Early childhood services in funding crisis

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 686, 13 May 1997, Page 3

Early childhood services in funding crisis

By

Anne

McElwain

A nation- wide funding campaign has been organised by the New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI) to put public pressure on the government to adopt the recommendations of Future Directions, the 1996 early childhood project report. The 'May Day, May Day - Red Alert' campaign has been developed by NZEI to "promote awareness of what's happening in early childhood education and the fact that the government has jibbed at funding," said Waiouru Childcare Centre supervisor, Julia Martin. NZEI' s campaign will run for 10 weeks, until the government budget announcement expected in June, with activities planned at local and national levels. By maintaining a high public profile, and contacting Members of Parliament, the campaign aims to pressure the government to: • Adopt recommendations in Future Directions, • Increase funding by $40 million in 1997/1998, • Develop a strategic plan using Future Directions as a basis, • Plan for equity in funding across services in 1998/1999. "All the research shows that you need to put money and (quality) time into the early years to reap the benefits of sowing early seeds," said Ms Martin. The Waiouru Childcare Centre will hold an open morning on Friday 16 May between 10am and 12 noon so that anyone can see some of the edilcational opportuni-

ties provided for the children. Although this time has been set aside to support the funding campaign, Ms Martin emphasised that the centre has an open door policy with people welcome at any time. A petition is also being circulated. To attract the attention of parents and concerned people a red flyer is attached to the petition which states that the "only way to get government' s attention is to inundate Parliament. By law Parliament must read petitions with eight or more signatures." It is hoped that many pages of signatures will be obtained which will then be presented to local MP Mark Burton. The funding issue is of major concern as the pre-election policies of several political parties targeted early childhood services. According to the Early Childhood Funding Campaign letter to NZEI members, NZ First advocated funding increases of $120 million and the Coalition Agreement tagged at least $10 million extra expenditure over three years, with costings suggesting that this could be up to $30 million. Other funding issues centre on the introduction of bulk funding for early childhood education services. This has meant that anumber of centres have had to close or amalgamate as decreases in rolls have made it difficult to sustain financial viability. The recent Kindergarten decision in Waiouru is one such example of the consequences of bulk funding. Ms Martin said the government is using bulk funding as one st'ep on the way towards "user pays" for early childhood education services.