Kindergarten parents could face higher fees and cuts to their children’s programs if the federal government stops funding five preschool hours a week.
Budget papers reveal funding for the universal access program that provides an additional five hours of four-year-old preschool education is only guaranteed up to December.
President of Home Road Kindergarten at Newport, Jo Sutton, said she had written to Assistant Education Minister Sussan Ley to say that reducing preschool hours from 15 hours to 10 would be a backward step.
Ms Sutton said her youngest child would be ready to be enrolled in four-year-old kinder when the change came in to effect in 2016.
The state government says it will continue to fund 10 hours of preschool but will not increase this funding to cover the additional five hours if the Commonwealth withdraws funding.
“Parents will not be able to cover large fee increases that will occur if the Australian government withdraws its commitment to this program,” Ms Sutton said. “The consequences are large in our centre: basically, the number of hours is going to go down, the number of staff we require and the fees that we charge could all change.
“At the moment it’s around $390 per term. Potentially, it could go up a lot more.”
Sarah Yallop, whose four-year-old daughter is in kinder and starts school next year, said
there was a massive difference between 15 hours versus 10 hours in terms of school preparation.
“It’s only ramped up to 15 hours for four-year-old children in the last couple of years,” she said.
“I think for the federal government to pull out of something so important, that’s had so much funding and infrastructure put in to it from the state and local point of view as well, without giving it a real chance to succeed, is just such a shame.”
Gellibrand MP Tim Watts said the threatened cuts to early childhood funding should be alarming to all parents in Melbourne’s west.
“Cutting early childhood funding to only 10 hours a week will place huge stress on the budgets of our kindergartens.”
