With the latest provincial announcement that the government might start supporting full day care for kindergarten aged children, the question is what will this mean to the TDSB’s avowed wish to sell community based school sites?
There is no question that this move is a good thing.
• It is good for parents allowing mothers to get back to earning a living two years earlier.
• It will be good for children immersing them in a learning environment for twice as long as at this time.
• It will be good for society as more people are employed in the most important human endevour, child development.
• And it could be good for communities as our board finds it harder to pick on smaller schools because space will be needed to house all this extra childcare. This is going to make the incoming Director of Education’s mandate to close schools more difficult and keep some community based schools off the sales block.
As an aside, what is going to happen to school based childcare?
• Could there be more private for profit childcare squeezing out community based programs that now operate in many schools?
• Will the province foot the full price of school based childcare including the operating and capital cost?
• Will childcare workers organize to address the salary gap between them and teachers?
• Will childcare services be extended to before and after school programs for older children so that it becomes a true full day program?
With the latest provincial announcement that the government might start supporting full day care for kindergarten aged children, the question is what will this mean to the TDSB’s avowed wish to sell community based school sites?
There is no question that this move is a good thing.
- It is good for parents allowing mothers to get back to earning a living two years earlier.
- It will be good for children immersing them in a learning environment for twice as long as at this time.
- It will be good for society as more people are employed in the most important human endevour, child development.
- And it could be good for communities as our board finds it harder to pick on smaller schools because space will be needed to house all this extra childcare. This is going to make the incoming Director of Education’s mandate to close schools more difficult and keep some community based schools off the sales block.
Eventually the board needs to look at these issues.
As an aside, what is going to happen to school based childcare?
- Could there be more private for profit childcare squeezing out community based programs that now operate in many schools?
- Will the province foot the full price of school based childcare including the operating and capital cost?
- Will childcare workers organize to address the salary gap between them and teachers?
- Will childcare services be extended to before and after school programs for older children so that it becomes a true full day program?
It is up to the province to address these questions.
As long as those in employed to fill these positions are not union members, I’m all for it. God knows we don’t need to be held ransom every three years by even more greed. Really. I’m not comfortable with the government assuming control on this. Leave it to the private sector. Reduce my taxes and let me have a choice of daycare.
I thought the issue was the best for our children. Unions can be a pain in the ass but that is what they are supposed to be. Our teachers have unions and because of that they are well paid to take care of our chidren. I would hope that they same thing happens for the rest of the staff in a school.
I think that the teacher’s unions need to work towards this real improvement in our society while protecting thier members. Boards have to also work towards this but not by using daycare staff to replace teachers.
This is a necessary but expensive and dificult issue.