Another one bites the dust...
Nelson Daily News
09 Apr 2007
Editorial -- By: Isabelle Herzig

To the Editor:

Today is another sad day for childcare in our community. Samantha, an energetic, highly educated, caring, nurturing, and extremely talented early childhood educator left her position today at Care to Learn, one of a very few childcare centres in our community, for a job as a tree planter.

Did she leave because she desperately wants to batter and bruise her body planting trees in a buggy, hot climate? Think again. It's because, she, like many other early childhood educators in our country, can no longer afford to work in childcare.

She is a young adult starting off her life, getting married, and thinking about having her own children. How can she afford to live on what our government has deemed, through lack of funding, is an appropriate wage for such a demanding, important, and needed job.

She was willingly, passionately, and expertly helping me raise my daughter, she has a gift. She unfortunately is also the fourth excellent staff that Care to Learn has lost this year.

To Antonia, Janet, Isabelle and Sam, thank you for all your years of hard work, dedication, and quality childcare that you have given our children. You will be missed.

To our community, to our parents, our government... don't let this issue die. We cannot afford to have more of our early childhood educators and childcare providers leave because they just can't pay their bills. There are already huge waiting lists and not enough spaces for the children in our area.

How is this ever going to change if we don't demand change. Enough is enough.