As I see it.
By Sara Landriault
As a stay at home mom, I don’t often have the opportunity to speak directly with childcare owners and managers, so I was very grateful for the opportunity to write for your magazine. It might not seem like it at first, but stay at home parents and independent, licensed childcare programs have a lot in common. We both understand that caring for children is the most important work there is. We both face ongoing battle to be included in public discourse about childcare policy and funding. And, we both believe in encouraging children to pursue their dreams.
I have three young daughters, and right from the beginning, I’ve told them they can be anything they want to be when they grown up. I’d be less confident in this statement if one of them expressed an interest in becoming a full-time mom. I say this based on my own experience and the fact that there seem to be fewer and fewer of us all the time. Ironically, the same political forces that make it difficult to be an independent, licensed childcare operator in Ontario also make it difficult, if not impossible, to be a stay at home parent, raising children in a family environment.
Our nation’s Constitution guarantees all parents the right to raise their children as they see fit. Yet, our utility costs, income tax and property tax burdens are so substantial that many families are forced into having both parents in the work place full time rather than having one of them stay at home to care for the children especially if that is their childcare choice. Adding insult to injury is the fact that when our tax dollars are allocated for licensed childcare, the largest portion goes into government bureaucracies rather than to helping parents purchase services from the providers of their choice. Over time, this reduces everyone’s childcare choices even further, because it forces so many independent, licensed programs to close.
Parental choice inc childcare not only requires that the choices of all parents be respected, it requires that there be a competitive and thriving childcare industry. Licensed, center based care is an important option for many families: I have enjoyed working closely with your CEO, Kathy Graham, in developing the policy positions of the newly formed National Family Childcare Association (NFCA). Like you, we believe it’s important to preserve a diversity of philosophies, programming and curriculum’s in the nation’s early learning and childcare programs, and recognize that independent licensed childcare programs, both private and non profit, truly are needed and valued in this area.
The NFCA recognizes that families need different things at different times, and that the various factors that go into a family’s childcare choices are complex and deeply personal. We understand that no government program or agency will ever be able to accurately perform these calculations or keep pace with these ever changing needs. Nor would we want them to, as funding some options and not others automatically implies a value judgment in which some parental choices are legitimized by funding and others are not.
That’s not to say families can’t use a little help, but this help shouldn’t come at the price of our Constitutional rights. The tax system must be reformed so that each individual’s financial circumstances can be considered in the context of his or her family arrangements, and our overall tax burden must also be kept to an absolute minimum. Most importantly, no matter which level of government is involved, financial support for at home parents and vouchers for childcare must be provided directly to the family, so that all parents may enjoy the broadest range of childcare choices and Canada’s independent, licensed childcare programs can thrive.
This was in the Childcare today magazine printed by ADCO
You can also see NFCA in this weeks MacLeans magazine!
