Association used as a political football

Press Release
From the Southland Kindergarten Association
8 May 2007
For immediate release

(All comments attributable to Paddy Lewis, President, Southland Kindergarten Association. This is the ONLY comment Southland Kindergarten Association will be making on this matter)

“It is unfortunate Southland Kindergarten Association has been used as a political football when our Association and staff are merely trying to get this 20 Hours Free policy in place by the due date of July 1. I am concerned we have been painted as money-grubbing when in fact we are trying to take the pressure off our Kindergarten communities for fundraising.”

“If parents bring their 20 Hours to a Southland Kindergarten, they will not pay any fee, they will not pay any optional charges – so any talk over increased fees is irrelevant to them.”

“For many years, the vast majority of our bulk funding has gone on teacher salaries. The shortfalls faced have had to come from kindergarten families, committee fundraising, and other sources.”

“The opportunity that 20 Hours Free offers Southland Kindergarten Association is to remove the need for donations and other fundraising, and will put the Association in a position where needed resources, maintenance, and other key budget items are paid for without having to go cap in hand to our families or other funding sources.”

“Having said this, if we then leave our fee structure the way it is at present, and kindergarten families choose to use their 20 Hours Free elsewhere, then the Association will remain in the status quo and will eventually go backwards.”

“We certainly aren’t doing this to make a profit. It’s a necessary response to the huge changes that 20 Hours Free creates in the early childhood sector. Kindergarten is facing major changes, and we are merely doing our best to adapt to these changes.”

“Seventy-six percent of kindergarten parents (over 800 families) told us last year that they would bring their 20 Hours Free to Southland Kindergarten Association. They won’t pay a fee, so it’s not an issue for them.”

ENDS

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