Kindergarten funding
Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (12:30): My question is for the Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep. The Age on 8 September ran a story about how the government’s so-called free kinder program may result in services being reduced and staff ratios increased. It described a system with onerous bureaucratic burdens. Minister, what do you say to those many kindergartens that will have to reduce services because of your funding model?
Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep) (12:30): I really do thank Dr Bach for asking me this question, because it gives me the opportunity to dispel some of the misinformation that may be out there about our nation-leading Best Start, Best Life reforms—reforms that will transform early childhood education and care in this state. Nice try, Dr Bach, because I know that you actually think these reforms are pretty good. In support of children, in support of strong participation rates in kindergarten and importantly in support of families who are doing it tough with cost-of-living pressures, kinder will be free for every three- and four-year-old child in the state from next year. This is about access and equity. This is about making sure that where you live or what your parents earn is no barrier to getting a quality education for two years before you go to primary school. I do not accept for a moment that there are going to be reductions in quality or service as a result of our reforms. In fact the reality is the absolute opposite: 98.9 per cent of sessional kindergartens signed up to free kinder in 2021—98.9 per cent.
The guidelines for our funding arrangements have been out in the sector for two weeks only, and already, Dr Bach, 85 per cent of sessional kinders have said, ‘Yes, sign me up. Sign me up for free kinder next year’. So I would urge you, if you know about kindergartens that want more details about how the funding will operate and how they will be able to transition from their current model to free kinder next year, to get them to talk to the Department of Education and Training (DET), who will sit down and work through those issues with them.
It is very important to dispel a particular myth that is doing the rounds, and that is that somehow high-fee-charging kindergartens provide better quality services than others. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that some of the highest rated kindergartens in terms of the national quality standards are in fact charging below the funding envelope that the government will be providing. Rather than concentrating on a couple of kindergartens in your particular part of metropolitan Melbourne, I would urge you to ask those services to talk directly to DET, because I can assure you that the overwhelming majority of kindergarten services in this state—and I talk to a lot of them—are absolutely rapt with this policy and cannot wait for free kinder to roll out.
Dr BACH (Eastern Metropolitan) (12:33): Respectfully I will not take the minister’s advice and ask the many people who run sessional kindergartens to do what she said. These people are not dills; they have an excellent understanding of how the government’s funding model will work. My supplementary is: Minister, will you increase the funding from $2500 to ensure all kindergarten services can remain viable?
Ms STITT (Western Metropolitan—Minister for Workplace Safety, Minister for Early Childhood and Pre-Prep) (12:34): The funding guidelines have been set by the government. $2500 per child is actually way over the odds for the vast majority of kindergarten services in our state. The average is actually $1900, so we are very confident that we have pitched that funding model at the right spot. What Dr Bach is failing to acknowledge is that there are a very small number of very high fee charging kindergartens that, I acknowledge, will need to adapt their operation as a result of the funding guidelines that the government has arrived at. But there is transitional support available for those services. So what you need to do, Dr Bach, rather than scaremonger about this, is get those services to directly engage with the Department of Education and Training, because I know many examples of where that has occurred and kindergarten services are confident and are signing up.