Parents’ Choice supports United Future’s Families Policy

Parents Choice’08, today announced that it would be drawing the attention of its supporters to United Future’s policy of supporting Income Splitting for tax purposes.
Parents Choice Chairman, Roger Ellis, said “We have been in discussions with several political parties to see which ones were most supportive of parents at home”.
“We recognise that there are aspects of most parties policies that will help parents raise their children as responsible and confident adults. However, United Future has a comprehensive policy programme centred on parenting and raising children. For Parents Choice Income Splitting is a key enabler for parents who deserve recognition for the time they spend investing in the next generation” said Mr Ellis.
Today we are announcing that in our view United Future’s support for parents makes it worthy of serious consideration by voters. We commend such policies as:
• Income Splitting – to recognise the work done by at home parents
• More support for children with disabilities through a Caregivers Allowance.
• Income tax reductions - A simplified personal tax system (10% on income up to $12,000; 20% on income between $12,000 and $38,000; and 30% on income above $38,000.)
• Character education programmes in schools and
• One-stop shop family service centres for parents and children.
We hope that United Future will make the introduction of optional Income Splitting a bottom line in any post-election discussions.
We urge our supporters to consider which parties will best give recognition to parenting as a priority and to vote accordingly.

Playcentres Grossly Underfunded Report Finds

Playcentres are being grossly underfunded. That's the finding of a new report released last week. The report, prepared by Woodhams Research Associates, found that government funding was substantially lower than required for Playcentre to be sustainable due to a systematic discounting on Playcentre costs. It also found that parents are frustrated by the need to waste their time on Ministry of Education red tape rather than providing the programme for their children.

The New Zealand Playcentre Federation said the report highlighted how the government has undermined parents wanting to educate their own children.

Political reaction has been swift with National promising to incorporate Playcentre within the free early childhood funding model and United Future urging action to support Playcentre http://www.unitedfuture.org.nz/default,995,playcentres_being_systematically_under-funded.sm

"We have been trying for years to get the government to recognise the stress they have been putting Playcentre under. Now we have documented evidence of their systematic underfunding" said Playcentre Federation President, Marion Pilkington.

Key findings in the report include:

* The Ministry of Education appears to have ignored 31% of Playcentre costs when calculating funding rates;

* There is no adequate argument for excluding Playcentre from the 20 hours free ECE policy;

* Playcentre members, at centre and association level, have to volunteer for over 2000 hours per year for each centre on activities other than running the educational programme.

* Government policies have discriminated against parent provision of ECE.

"We have always known that Playcentre provides high quality education for our children" said Mrs Pilkington. "The report shows how the Playcentre model of education matches the best international research on high quality outcomes for children and their families as well."

Rural Playcentres often form community hubs and meeting points, especially after the closure of small schools and services such as post offices. It is in the interest of all communities to see that the Playcentre model remains healthy and viable.

"Playcentre calls on all political parties to support our drive for fair funding, effective structural support and reduced bureaucratic red tape" said Marion Pilkington.

The full report is published at www.playcentre.org.nz

National's Families Policy Welcomed

National has released its Families Policy and it contains some impressive changes to the status quo. For instance it extends the 20 hours free Early Childhood Education to Playcentres, Kohanga Reo and Pacific language nests. It's also promising to increase the number of Plunket or Well Child services for new parents who need extra help and to fund Plunketline. Labour has refused to properly include Playcentres within the ECE 20 hours policy.

While National fails to include income splitting for tax purposes there is a pledge for further tax reform. Parents Choice 08 does not see the National Party's family policy as being inconsistent with either its own policies or those of United Future if Saturday's election leads to a National-United Future government.