Child Care News
Kindergarten plan may rescue flagging childcare sector
Sydney Morning Herald - Tim Boreham - October 13, 2018Federal Labor's mooted plans to reform negative gearing and capital gains tax may have scared the overall property industry, but its $1.75 billion scheme to fund kindergarten places for three year olds promises to be a boon for flagging valuations in the child care sector...
Blue Sky sale of Foundation Early Learning comes in at bottom of investor estimates
The Courier Mail - Liam Walsh - October 13, 2018EMBATTLED fund manager Blue Sky Alternative Investments has finally offloaded a childcare operation, with returns to investors hitting the bottom of earlier estimates. The weakened sale of Brisbane-based Foundation Early Learning, a 31-centre operation, was detailed by Blue Sky...
Scott Morrison is badly in need of a winning family policy
The Australian - Angela Shanahan - October 12, 2018The latest gambit from Labor promising universal three and four-year-old preschool is very clever. Even if you think three-year-old preschool is baloney as far as education goes, it is dovetailing with the concerns of parents who want more available, cheaper and better...
Case for preschool education underwhelming
The Australian - Judith Sloan - October 12, 2018It's so simple — pile our three-year-olds into 15 hours of early childhood education a week for 40 weeks and all these wonderful things will happen. The transition of our little ones to school will be smooth and productive. They will get better NAPLAN results. They will stay longer at school...
How I handled the great 'when should my child start school' dilemma
Sydney Morning Herald - Kasey Edwards - October 12, 2018There was also the not insignificant issue of money. Given the cost of childcare, delaying school an extra year comes at a significant financial cost. I wondered that instead of shelling out another 20 grand on childcare, my kids would be better off if I put the money in a term...
Funding for preschool places will shape Australia's future
Sydney Morning Herald - Harold Mitchell - October 11, 2018Over its very short five-year history, the Mitchell Institute has been able to persuasively argue an extensively researched case for expanded early learning. It's based on a very simple but worrying fact. One in five of our kids start school behind, and nearly half of those children...
Look deeper into research on benefits of preschool
Sydney Morning Herald - Parnell Palme McGuinness - October 11, 2018Free or subsidised preschool for three- and four-year-olds will, the argument goes, provide only benefits which outweigh the current means-tested arrangement. But that assertion flies in the face of the many studies which show that three-year-olds from non-disadvantaged...
Funding for preschool places will shape Australia's future
Sydney Morning Herald - Harold Mitchell - October 11, 2018Education has been in the news over the past few days, but the story about the most recent development started some years ago with a conversation I had with Professor Peter Dawkins, the vice-chancellor of Victoria University. Universities always want to distinguish themselves...
Household stress worse than we thought: ACTU
The Australian - Ewin Hannan - October 11, 2018While the total CPI increase over the year to June was just over 2 per cent, the price of many essential items, including childcare, gas and power, went up two, four or even five times faster than the broad measure of inflation. Since 2016, nominal wage growth in the public sector has been 2.5...
Dutton denies making money from childcare
News.com.au - Matt Coughan - October 10, 2018Peter Dutton insists he has never made money from a family trust linked to childcare centres owned by his wife, which opponents say put his eligibility to sit in parliament under a cloud. The home affairs minister has faced ongoing questions about whether a financial interest in two...
Child care rent rate questioned by Councillor
Townsville Bulletin - Tony Raggatt - October 10, 2018A council officer has recommended the lease to The Creche and Kindergarten Association for the property in Fulham Rd at a rental fee of $2000 per year for a five-year term. Cr Jacob questioned how the public would view the rental charge and said there was a lot of change occurring in State...
Want a more capable nation? Start younger
Sydney Morning Herald - Ross Gittins - October 9, 2018Trouble is, getting four-year-olds to preschool takes us only halfway to catching up with most other advanced economies, even New Zealand. So, with any luck, Scott Morrison won't be too proud to match Labor's promise to extend it to three-year-olds. Why is an economics writer getting...
Labor promises 785 new kinders for Victoria
Sydney Morning Herald - Benjamin Preiss - October 9, 2018Almost 800 new kindergartens will be built and 170 existing centres expanded in a $1.68 billion pre-election pitch to parents by the Andrews government. The funding would come from the $5 billion that the Victorian Labor government has already committed as part of its pledge to deliver subsidised...
Andrews says childcare reforms fully funded with or without the federal government
The Daily Telegraph - October 09, 2018Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says that the early childhood funding package is fully funded regardless of the federal government's involvement, but that if the federal Labor proposal by Bill Shorten is taken into account that extra funds would be spent in the sector. Andrews says that there will...
Liverpool Council to investigate feasibility of turning Liverpool Regional Museum into childcare centre
The Daily Telegraph - Cindy Ngo - October 9, 2018A high demand for childcare could see the Liverpool Regional Museum repurposed as an early education and care centre to cater for the growing city centre. Liverpool Council will undertake a scoping study into the feasibility of transforming the Hume Hwy facility to add to its collection of six childcare centres across the region...
