Dear Editor,
When I received my little (and very taxable) UCCB (Universal Child Care Benefit) cheque in the mail yesterday, I put my ear to the ground and could hear a swiftly approaching election.
This new UCCB is only a fraction of the average cost of daycare. Parents need affordable daycare, not summer pocket money.
I suspect affordable and accessible day care would boost the economy in a much larger and long term manner than a blip on the consumer summer spending graph.
Another significant benefit to childcare/early childhood education: In Time Healthline, June 09, 2011 Maia Szalavitz writes, “To cut crime, raise education and income levels, and reduce addiction rates among the poor, no program offers more bang for the buck than preschool, as a new study published in Science demonstrates.”
It is commonly estimated that for every dollar spent on preschool, seven dollars is saved. Where else can you get that rate of return?
Does each party have a plan in place for affordable daycare? How about quality regulated early childhood education that transitions seamlessly to kindergarten? It would also create good jobs for early childhood educators and perhaps teachers who want summer work.
Michelle Matich, Langley