents would be facing a $10 - $50 increase. http://www.nzca.ac.nz/news/press/2010/Fees-up-quality-down ONE News revealed that Labour’s research suggests an increase of up to $80.00 a week.

Bell is seriously concerned that around 93,000 children nationwide will be affected by funding changes. http://www.nzca.ac.nz/news/press/2010/ECE-budget-brutal-blow-to-children-and-families 

Such a dramatic financial cost to the early childhood sector must have dramatic and far reaching consequences for our vulnerable young children in New Zealand. Lazo-Ron from the Daily Post in Rotorua identified that parents are already struggling to cope with fee rises due to the October 1 GST increase.

Lazo-Ron commented that Kiddycorp, one of New Zealand’s largest Early Childhood Providers, remarked that they needed to walk a fine line between offering quality yet affordability to their parents. In November 2010 they hadn’t raised their fees but were concerned that it would become necessary.

Udy from the Bay of Plenty Times declared that the budget eliminated two of the highest bands of subsidies. These were removed from those services employing more than 80% qualified registered teachers. This included all Kindergartens.

Funding cuts have brought dramatic change to Kindergartens already. They were directly affected when the government announced that it would no longer give extra funding to Childcare Centres that have 100% qualified teachers. Pease, from the Taranaki Daily news, announced in January that for the North Taranaki Kindergarten Association, that represented a loss of $407,000 per year. Changes such as longer sessions have already happened and there is now more emphasis on full rolls to receive full funding which means more children per session. Although changes are already being implemented the Kindergarten Board is stating that it will not charge families for their 20 hours free early childhood education and they are committed to retaining qualified teachers.

The funding cuts have already brought change. These changes are now ongoing. What will this mean to the Early Childhood Sector, the children, their parents and their teachers?

References.

Crayton-Brown, K. (2011). Teachers vow to fight funding changes. The Southland Times. Abstract retrieved 14 March, 2011, from ProQuest database.

Lazo-Ron, J. (2010). Childcare slash upsets Taupo mother. The Daily Post. Abstract retrieved 14 March, 2011, from ProQuest database.

Media Releases. (2010). ECE budget brutal blow to children and families. Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa / NZ Childcare Association. Retrieved 17 March, 2011 from http://www.nzca.ac.nz/news/press/2010/ECE-budget-brutal-blow-to-children-and-families 

Media Releases. (2010). Fees up, quality down according to new ECE survey. Te Tari Puna Ora o Aotearoa / NZ Childcare Association. Retrieved 17 March, 2011 from http://www.nzca.ac.nz/news/press/2010/Fees-up-quality-down

ONE News.  (2011). Petition opposes early childhood fee rises. NATIONAL News. Abstract retrieved 14 March, 2011, from ProQuest database.

Pease, L. (2011). Funding cuts force kindergarten changes. Taranaki Daily News. Abstract retrieved 14 March, 2011, from ProQuest database.

Udy, C. (2010). Protest at ‘dumbing down’ of education. Bay of Plenty times. Abstract retrieved 14 March, 2011, from ProQuest database.