The recently announced shift in responsibility in sa国际传媒 for administration of an affordable and accessible child care system from the Ministry of Children and Family Development to the Ministry of Education did not come out of nowhere.
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta all administer aspects of early learning and child care through designated branches of their respective education ministries.
Then there’s Quebec. Established in 1997, the “Quebec Model” is a little different, with its directly funded, not-for-profit, low-fee, child care/early-learning centres.
Quebec has been considered to be at the forefront of managing child care/early-learning programs and has produced some interesting statistics, not only in support of growth and development opportunities for early-childhood participants, but on the overall economic benefits of an affordable, well-run early learning and child care system.
First, the benefits to Quebec’s economy: When the Québec Educational child care Act was instituted in 1997, women’s labour-force participation rate in Quebec was four percentage points lower than in the rest of sa国际传媒. Today, it is four points higher.
Quebec women with children under three have some of the highest employment rates in the world. Furthermore, studies show that child care alone has raised Quebec’s GDP by 1.7 per cent.
Educationally, a 2020 report by Margaret Norrie McCain (Thriving Kids, Thriving Society) claims that children who regularly participate in quality early-childhood-education programs have higher graduation rates and improved work habits and attitudes, make gains in reading and math, and develop strong social skills.
Here in sa国际传媒, back on Nov. 8, 2019, sa国际传媒’s education minister hosted an “Early Learning Summit” that brought together school-district leaders, teachers and representatives from child care organizations from across sa国际传媒
The purpose of the meeting was to hear about and discuss current research and evidence on the social and financial benefits of investing in early learning and school-age child care, and to listen to school district/community stories.
The “summit” developed recommendations in pursuit of a $10-a-day child care plan, including a mandate for boards of education to develop and deliver child care (beginning with school-age before- and after-hours care) as part of regular school operations.
There were also design and equipment guidelines to facilitate the full-time use of public classroom space for child care.
All of that provides some initial insight into the intentions of the shift of responsibilities to the Ministry of Education. It is a shift that will not happen overnight and will be something that school trustees and staff will need to look at very carefully.
At the same time, the various agencies, societies and community organizations that have been successfully managing early-learning/child care programs across sa国际传媒 for some time now will be busy decoding the throne speech, which indicated that Ministry of Education “will manage child care programs through new regional offices.”
This shift, when it happens, will be a new role for school districts and raises more questions than it answers — for now, at least. Will there be a new branch of the Education Ministry, or will school districts be expected to assume some responsibilities as yet undefined?
If school districts are to play a role in the change, they will, among other considerations, be looking for evidence of separate operating and capital budgets to support new child care locations or to extend the uses of existing school buildings.
The money that accomplishes all this should be new money derived from the 2021 federal budget, which proposed an investment of up to $27.2 billion over five years for the reorganization of child care/early-learning programs.
A subsequent agreement between the sa国际传媒 government and the feds intended to significantly improve early learning and child care for children in sa国际传媒 will see the federal government invest $3.2 billion of the $27.2 billion over the next five years to improve early-learning and child care opportunities for children under six in sa国际传媒
Part of that agreement includes the proviso that the province should enact policies to ensure that existing child care is not dislocated from local schools.
Nonetheless, at first glance, the plan makes good sense for sa国际传媒, not only educationally, with improved access to quality daycare, but also economically. A 2012 report by Toronto Dominion Economics pointed to a range of studies that have shown that for every dollar spent on early-childhood education, the broader economy receives between $1.50 and $2.80 in return.
The devil, as always, will be in the details. The folks running the almost 26,000 licensed spaces developed since the original sa国际传媒 Child Care Act, launched in 1996 to build an affordable, quality child care system, will be watching to see what those details are.
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools.
