EXCERPTS
The University of Victoria is facing a child-care crisis. There are not enough spaces in the existing child-care services, so young faculty and staff cannot find care for their children and students must scramble to pay the cost of the childcare since subsidies are inadequate. This is a crisis throughout our region and throughout our province.
The Greater Victoria Regional Child Care Council has been monitoring and reporting on the child-care situation in our area for the past 10 years.
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As members of the Greater Victoria community, we are concerned that the University of Victoria is considering inviting Kids and Company, a child-care company, to solve the university's child-care problems. This company appears to offer a facile solution to the university's problem of childcare. But both academic research and experience in other countries has shown that corporate childcare does not provide quality childcare and in the long run may prove more expensive to communities.
As a part of our community, the university can be a model for thoughtful and careful child-care planning. The University of British Columbia has just finished a planning process for childcare in their community which involved consultation with different segments of their population. Likewise, consultation within the University of Victoria community and the Greater Victoria community can provide direction and guidance for an optimal solution that will meet the unique needs of our families and our community.
Throughout the research literature one finds that nonprofit childcare delivers care of a higher caliber than childcare that must turn a profit. Wages are the largest portion of any child-care budget and cutting corners on wages or benefits results in a less stable and consistent workforce. Hiring less qualified staff in order to pay lower wages is another way to keep the wage costs down, and having poorly qualified staff will not result in a quality situation for children or their families.
Corporate childcare's focus is profit and return to shareholders. Community-based childcare's focus is on children and families. The University of Victoria is educating people to work with young children, with families, and with the community. What model is the university presenting to the students of their own community by bringing in corporate childcare? The university can set an example of high standards that reflect the knowledge and understanding that resides within its community. The Greater Victoria Regional Child Care Council does not believe that the university is demonstrating community responsibility when it endorses a solution that research has shown to be a poor answer for the care of our children.
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* Enid Elliot is the chair of the Greater Victoria Regional Child Care Council.
- reprinted from Straight.com