Reasons to move back to BC sooner rather than later

Today was a very exciting day.  Well, it was supposed to be.  This morning I registered Tristan and Ava for Kindergarten and was hit with some news that will change how our next year plays out.  As I've mentioned before, for a long time I was concerned about all-day everyday Kindergarten.  It's part of the reason we waited an extra year.  Our kids will turn six at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year and we felt waiting that extra year would mean the kids were more ready for that level of energy output, social responsibility and information.  Our kids are so excited for Kindergarten and we have talked it up in a big way; getting to stay all day; getting to play on the playground everyday; getting to go to gym class everyday; getting to eat lunch at school. We even bought the kids snazzy, and ridiculously on sale, backpacks that have lunchboxes attached to them special for eating lunch at school. Those are the things they are most excited about.  And now, it is not an option.

At a time when BC is implementing all-day everyday Kindergarten for all their schools over the next two years, Alberta is cutting education funds.  I was a resister of full day Kindergarten (FDK) but became a believer when I read some of the benefits.  Kids in FDK have greater literacy and numeracy.  Their reading comprehension and general learning skills are better.  They make significantly greater progress in learning social skills.  There is more time for the teacher to spend with each student, more time to get to know the student and assess his/her progress and adequately meet the students' needs.  They spend more time in creative activities, more time engaged in active, child-initiated small group activities as opposed to a large group learning model.  All good things!

Medicine Hat has run this program successfully for five years but it has not been provincially funded.  The province funds a half-day and our local school board has provided the funds for the other half-day.  Thanks to all the cutbacks in education our school board will need those funds for other things, like maintaining classroom sizes.  Today when I dropped off the kids' registrations the Principal had just returned from a school board meeting and asked if I had five minutes to chat.

What the school board is proposing is A) to keep FDK at a cost to parents of $280 per month per child or B) go back to half-day Kindergarten which could mean five half-days or every other full day. Besides the fact that I believe FDK should be provincially-funded for all of Alberta I would 100% rather have free half-day Kindergarten.  Do the math. If option A is chosen Kindergarten will cost us $560/month.  $560 a month is more than our monthly grocery budget, and more than half of our mortgage payment.  I would have to get a job to put our kids in Kindergarten and then have to pay childcare for my two-year-old.  And did I mention the $280/month/child is not tax deductible because it's for education and not child care?  The whole thing is ridiculous!

If I could, I would choose half-days that look like every other full day to get the best of both worlds.  But here's the kicker.  I don't get to choose.  Oh I get to tick my preference in a box on a sheet of paper but I don't get to choose.  I know people who are currently spending over $1000/month on Montessori.  They both work full-time. $280 for full-days would be a deal compared to paying for child care for half-days.  Part of the reason FDK was implemented here in the first place is because so many families are dual income that parents were having to go to extreme lengths to get their kids from school to daycare and it was not unusual to see cabs lined up along the school yard.  FDK eliminated that.  And now we're back to square one.  Only this time people have had a taste of FDK and I think they'll fight tooth and nail to keep it.

I am frustrated and feel totally helpless. Yes, I have a voice, but I know very well how small that voice is.  I feel like I am at the mercy of people who have chosen to work full-time rather than be at home with their kids and are therefore in a higher income bracket than I am.  I respect their right to make that choice.  I only ask that they respect me for the choice I have made.  Alberta's Budget 2010 website says that this years budget "strikes the right balance between fiscal discipline and protecting health care and other priority programs".  It's sad, unfortunate, and short-sighted that education for our children, the future of this province, is not considered a priority program.  Then again neither is our carbon footprint.  But that doesn't matter.  Climate change doesn't really exist anyway.  Right Cypress?  Right Whistler?  Right BC?