Commission on the reform of Ontario's public services (The Drummond report)

See "Chapter 6: The affordability of full-day kindergarten" (p. 213). Recommendations 6-11 & 6- 12.

Recommendation 6-11: Given the difficulties with such an approach, and the prohibitive cost of the program overall at this time, the Commission recommends cancellation of the full-day kindergarten (FDK) program, without prejudice to schools that already had FDK before the introduction of this government strategy.

The Ministry of Education should carefully develop phase-out provisions so that a child who had a full day in junior kindergarten would not move to a half day in senior kindergarten, and so that purpose-built spaces are appropriately utilized for child care.

Recommendation 6-12: If the government decides to continue the implementation of the full-day kindergarten program, then the Commission recommends delaying full implementation from 2014-15 to 2017-18 and reducing program costs by adopting a more affordable staffing model, involving one teacher for about 20 students, rather than a teacher and an early childhood educator for 26 students, to help moderate salary expenditures for the program by about $200 million. The government should not confirm full implementation of the program without assurances from school boards, teacher federations and support-staff unions that negotiated annual wage increases by 2017-18 will not be higher than the current trends in the broader public sector, and that the class-size increases and reductions in non-teaching staff contemplated by the Commission by 2017-18 will be achieved.

This approach would also help ease the oversupply of teachers in the labour market and reduce costs associated with correcting the current undersupply of ECEs.

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To see how child care figures in the Commission's report, you can search 'child care' in the pdf document. Child care is considered a "discretionary social program" (p. 271), listed under "other social programs" in chapter 8: Social services and recieves 20 mentions in the full report. (Note: Child care was moved to the Ministry of Education in 2010)

Related links:

Waiting for Drummond: The play Video [4:20]

Full-day kindergarten never at risk

Drummond Commission: Taking Ontario out of commission

Cash-strapped Ontario won't scrap full-day kindergarten: Duncan

Don't cut all-day kindergarten, parents and educators say