I have
not received any responses from my contacts except the emails directed to their
personal/team websites in the first week of the course study. I had explored
their websites and the e-newsletters. My contact from Hong
Kong does not have the e-newsletter that relates the
issues and trend we current study. Their research interesting does not allow me
to download. So I give up the contact that is from Hong
Kong. I still can not reach the contact in Beijing I
initiated in the first week. So I give up her, as well.
This
week, I continue to explore my podcast from Australia. The
issues related to excellence and equity in the forefront of professional
discussion in the Country was "Childcare subsidies” initiated by a
political correspondent on Tuesday
Feb. 4, 2014. Based on Hurst, (2014),
the Australian government provides two subsidies for childcare services, the
childcare benefit and childcare rebate. Early childhood Australia (ECA) is propelling
to merge the two payments. The new ECA's proposal
would cover about 60% of the costs for households earning $115,000 and 90% for
households earning $40,000. "Increased subsidies are likely to face
resistance from the Abbott government, which has stressed the nation’s budget
challenges and asked the Productivity Commission to make recommendations that
do not increase the overall cost of childcare assistance. But the idea of
rolling the two subsidies into a single payment has support from a number of
groups, including Mission Australia."
We all
agree that children are the future of the country. Children born in poor
families or in poverty still should have the resources that their affluent
peers have. All children should have the equity to access the social property
of the country no matter being in a poor family or in a rich family. Poor
families can not afford the education fee for their children. It should be the
responsibility of the country to help the poor especially the young children
who do not have a choice to be the family they want to be. A story from Bible
told a rich man who thought he wanted to be a excellence/good man and quested Jesus how would he
do to be a excellence/good man. Jesus told him obey all commandments. He said he did,
then Jesus challenged him "sold all your property and gave to poor and
follow me." The man left Jesus.(Mark 10:17-22) Why
did Jesus ask the rich man to sell his property to poor? In other place, Jesus
said there will always poor in the world (John 18:8;Matt 26:11; Mark 14:7). He
did not tell why the world will always have poor. He did tell rich man should
give poor. I believe a country that wants to be excellence should
help poor. ECA is trying to do a good thing and it would face resistance.
My
contract that is a team posted the discussion in the facebook and I noticed it
and saved it. Here are some comments I select:
"If you can't afford to have children and
pay your own way, you shouldn't have them."
" Children
are our future, and supporting them is an investment into that future.""
"Are
you trying to tell me that poor people have unintelligent children?"
"No,
they just can't afford the government subsidized private schools and private
teachers that rich people send their kids to because of the poorer quality
education offered by public schools because of the diversion of money and
resources away from public schools to pay the subsidy for educating the
children of rich people."
I have
sent a message to my contact for seeking their opinion about this discussion. Wish
I could have the response and I will share here.
Reference
Hurst
D., )2014), Childcare subsidies: peak body to propose single payment up to 90%
Early Childhood Australia’s submission to Productivity Commission will
recommend rolling two main benefits into one. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/05/childcare-subsidies-peak-body-propose-single-payment?CMP=soc_568
Hi Sara,
ReplyDeleteI believe many governments like to pay what we call "lip service" to eradicating poverty. It is an interantional crisis where poor children are not given the opportunities to get themselves out of poverty. There is a famous story in the bible where Jesus mentioned that the "poor we will always have with us." Unfortunately poverty is also a state of mind . As Bob Marley sang in one of his songs" Emancipate you self from mental slavery , because only we can free our minds" this is true but when you look at the systems in place to help poor people they are so ineffective. As soon a country begins to face a financial crises what is the first thing they cut-social programs that are geared towards helping the poor. Ealry childhood is no different. No one in this world can't convince me that prominent and outstanding leaders love the poor. To me it is facade. You have to have the poor to make the rich look richer and have world power. Investing in early childhood is good and the scientific research has provided us with overwhelming evidence that this is the way to go but I believe many persons at the top of the ladder are afraid. If we don't have children who are going to have them? What we must recognise that you might be wealthy today, have access to the best early childhood resources but absoulutely no one knows what tomorrow holds. I am more than sure that twenty years ago the USA, Europe and other first world countries would find themselves in a worlwide recession. We should learn from the lessons of poverty and give every single individual the right to survive.
Judy
Wow, this is a lot of great information even though you didn't reach any of your initial contacts. The organization I choose Save the Children also, does a lot of work in Australia, by providing education to children and life skills to families.
ReplyDeleteLiping thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading your post. I think that government should invest more money into our early childhood programs because if research shows that children who have a Head Start and receives the services that they need at an early age will succeed academically than why not invest. I also hope that one day preschool becomes mandatory.
ReplyDeleteI am excited to get response from my contact in Australia today. The team write to me as below:
ReplyDelete"You can find all the details of ECA's proposal about subsidies in our full submission to the Productivity Commission: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ECA_Submission_PC_Inquiry_Childcare_and_Early-Learning_2014.pdf
The submission also includes information about the Australian early childhood sector and demand for childcare."
I wish their proposal will get accepted.
Sara, This is AWESOME. he Australian government provides two subsidies for childcare services, the childcare benefit and childcare rebate. Early childhood Australia (ECA) is propelling to merge the two payments. The podcast is great and very important in the childcare services. I selected the Global Children's Initiative. The initiative is doing an excellent work in informing the world about the issues that affect early childhood development.
ReplyDelete