ECE – cuts bite today

25 comments on “ECE – cuts bite today ”

• Comments are now closed

1. Lanthanide 1

   1 February 2011 at 3:52 pm

   Can someone provide links to studies that show ECE is really as valuable as many people claim?

   I’ve seen this over and over again, but never anything to back it up.

   Note: I’m not suggesting you’re making it up, I’m simply saying I haven’t see any hard data to convince myself.
   • Carol 1.1

     1 February 2011 at 4:09 pm

     The Economic Benefits of High-Quality Early Childhood
     Programs: What Makes The Difference? Prepared by Ellen Galinsky
     Families and Work Institute for The Committee for Economic Development
     With Funding from the A.L. Mailman Family Foundation

     http://www.healthyteennetwork.org/vertical/Sites/%7BB4D0CC76-CF78-4784-BA7C-5D0436F6040C%7D/uploads/%7B3652BE17-C448-4C56-ADBF-AE0E60FDD1B2%7D.PDF.
   • Bright Red 1.2

     1 February 2011 at 4:11 pm

     I’m tempted to send you to lmgtfy (dot) com but I’m feeling generous

     Matrix of studies on BCR of ECE http://www.publicpolicyforum.org/Matrix.htm
     the one that has 13:1 http://web.mit.edu/workplacecenter/docs/Full%20Report.pdf
     • Bunji 1.2.1

       1 February 2011 at 4:17 pm

       Ah, Bright Red’s google skills are much more on form today – those were the 2 links I was looking for…
       • Bright Red 1.2.1.1

         1 February 2011 at 5:10 pm

         it’s all in the search terms mate
   • Bunji 1.3

     1 February 2011 at 4:15 pm

     My google skills have deserted me today, which is why there’s no link in the post… But wait…
     here’s the study I was looking for. Although I previously had a summary of it, rather than the whole 201 page study.
     that has $1.80 to $17.07 ROI – generally depending on how far you look into the future.

     It was some NZ teacher group that had a study with the $13:1 figure, from a study they found to be most appropriate to NZ context – I can’t find that now though.

     There’s still lots more research being done, particularly on how you develop much more difficult to measure skills of things like self-control. University of Chicago Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman has done a lot of work on it, as has Richie Poulton and his team down on the Dunedin Longitudinal Study. Some great research being done there.
     • Lanthanide 1.3.1

       1 February 2011 at 5:10 pm

       Thanks all. I’ll give these a look when I’ve got more time.
       • David Clark 1.3.1.1

         2 February 2011 at 12:00 pm

         Linda Mitchell and Margaret (University of Waikato) did a pretty comprehensive literature review in 2008 from the New Zealand context. It was done for the Ministry of Education, and contains some material on cost-benefit analysis. The appendices also contain plenty of useful guidance as to where else you can research further. See:
         http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ece/25158/48867

         They’ve also written a shorter, accessible piece on the importance of quality for the sector:
         http://www.nzca.ac.nz/news/2010/Qualified-teachers-in-early-childhood-centres-do-we-need-them
         • David Clark 1.3.1.1.1

           2 February 2011 at 12:01 pm

           Also, for those not lucky enough to live in the ODT-zone, I’ve had an opinion piece published today explaining why investment in quality ECE is one of the most useful things a government can do:
           http://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/opinion/146226/early-education-best-investment-we-can-make
2. Bill 2

   1 February 2011 at 5:21 pm

   Wonder why there are never any questions asked and solutions demanded for why we have a need to ‘farm out’ our kids to strangers?

   I mean, fuck it. Sure. You work during the day and can (maybe) use child care facilities. And if you’re a single parent the faux caring of society or the state ends at 5:30 or whenever because…why? Because kids ‘disappear’ around then? And anyway, social isolation is fine just so long as you are able to work a 9 – 5 or some portion thereof?

   If toddlers spending their time in the care of institutions, latch-key kids hanging around after school and solo parents experiencing high degrees of social isolation are signs of our society being broken, then shouldn’t we ‘kicking in the head’ the forces that are breaking it and claiming back a sense of community? Instead of enabling those forces by altering our life’s to suit their destructive dynamics?
   • Rosy 2.1

     1 February 2011 at 10:15 pm

     You’re right about social isolation and the destructive dynamics of our societal structures and yes we should be claiming back a sense of community. But to tie that in with a need to ‘farm out’ kids to strangers is not quite how I see it.

     ECE workers are strangers (as are visiting aunts, uncles, cousins etc) at the begining but become an integral part of the life of the family, all going well – a community relationship, for want of a better word – and this is the bit of childcare that the ECE funding will affect, resulting in a very much institutionalised environment. ECE is not all negative (in fact the ECE places I’ve seen, after school care and holiday programmes are excellent), social isolation is always negative; so protesting by not altering our lives to suit destructive dynamics is not the solution. In that way children suffer more.

     Claiming back community and ensuring high levels of child care are two aspects of nurturing that should run in tandem IMO. Yes, if we did have nurturing communities we could have our (older) children becoming independent at an earlier age and plenty of willing hands to care for the younger ones. It’s good for neither the child nor the parent to be mostly responsible for the other’s well-being.

     The place of teenagers is extrodinarily problematic – too big to be looked after, but not big enough to do without care and guidance, just when parents think they can leave them alone is when they need community most. I have no answers except for ‘ ‘kicking in the head’ the forces that are breaking it and claiming back a sense of community’
3. pollywog 3

   1 February 2011 at 5:26 pm

   ..and funnily enough, my youngest started his first day of kindy today. 3 days a week 8:30 til 2:30.

   WOOOHOOO…so i celebrated by joining a gym 🙂
   • fabregas4 3.1

     1 February 2011 at 8:24 pm

     I don’t get this, you are celebrating being away from your child?
     • Rosy 3.1.1

       1 February 2011 at 9:06 pm

       For 6 hours, 3 days a week the child gets to play, learn and socialise with a variety of human beings. The child is no longer bored silly or tired of staring at 4 walls while the parent is doing other household tasks. And when parent at child get back together at 2:30 there is a whole range of things to talk about, the usual activities at home don’t seem so boring and a bigger social group enabling further interaction is forming. What’s not to like?
     • pollywog 3.1.2

       1 February 2011 at 9:28 pm

       yup what Rosy said…

       …plus school starts tomorrow for the other 2 littlies and the other 2 high schoolers next week. So i been a slave to them for the last 7 weeks.

       it’s been all good and we’ve had some fun but now i get some me time and it’ll make me and them better for it

       the kindy and the ladies who work there are awesome too. i and the kids are lucky and privileged to have such an inspiring and dedicated staff to be their first teachers.
     • higherstandard 3.1.3

       1 February 2011 at 9:31 pm

       As are most parents at the end of the holiday period.
4. hobbit 4

   1 February 2011 at 6:19 pm

   >>>”Parents will have different responses”

   Yep; “My child, my responsibility” or “Outrageous! I demand someone else pays for MY child!”
   • Rosy 4.1

     2 February 2011 at 2:06 am

     Yeah! that’ll teach those kids for being born to parents who couldn’t keep up when the rules got changed on them. Serves them right if they miss out aye?
5. Graeme Edgeler 5

   1 February 2011 at 9:34 pm

   Today is the day that Anne Tolley’s $400 million dollar cut to early childhood education bites.

   There is no $400m cut. The ECE budget is $100m higher this budget year than the last. It is the most the New Zealand Government has ever spent on ECE.
6. big bruv 6

   2 February 2011 at 9:13 am

   OMG!

   What a tragedy, parents being asked to pay for a small sum for the education of their own kids.

   Where will it end?, will we all be forced to take personal responsibility next, will we be forced to only have the number of kids we can afford?

   Will DPB bludgers actually be forced to find work!
   • Lanthanide 6.1

     2 February 2011 at 10:18 am

     If you consider $2-$80/week, with the average being about $20-$45 (per child) is just a “small sum”, then evidently you don’t think much of National’s tax cuts either, because they were just “a small sum” for the vast majority of NZers.
7. millsy 7

   2 February 2011 at 11:06 am

   There of course, is a solution to all this.

   (effectively) nationalise the ECE sector, and run the kindergartens/playcenters, etc along the lines of the school system, ie BOT’s, etc

   And give schools funding, to stay open past 3pm (or before 9am), to take into account working parents so they dont have to worry about having to find care for their child between 3 and 5 (or 6).

   And piss off big bruv, we all know you want the gap between rich and poor to blow out.
8. Brad 8

   2 February 2011 at 3:28 pm

   This article is nonsense. It clearly states that ECE is the most important education. Which is saying that a child who never went to kindergarten would be a better functioning member of society than someone who missed high school. I strongly disagree. What do you think?

Links to post

1. The Standard: posted on 1 February 2011 at 2:32 am
2. Govt is not there to make your life better – Bennett « The Standard: posted on 11 February 2011 at 12:27 pm

• Comments are now closed

• Log in
• Donate
• Contribute post

• Articles RSS