Funding children early in life is money well spent
The Province
July 4, 2010
By Paul Kershaw and Lynell Anderson

Paul Kershaw is a professor at the University of B.C.'s Human Early Learning Partnership, where Lynell Anderson is a senior researcher. Their report, 15 by 15: A Comprehensive Policy Framework for Early Human Capital Investment in B.C. is available at www.earlylearning.ubc.ca

Families are doing their best to raise healthy children. But data show that nearly 30 per cent of B.C. children arrive at kindergarten vulnerable because they struggle to hold a pencil, follow instructions, get along with peers or know 10 letters. Why so much early vulnerability? Because Canadians in British Columbia are letting down families with children before age six.

At age six, something magical happens. Canadians have far less angst about society's role in supporting families with children. We show this by welcoming children into publicly funded schools. We do so because we know children deserve this support, and because we know supporting them well will generate social and economic benefits.

But before Grade 1, parents must generally fend for themselves, somehow balancing time to earn money with time to care personally. Many readers may be nostalgic for the 1950s, when some women stayed home to care and some men specialized in breadwinning. But wishing cannot make it so. Over the last three decades, income in 70 per cent of B.C. families stayed the same or lost ground, even as more and more households devoted a second parent's time to paid work, and even after taxes have gone down over the last 15 years (something that will surprise most readers). The reality is that the cost of living and gender equality mean the Leave it to Beaver family model is outdated.

But that doesn't mean we need to tolerate the time poverty that is a reality for most Canadians today, with British Columbians reporting some of the highest rates of work-life conflict in the country. It's time for Canada to revise our parental-leave system so that time to care personally for children up to 18 months doesn't come with such financial and career risks. And we should encourage fathers as much as mothers to take at least six months of leave time.

As parents transition from parental leave, we also shouldn't tolerate that most cannot find services to help them juggle care-giving and employment. For those who can find childcare spaces, the costs tend to be as much as a second mortgage, despite concerns about service quality.

The Government of B.C.'s plan to phase in full-day kindergarten over two years will help with this juggling act, if it also comes with adequate support for before and after-school care. Naysayers, including Province columnist Jon Ferry, suggest "Full day kindergarten is full of you know what" because it signals there is "no end to what taxpayers should fund," and because it wrongly supports "career-obsessed parents all too anxious to off-load their child-rearing responsibilities."

We agree with Ferry to challenge "career-obsessed" parents to think differently. This is why we recommend that Canadians extend parental leave, reserving six months solely for dads in two-parent households, because most dads still operate with the expectation that they can off-load child-rearing responsibilities, even after the birth of a new baby, while moms put their careers on hold. We appreciate that Jon lends his moral authority to this policy recommendation.

But Ferry's depiction of what is good for taxpayers is completely off the mark. So long as B.C. tolerates 30 per cent of kids being vulnerable as they enter elementary school, we tolerate a brain drain that is costing us 20 per cent in GDP growth. In a study commissioned by the Business Council of B.C., we show that children who are not school ready are less likely to be job ready at Grade 12. And this costs our economy close to 10 times the provincial debt, 12 times all that B.C. exported in 2008 and nearly 40 times what the high-tech sector contributed to our economy in 2008.

Given that the status quo is costing so much economic potential, B.C. taxpayers' interests are best served by smart family policy.

This would ensure two things.

Dads as much as moms get enough time be the biggest influence in their children's early lives, while also earning enough income. And the community, the "village," plays its role in raising the child, by providing parents with access to full-day kindergarten and quality child-care services for children age 18 months to five years.