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A Message from
Education Action: Toronto March 19, 2012 Bob Davis The Child Care Crisis in Ontario |
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Dear Friends,
Our dear friend Bob Davis has died. He was one of Canada's leading education thinkers and teacher activists. It's hard to find words to say how much we miss his extraordinary spirit and his passionate commitment to a loving and just world. We are attaching his obituary in the Toronto Star and will publish a remembrance of Bob in the near future. Those of you, who knew him or knew his work, will want to come to his memorial service at Holy Trinity Church, located in Trinity Square behind the Toronto Eaton Centre at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 24. Among Bob's many worlds of activism was his participation in the struggle for affordable and caring child care for all families who needed it. No one would be more disturbed than Bob in looking at the current crisis in childcare here in Ontario. To give you some sense of this crisis we are attaching an overall analysis of the child care issue in Ontario from the Quality Early Learning Network and two responses from CUPE Ontario on the immediate impact of the problems we now face in child care. In solidarity, George Martell and Faduma Mohamed Co-chairs Education Action: Toronto |
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Solutions to the Child Care Crisis in Ontario Quality Early Learning Network Child Care is an essential part of an early learning and care agenda. It is a vital service for thousands of families in Ontario and an important contributing support to our economy. Child Care faces an unprecedented ‘crisis' – we do not use this term lightly as indeed we are facing a dramatic reduction of child care services in Ontario. This open paper outlines the crisis, but more importantly, starts a dialogue toward solutions. SOLUTIONS offers a practical way forward. A way that can lead child care away from the coming collapse. A way that can lead to and foster a new healthy construct for this service. We have offered short term proposed actions that we recommend implementing in 2012 and a long term blueprint, based on evidence and best practice, which would modernize child care. This paper calls for increased public investment. As responsible Ontarians, we are acutely aware of the economic situation facing our Province. While we recognize this reality, we outline the positive contributions child care provides to our economy and remind that it is a key foundation for bringing people into the workforce. We cannot imagine a ‘modern' Ontario without a base child care service. Indeed, while the pressures on the public purse are extraordinary, can we afford not to make this investment?
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Childcare SOS: A Call for the Ontario Government to take action CUPE Ontario Why SOS? Childcare in Ontario is in crisis. The optimism generated by Premier McGuinty's initial commitment to Full-Day Early Learning in 2007 has been replaced by alarm as centre closures, sky-high parent fees, two-year long waiting lists for subsidies and spaces and for-profit operations now define Ontario childcare. Despite abundant advice from experts and community members, only the Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK) element of the "extended and integrated Full-Day Early Learning program" was implemented with little financial or policy support for childcare. Instead, FDK was layered on top of the "unsolved web of problems" plagu¬ing childcare – massive under-funding, provincial dollars flat-lined for close to two decades, subsidy shortages that leave most families out and no provincial early childhood education and care (ECEC) plan or policy. If there is no emergency action to salvage needed services and begin planning for a real childcare system, high quality ECEC options for Ontario's children and families will be far fewer now and in the future.
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The pursuit of profit in Ontario childcare: Risky business for parents and government A Backgrounder by CUPE Ontario In December 2011, childcare in Ontario entered a new era with the announcement that Edleun (EDucation LEarning UNiverse) Group, Canada's first publicly-traded child care corporation, had bought seven Ontario centres. While Ontario has had smaller-scale for profit child care for many years, the advent of this publicly traded profit corporation creates a new and risky environment for Ontario child care. Having raised substantial funds from big investors and begun its operations in Alberta and BC, Edleun now has the capacity to garner a significant share of the child care "market" across Ontario to help meet its goal of owning 10% of Canadian child care. Ontario childcare is particularly vulnerable to for-profit expansion at this time, especially to large-scale operations with cash. Ontario is experiencing a profound child care crisis as the historically shaky viability of many centres due to a history of weak policy formation and inadequate public investment has been tipped into crisis as full-day kindergarten has been introduced. This has created a situation that to entrepreneurs like Edleun's officials represents what they view as an opportunity—to buy out centres and smaller chains whose owners fear that the funding and policy uncertainty may drive them out. According to the Globe and Mail: "Owners are finding themselves increasingly squeezed as costs rise." In Ontario, all-day kindergarten has reduced demand and cashstrapped cities have considered scrapping subsidies. That makes selling an attractive option, and Edleun said it's had no trouble finding sellers.
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This email was sent by Education Action: Toronto 1698 Gerrard St. East, Toronto, On. M4L 2B2 |
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