Now that the federal election is over we know that we are not going to benefit from the ALP childcare proposals.
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That is most unfortunate given these represented potentially the biggest economic reform offered in many years.
This reform agenda had the potential to benefit us in many different ways.
Firstly, the proposed policy fulfilled the Grattan Institute's identified aim, in the Commonwealth Orange Book, to get more women into the Australian workforce. As a nation we lag behind other similar countries in the proportion of women working, and in particular working fulltime.
In general, women in Australia work before they have children, but tend to drop out of the workforce once their children are born, some never to return. For many women, finding appropriate childcare is the biggest barrier preventing them returning to work.
For some, childcare costs more than they earn, and if they work more hours they lose family and childcare benefits, making returning to work not worth the time and stress. The proposed policy offered free child care within certain limits and lower costs for families on higher incomes, making it easier for women to return to the workforce.
There is a large body of evidence demonstrating that children who access good quality childcare/preschool programs are advantaged. They are better prepared for school, and tend demonstrate better cognitive (thinking and problems solving) and language skills.
Their exposure to peer groups in a supported environment tends to advantage them socially. A recent study in the UK showed that children who had one term more of early education increased their reading and literacy scores at age 5 by around 6% along with a 5% better score in social skills.
The effects were demonstrated as lasting till 11 years of age. Children can even, in the longer term, be healthier given their early exposure to a wider germ pool helps boost their immune systems.
These advantages are even more clearly evident when children come from families who are disadvantaged. The UK study showed up to 20% gains in social skills and 10% in language and literacy as a result of one additional term in an early education setting, with boys showing the greatest gains.
These are often the children whose parents cannot afford to send them to child care under the current system thus these children do not get opportunities to lessen the gap in achievement between themselves and their more advantaged peers before they start school.
Unfortunately, all the evidence indicates that children who start school disadvantaged will finish school with the gap even greater, leading to poorer employment, health and wellbeing outcomes in their adult lives.
Not being able to access a quality early education now has major long term implications for the nation. Economic evidence suggests that facilitating children's access to good quality early childhood programs does not just benefit children and families today, but benefits the nation in the long term.
Finally we can look at this issue through the lens of children's rights and social justice. Every human being has the right to grow up in the best possible environment that offers every opportunity to reach their potential.
A society that supports inequitable opportunities for its children is a society where social justice is not happening.
A society that supports inequitable opportunities for its children is a society where social justice is not happening.
We have to think of the morality of providing good learning opportunities for children who are advantaged (so they can become even more advantaged) but not offering the same opportunities to children who are disadvantaged (therefore ensuring that their disadvantage not only lasts for their lifetime, but is also inherited, through epigenetic mechanisms, by their descendants).
At what point, as a society, have we reached the conclusion that this is okay? At what point do we step up and support our early childhood educators who are now placed in a position of having to fight again for recognition of their work?
It's time for our policymakers to recognise that the highest priority should be placed on developing policies and systems to support our children and its time we all let them know we expect them to do this work.