MacDiarmid and the kindergarten proposal
By Janet Steffenhagen
Vancouver Sun
06-18-2009

There have been a few stories this week suggesting that the new education minister, Margaret MacDiarmid, has postponed the plan for expanded kindergarten.

Readers of this blog know that is not true. Her predecessor, Shirley Bond, nixed the plan a couple of months ago after finding out that it would require a lot of money, expensive renovations to create more play/learning space in schools and some 1,000 additional teachers (for the five-year-olds alone).

Michael Smyth of the Province newspaper has written a column today suggesting the government was never really serious about expanded kindergarten (and I'm inclined to agree, since the points noted above should have been obvious before the plan was floated in the Throne Speech in Feb. 2008)….

[Note: you can go back to the main articles page to read the Province article]

The stories surfaced this week after Ontario has signalled that it's going ahead with all-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds.

The stories surfaced this week after Ontario signalled that it's going ahead with all-day kindergarten for four- and five-year-olds. But it won't be a stroll in the park in that province, either.

Today, The Ottawa Citizen is reporting this:
Few are calling it universal day care, and that is probably a good thing. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's plan to introduce full-day kindergarten into Ontario schools, and then some, is already getting enough pushback from critics. If the D-word was invoked, the debate would certainly turn ugly.

And the Globe and Mail is reporting this:
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's self-proclaimed role as the education premier will be tested as he embarks on an integrated full-day kindergarten and childcare program with the province facing a mounting deficit and opposition from the country's largest teachers' union.

Sweeping change that would put Ontario's four- and five-year-olds under the same roof all day is the most ambitious in the country and follows aborted attempts by other provinces to introduce such changes.