The Parenthood reposted this
☠️☠️☠️ Forget Halloween costumes. You know what is REALLY SCARY? The cost of early childhood education and care. ☠️☠️☠️ New figures released today show that out of pocket costs have jumped by 12.1% in the last year. TWELVE. POINT. ONE. PERCENT. That is more than FOUR times the rate of inflation. That is despite the Federal government tipping in several billion dollars in additional subsidies from 1 July last year. Why? Because too many early learning providers use subsidy increases to lift the fees they charge parents and very neatly rob those families of the affordability relief they were intended to experience. This isn't a surprise. It confirms what the ACCC said is the main problem with the Child Care Subsidy: it places no downward pressure on out of pocket costs. Given $14 billion is spent each year on the Child Care Subsidy it's important that there is transparency and accountability about who is benefitting from that expenditure. This is what Professor Deborah Brennan AM, Associate Commissioner, captured in a compelling supplementary paper in the Productivity Commission's Inquiry into Early Childhood Education and Care, that flagged the very legitimate limits of a market-based approach to early childhood education and care. (It is three pages of gold from Volume 2, p336 and well worth a read.) That's why The Parenthood is advocating for genuine funding reform. We want quality early childhood education and care to be free for low income families, and a set fixed fee for everyone else. Without that change the only guarantee is the out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket and too many children, parents and families will miss out.