By Kath Gannaway
The recurring battle to maintain 15 hours of preschool for four-year-olds is on Yarra Ranges Council’s agenda once again.
In a repeat of the 2015 campaign, Yarra Ranges Council, at its meeting on Tuesday, 28 April, called on the Federal Government to firmly commit to five hours of funding in its May budget.
The State Government funds preschool operational costs of 10 hours, and the Commonwealth funds the additional five hours.
The council was part of a campaign in 2015 that resulted, after months of uncertainty, in a last-minute announcement that Federal Government funding would continue to 17 December, 2017.
Council currently funds more than $350,000 annually to maintain its 41 preschool facilities, providing direct service support to the 69 centres, offering 15 hours of preschool to 1861 children across the municipality.
Yarra Ranges Mayor Noel Cliff said that, without that money, preschools would have to reduce their curriculum or charge parents significantly higher fees to maintain services.
Fees and fund-raising provide a further 35 per cent to help meet the government shortfall.
The State Government has said schools and pre-schools remained in the dark as to federal funding.
Minister for Families and Children Jenny Mikakos accused the Federal Government of committing only to ‘further discussions” at a time when the states are “crying out for action”.
“If Turnbull doesn’t come up with a new agreement for 15 hours of kinder, Victorian parents could pay an extra $2000 a year for alternative childcare arrangements and hundreds of kinder staff could be out of a job,” Ms Mikakos said.
A spokesperson for Ms Mikakos told the Mail last week that the State Government is committed to ongoing funding based on the number of children.
The Federal Government, however, says future preschool funding arrangements are a matter for all government, maintaining that federal funding has only ever been a ‘top up’ to increase participation.
Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, labelled the latest campaign a Labor Party scare campaign “based on mistruths about pre-school, school and higher education funding”.
“Parents and providers should ignore these scare campaigns as we are committed to working through these issues with the states and territories, Sen Birmingham said.
YRC Mayor Noel Cliff said research clearly showed that children who attended preschool did better throughout school and had better life outcomes, and urged parents to contact their local federal MPs, Tony Smith and Jason Wood, and Senator Birmingham, to urge them to recommit to ongoing funding.
A petition, authorised by J. Mikakos, urging the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to renew the National Partnership Agreement and commit to kindergarten funding is available at http://thismatters.org.au/kindercuts .
