Most people in B.C. don’t know high numbers of children are entering school doomed to fail, a new poll says.
But once people are aware of the problem, they support big government spending to fix it.
The poll — commissioned by the YWCA Vancouver and released Wednesday — was based on the findings of a study that shows 29 per cent of children in B.C. enter kindergarten “developmentally vulnerable” with low test scores in a number of important skills.
In Vancouver, the “developmentally vulnerable” figure is 37 per cent.
Experts link this vulnerability to lack of childcare spaces, and increasing time and cost pressures for dual-income parents struggling to balance work and family life.
Vulnerable children are more likely to suffer poor health, fall into crime, fail in school, and underperform in the economy, the study by U.B.C. professor Paul Kershaw, concludes.
In Kershaw’s study, commissioned by the B.C. Business Council, researchers tracked over 140,000 children in B.C. for a decade. Vulnerability figures climbed during the study period, Kershaw said.
YWCA Vancouver CEO Janet Austin said the new poll of 800 respondents from across B.C., half men and women, shows 70 per cent underestimated the number of children who are developmentally vulnerable.
But high numbers supported measures to help children and families, with 89 per cent supporting more affordable childcare spaces, and 83 per cent in favour of financial support for low income families. Almost 60 per cent supported extending parental leave to 18 months from one year.
Most surprisingly, Austin said, 60 per cent support additional government spending of $1 billion or more per year to reduce child vulnerability.
“This is a remarkable number,” Austin said. “What’s new in this poll is we’ve asked specific questions about cost.”
Kershaw’s number crunching conclusion is, if the province invests $3 billion per year in early learning and family support, child vulnerability numbers can be cut drastically, which will reduce future social costs, and drive the economy with healthier, better workers.
Vancity CEO Tamara Vrooman said business leaders are starting to buy the idea that investing in early learning is the key to future prosperity for B.C.
Vrooman, Kershaw and Austin acknowledge in the current fiscal reality it’s a tough sell to draw tax dollars to fund early learning.
But Kershaw says his investment plan is a better stimulus package for economic growth than any other in the world. And the cost of not acting is too high to contemplate, he says.
“The vast majority of the B.C. population is still in the dark about a massive social problem,” he said. “There’s already a canary in the coal mine.”
Vrooman said, “we are already taking a cost increase decision by not taking action [on child vulnerability.] We can choose to ignore it but it will increase our costs and lower productivity.”
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