10. KATHERINE RICH (National) Link to this
to the Minister of Education
Why should community-based early childhood education centres like Royal Road Preschool implement the Government’s policy of 20 free hours when to do so means they will be worse off financially and have to close?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) Link to this
Community-based centres want to introduce the 20 hours of free early childhood education policy because it agrees with their own drive to make a real difference to the education of young New Zealanders.
What does the Minister say to the parents of children at the Royal Road Preschool, who face closure of their centre if they accept his policy, when he is the Minister who stared down the barrel of a camera and said: “If you are a parent and you are watching this, very simple, your child’s 3 to 4, you go down to your local centre, enrol, say ‘My child is here for these 20 free hours.’, that’s all you do.”? What a fraud!
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
I would say to those parents that we all know that this policy is enormously popular. The Ministry of Education will visit this particular centre to talk through its financial situation with the staff there, because we want to ensure that those children have access to the policy.
Dianne YatesHon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
I was very pleased to hear the leader of the National Party championing the policy by saying: “We want these young kids to be able to have 20 free hours.” Mr Key may, however, like to consult the co-leader of the National Party about this change of heart, because Mr English will inform him that according to the website of the National Party it is committed to scrapping this policy, thus ensuring that no young kids have access to 20 free hours.
Hon Brian Donnelly Link to this
Can the Minister explain what principle of equity and educational choice leads to a 5-year-old child attending early childhood education being fully funded for only 20 hours per week for 1 month of the year, when that same child, if attending school, would be fully funded for his or her education for the whole year, or is this situation just a historical anomaly?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
No, it is a financial reality. The policy is focused on 3 to 4-year-olds. Children who remain in early childhood centres for reasons such as disability will continue to be funded, but the others move on to a funded position in a school.
Is the Minister’s policy of 20 free hours really free, when documents prepared by his own officials state that shifting from a childcare subsidy to 20 free hours “could mean that some childcare subsidy clients pay more than they do now for early childhood education”, and when these clients are exactly the same families he is trying to engage in early childhood education?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
As the member quite rightly points out, there are two funding systems in place here. One is the subsidy that works its way from Work and Income into the hands of parents, who transfer that money to an early childhood centre in return for care. The other, of course, is what we are introducing here, which is educational funding for 20 free hours at these centres. That is what the policy is.
What kind of “Mahareyism” is it to argue that 20 free hours is better because it is free, when his own officials point out that some childcare subsidy clients dealing with Work and Income will be worse off—worse off—if they have their children receive the 20 free hours rather than keep them in their present situation?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
All I can say is that it is a bit rich for the member to rise in the Chamber and make that argument, when her policy is to scrap the entire policy.
Why does the Minister pretend he is concerned about increasing the participation of Māori and Pacific Island toddlers in early childhood education, when staff at the Royal Road Preschool—a community-based, not-for-profit centre that serves those communities every week—are saying it will have to close if it accepts the Government’s 20 free hours policy?
Hon STEVE MAHAREY Link to this
We on this side of the House do not pretend to support the advancement of Māori and Pacific Island children. That may be what people in the National Party do, but we on this side have made huge advances over the past 7 years, through our policy of early childhood education, to advance the interests of those very Māori and Pacific Island children—children the member herself would never support, because she would scrap the policy.