From the Los Angeles Times - October 16, 2008

Excerpts from the third Presidential debate – held October 15, 2008

McCAIN: Now, throwing money at the problem is not the answer. You will find that some of the worst school systems in America get the most money per student. . . . So I believe that we need to reward these good teachers. . . . Now, as far as the No Child Left Behind is concerned, it was a great first beginning, in my view. It had its flaws, it had its problems, the first time we had looked at the issue of education in America from a nationwide perspective. And we need to fix a lot of the problems. We need to sit down and reauthorize it. . . . And I've got to tell you that vouchers, where they are requested and where they are agreed to, are a good and workable system.

OBAMA: In some cases, we are going to have to invest. Early-childhood education, which closes the achievement gap so that every child is prepared for school, every dollar we invest in that, we end up getting huge benefits with improved reading scores, reduced dropout rates, reduced delinquency rates. I think it's going to be critically important for us to recruit a generation of new teachers, an army of new teachers, especially in math and science, give them higher pay, give them more professional development and support in exchange for higher standards and accountability. And I think it's important for us to make college affordable. . . . And that's why I've proposed a $4,000 tuition credit, every student, every year, in exchange for some form of community service, whether it's military service, whether it's Peace Corps, whether it's working in a community.

Full debate transcripts can be found here.

Obama's campaign placed this video on their YouTube Channel earlier today – likely in response to the education issues raised during the debate.

As of today, McCain's campain has not placed anything on their YouTube Channel regarding education as a follow-up to the issues raised during the debate.

From Whistler Question - October 16, 2008

Whistler – The crippling shortage of qualified staff could force the Whistler Children’s Centre (WCC) to shut down its two infant and toddler programs at the WCC’s Spring Creek campus.

After an emergency board meeting last Wednesday (Oct. 8), Program Coordinator Kari Gaudet and WCC board members met with families of the 16 children in the Daisies and Blueberries streams at Spring Creek to tell them the programs will have to close after Nov. 28 if qualified staff members aren’t hired.

WCC Society officials announced last week that the child care service would have to temporarily stop taking on new families, because it doesn’t have enough B.C.-certified Early Childhood Educators (ECEs), especially those with the Infant-Toddler specialization.

The shortage is a problem throughout the field, the province and the corridor, Gaudet said, but Whistler feels the effects keenly because of the high cost of living here and the lack of affordable housing.

The WCC’s infant and toddler programs at the Nesters location won’t be affected in the same way as the Spring Creek streams, because the WCC was able to work with the licencing officer to have the extensive Ontarian and Australian experience of two of its Nesters staff members temporarily accepted while they work toward their B.C. accreditation.

“We didn’t have that opportunity in either of our programs down at Spring Creek,” Gaudet said.

The WCC needs to hire several new ECEs, including at least one with the Infant-Toddler concentration for each program, to keep the two Spring Creek programs open.

Paula Palmer, mother of a two-year-old son who has been cared for at Spring Creek for about 18 months, said the news was distressing, and particularly challenging as the ski season approaches, and that the families will have to struggle to find new child care or work options.

Palmer said the Spring Creek parents have been firing emails back and forth about options since they were told about the impending closure, as well as contacting licensing officials and local, provincial and federal politicians about the situation.

 

“We’re all on board, and we’re all trying to deal with it… we’re all trying to do it together,” she said.

Palmer said Spring Creek parents have suggested alternatives to the closure such as some daycare sharing between the Nesters location and Spring Creek, to ensure everyone has some child care.

 

The idea of sharing between Nesters and Spring Creek is “something we are looking at,” Gaudet said, and the approximately 24 families using the Nesters infant-toddler programs will be brought into the discussions this week.

 

“Now we are just trying to work as much as we can with the families,” Gaudet said.

Though the staff shortage is widespread, Gaudet said the WCC is working hard to attract new ECEs, by contacting “every resource we can think of,” talking to a few qualified educators in the community who might be available for short-term solutions, and approaching officials at child care centres in Squamish and Pemberton.

“But everyone in the corridor is in the same boat,” Gaudet said.

While the struggle for short-term solutions continues, Gaudet said it’s important for everyone to get involved in advocating for child care, to motivate political leaders to make the systemic changes needed for long-term solutions.

Child care should be important to everyone because there’s a “huge trickle-down effect” from problems such as the WCC’s, Gaudet said. Parents have said they might have to leave the Whistler workforce to care for their kids, or move out of Whistler entirely, Gaudet said.

“I think the effects can be drastic and everyone must be in realization of that,” she said.

Lisa St-Amand, whose two-year-old daughter who loves her time at the Spring Creek daycare, said she thinks legislative changes are necessary across the province to repair the state of the ECE field and the hurdles in the licensing process for educators with out-of-province certifications.

She and her husband work in Whistler, having been part of the community since 1994, but they live in Squamish. If they can’t find child-care solutions beyond temporary help from grandparents, St-Amand said, “we may have to change our working scenario.”

Gaudet encouraged concerned community members to contact municipal political candidates, the federal government, provincial MLA Joan McIntyre and Linda Reid, the B.C. Minister of State for Child Care. Palmer, St-Amand and many of the other Spring Creek parents have already done so, they said.