Subsidy option not being widely promoted
Cariboo Press / Kelowna Capital News
05 Jul 2006

A review of subsidized preschool spaces provided within the Central Okanagan School District shows several preschools only advertise the subsidy option by word of mouth.

The preschools are privately run businesses afforded rental space in public schools throughout the community as a way of bolstering early childhood education.

In a review requested by the previous school board monitoring how a new policy to fill unclaimed subsidized spots was received, almost half of the daycares stated parents are only informed of the reserved spots for lower income children by word of mouth.

Last fall the school board opened up subsidy-only spaces, permitting operators to fill spots with other paying customers if no one could be found who needed the subsidy within one month of semester startup.

"Many of (the pre-schools) have grave concerns about being financially soluble," former trustee Caryl Horan told the board last September, when the decision to open subsidy-only spots was made.

But trustees noted the preschools should be advertising the option.

Of the eleven preschools running in Central Okanagan School District classrooms, five did not advertise other than by spreading the word. Yet several of those noted their subsidized spaces are filled. On the whole, only 14.29 per cent of a possible 20 per cent of spaces were subsidized during the first semester of this year, meaning some spots still go unclaimed.

The school district plans to continue monitoring the project.

The Central Okanagan School District's system provided impetus for change at the provincial level this year.

Funding increases created by the former federal Liberal government's desire for universal childcare helped the province boost subsidies from $173 a month to $225 and are available to any family with an income of $38,000 or less.

The Conservative government has since scrapped the universal childcare model in favour of childcare of choice--a monthly cheque issued to parents of all children under six years old, regardless of need.