Big Steps Day on Saturday November 17 was a hit, bringing out a great deal of support from the community for undervalued early childhood educators. The events were well covered, and I’ve collected up some of the major coverage here.
SMH: Caring for children is no picnic, say workers
Canberra Times: Childcare workers rally for more pay
Fraser Coast Chronicle: Childcare workers take action to gain higher wages
Herald Sun: Child care workers march for better pay
The director of Master Kid Childcare Centre in Matraville, Emily Donnan, has been in the industry for 16 years and said she had spent 12 of those working two or three jobs at once.
She said many of her staff were living at home because they could not afford to rent. ”They will never be able to even think of having a holiday, getting a mortgage or even owning their own car,” she said.
Caring for children is no picnic, say workers, Melissa Davey (SMH)
Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, said tackling the gender imbalance in the early years workforce was a “key issue” which had to be addressed.
“Children and young people need positive male role models as well as female ones, in terms of caring relationships,” he said.
“Many men would, I believe, like to play a bigger part in child rearing, but work with children and young people continues to be seen as the domain of women and is not sufficiently valued or remunerated, perpetuating the imbalance that already exists.
Manpower is needed to bridge childcare’s gender gap, Judith Duffy (Herald Scotland)
Leftwing activist groups have many strategies to train early childhood education teachers to “provide teachers and parents with the tools to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write, and change the world.”
– This article is rather incredible. Believe it or not, that quote above is meant to be negative. Wow.
“Radicalizing early childhood teachers”, Phyllis Schlafly (The Moral Liberal)
…the attachment theoretical assumption, that women interact in a more empathic attachment-oriented way, and men interact rather in a challenging exploration-oriented way, related to the ECE workers in our sample, cannot be confirmed. With this finding one could conclude that, with regard to central professional standards in dealing with children, male and female professionals do not differ.
“Does Gender Make a Difference? First results from the German ‘tandem study’ of female and male ECE workers”, Bryan G. Nelson (MenTeach)
One of the general criticisms of the stipend is that it will encourage women to stay out of the workplace for longer after having a child and that it keeps young kids away from the educational opportunities offered by public daycare.
German daycares are beyond capacity, and some believe the child-care stipend is merely a consolation for parents who might not have the means to get their kids a daycare spot. The government is aiming to increase capacity by August 2013, when another law guaranteeing parents a daycare spot for their kids comes into effect.
“Germany adopts child-care stipend for parents”, (Deutsche Welle)
Next year will be a big one for East Brunswick Kindergarten and Childcare. A space that will cater for up to 33 children will open and staff will need to be hired.
However, acting childcare co-director Jane Arnett said it could be difficult to attract quality staff because of low wages for graduates and even experienced workers.
“If early childhood workers could get more money, it could attract a better quality of worker. Graduates get just $18 an hour and a person who’s worked for 10 years could get the same,” she says. “It’s a very poorly paid industry.”
“East Brunswick childcare workers take to parliament”, Alana Schetzer (Melbourne Times Weekly)
Even if a central waitlisting system could alleviate some of the frustration with finding a childcare place, at the end of the day there are just not enough inner-city spots to go around.
This is due to land availability and zoning issues, according to federal Early Childhood and Child Care Minister Kate Ellis.
A spokeswoman for Ms Ellis said the federal government has no limit on the number of childcare spots it will fund with the childcare rebate, so demand is increasing while supply isn’t keeping pace.
“We are trying to rattle the cage a little and get states and territories moving on this issue because unfortunately the ball is in their court on this. Local governments have crazy regulations in place prohibiting new centres opening up rather than encouraging it,” she said.
“The wearying wait for inner-city childcare”, Clarissa Keil (The Age)
While the government and opposition have put forward competing plans for paid parental leave to ease the financial burden on families with young children, childcare remains a significant cost for women who want to resume their careers.
Mr Jeremenko [The Tax Institute’s Senior Tax Counsel] is to call for a reconsideration of rules that define childcare as a private expense that cannot be counted as a tax deduction.
“Push for tax claim on cost of childcare”, David Crowe (The Australian, paywalled)
Parents, particularly with children under two, are waiting years to find childcare near their home or work. This is not sustainable for parents, for our city or for our economy.
Providing parents with affordable, quality childcare makes economic sense and ultimately benefits everyone. The old saying, it takes a village to bring up a child, has never been more true.
“Time to stop playing around with childcare”, Clover Moore (Herald Sun)
Liam McNicholas 