Early childhood education is often discussed as a dichotomy, between educational outcomes for the children on the one hand, and on the other, increasing workforce participation of parents.

Often, the call for salary increases for early childhood educators is pitted against the interests of working parent’s needs, to keep childcare costs down so they can participate in the workforce.

What seems to get lost in this mix, is the notion that putting the interests of the child first is in everyone’s interests.

By ensuring every child has access to affordable quality early childhood education, we strengthen our communities and our economies.

By doing this, we meet the needs of the workers within the system and the workers using the system.  With a common goal, their needs are not diametrically opposed.

This year is the 120th anniversary of preschools in NSW.

The discussion around improving access to preschools and childcare is not new and politicians have been working towards this for some time. In fact, in 1972 Gough Whitlam summed up the importance of preschools to industrial relations:

“A woman’s choice between making motherhood her sole career and following another career in conjunction with motherhood depends upon the availability of proper child care facilities”.

This statement is as true today as it was in 1972.

Quality and affordable childcare remains one of the largest barriers to women entering or remaining in the workforce.

Some countries are beginning to recognise the economic and political returns that can come from investing in childcare and preschools. In the UK children have had access to up to 15 hours of free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. 

Despite the return on investment, many countries across the OECD continue to prioritise spending in the older years of education, and NSW is no different. The preschool budget in NSW makes up only 2 per cent of the total education budget.

It says a lot about how the current NSW Government values preschool education that I have not been calling on the government to increase its budget. 

Instead, I have been calling for the Government to spend the money they have already budgeted.

The NSW Auditor General recently backed up these calls, reporting that the NSW Government has underspent the preschool budget by over $350 million over the last four years.

Shamefully, compared to all other states and territories in Australia, NSW is coming last in terms of participation in early childhood education, last in terms of government investment per child which has meant that we are coming first in terms of the cost. 

It costs more to send your child to preschool or childcare in NSW than it does in any other state of territory in Australia.

To ensure that more women take the opportunity to work, and to reduce disadvantage, it’s critical that families have access to quality and affordable early childhood education.