Craig Alexander is a former chief economist at Deloitte Canada, the Conference Board of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank.
There have been troubling developments on the child care and youth skills front. First, the share of children in care has fallen despite Ottawa reaching Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care agreements with all provinces and territories.
One can understand that shifting toward $10-a-day child care would increase demand that could, at least temporarily, exceed supply, but it shouldn’t lead to a lower percentage of children in care. Second, we had news that youth literacy and math skills continue their multidecade retreat from the level achieved in 2000, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment. Both trends need to be reversed.
Early learning and child care (ELCC) delivered through expanded school junior kindergarten programs at earlier ages should be part of the solution, yet this option is given little attention. The reason is related to Canada’s division of responsibilities between the federal government and the provinces, with education being in the provincial domain but the federal government having more financial capacity.
The federal government correctly identified that Canada was underinvesting in child care and that this added major costs to the economy due to lower female labour participation and less child skill development. In response, Ottawa set out to create universal and affordable ELCC with the provincial agreements and Bill C-35, which will provide federal funding so that parents pay just $10 a day for child care. This will raise enrolment predominately at licensed child-care centres.
The problem is that there are large parts of Canada, particularly rural areas, where it will still not be economically viable or attractive to run licensed centres. There is also a risk that licensed centres will favour certain segments of society. There are concerns about the quality of corporate child-care centres. And there will not be enough qualified staff to meet the increase in demand for educators because such positions are unattractive due to low wages and poor benefits.
One solution is to leverage the public school system and its existing infrastructure, which can allow rapid expansion while ensuring a stable work force and quality programs for children.
Schools already exist in every neighbourhood, meaning that expansion of prekindergarten at schools can ensure daytime access to ELCC and help to eliminate the current reality of child-care deserts in large parts of the country.
Public schools cannot turn away children, so they maximize inclusivity and diversity.
Enrolment in school programs would be exceptionally high. There is no fee to parents and school programs are perceived as part of a child’s education rather than just care. To illustrate, Ontario’s two-year kindergarten program has near 90-per-cent enrolment for children aged 4 and 5.
Delivering early learning at schools creates the opportunity for a continuum of high-quality learning, which can reduce the stress on children as they transition from early learning into primary schools.
Early educators at schools are well paid and have good benefits, making it more attractive for individuals to pursue a career in this field and improve employee retention – currently a key challenge. Beyond the human resources benefits, well-paid early educators are more likely to deliver high-quality ELCC programs.
There are also economies of scale to being part of the public sector, which can lower non-compensation costs.
Data collection for program assessment is easier at schools than by surveys of a vast number of licensed care providers. This can help enhance the quality of the early learning programs.
Schools eliminate the risk of market-based supply disruptions. For example, there were 213 licensed daycare closings each year on average in Ontario over the past decade.
The high-quality early learning programs at schools can also maximize skills development, reducing the need for special education programs in primary school, which can help reverse the trend of declining youth literacy and math skills.
Schools are not a substitute for licensed care, however, since many working parents will still need extended hours of child care beyond the school day hours.
The inherent challenge with expanding ELCC at public schools is the hefty upfront price tag for the investment and provinces will find it difficult to find the funds given competing priorities. It should be stressed that the economic and tax revenue benefits outweigh the investment cost over time.
Provinces with existing junior kindergarten programs faced the fiscal challenge of launching their programs so they phased them in, beginning in rural areas where capacity existed, expense was minimal and the need was high. The real problem isn’t the cost – it’s the timing, with the province having to find the money before additional tax revenue is collected.
However, wise governments know the evidence is strong for upfront investments that reap such a healthy return on investment as early learning does.