Investing in very early education

The recent strike by daycare workers raised questions about the role of daycare and the government responsibility.

By ZIV HELLMAN
baby 480 (photo credit: Judith Sudilovsky)
baby 480
(photo credit: Judith Sudilovsky)
PARENTS OF CHILDREN under the age of three depend on regular daycare so that they can go to work. But several times during September and October, they found themselves wondering what they would do if all the daycare centers were to close.
During the first two months of the school year, daycare workers affiliated with Na’amat, the largest women’s advocacy organization in the country, many of whom earn only minimum wage or slightly above, threatened to initiate a major strike that would shut down over 260 daycare centers nationwide and would wreak havoc on the daily schedules of thousands of families. Na’amat, in response, passed the buck to the Treasury and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which determine the fees parents pay for licensed daycare centers, claiming that without authorization to raise fees, it could not afford to give daycare workers a pay raise.
The strike threat was defused in early October; all sides temporarily backed down and the government agreed to a four percent hike in the fees that parents pay. But the threat of the strike shined a spotlight on the subject of daycare centers in Israel, raising several questions regarding their current status and what can and should be done to improve them.
The national public school system, from kindergarten to the end of high school (K-12 as it is often called), is under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and provided for free to all children (though many schools charge high fees for extra educational activities to supplement the regular curriculum). Attendance is compulsory at kindergarten for all children aged five, and children as young as three may enroll at state-provided kindergartens.
But the situation for toddlers and children younger is quite different. Daycare centers are private entities and are operated by non-profit women’s organizations, such as Na’amat, WIZO, Emunah and Herut Women. Despite their independence, the fees that accredited daycare centers may charge are set by the state and typically range from 1,500 to 2,000 shekels per child per month ($410 – $550), depending on the age of the child and other factors. These fees may be subsidized, in part or in whole, by the Ministry of Industry and Trade according to pre-determined eligibility requirements, but most middle-class families have incomes that make them ineligible for any subsidy.
Surprisingly, daycare centers are not supervised by the Education Ministry, but by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. “The reason daycare centers are under the authority of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and not the Education Ministry, is that the original justification for them was solely to enable women to get back into the work force as soon as possible after childbirth,” says Ora Goldhirsch, a psychologist specializing in preschool education for the Ministry of Education. “Since the daycare framework was connected to increasing employment, it seemed right for the Ministry of Industry and Trade to be responsible for them. They were regarded as a form of babysitting services for working women, and there did not seem to be justification for the state to pay for babysitting.
“But they have long ago stopped being considered babysitting services alone. If the children are going to be in such frameworks, it is imperative that their developmental needs be met by professional staff.”
“WE ARE NOT TALKING about babysitting,” agrees Talia Livni, the national chairwoman of Na’amat, “but about the most important period in the development of a child. This should be regarded as an investment with multiple returns throughout the lives of the children.”
Na’amat has called on the state to expand the free and universal educational services it provides for children from the age of three and above to cover daycare for children as young as a few months old. Given extensive studies in many countries around the world, indicating that early childhood education, especially at younger ages, can have profound implications for a child’s future success, coupled with the fact that the public investments that give a nation the most rewards are in education and infrastructure, there would appear to be a good case to be made for this view and for ensuring that the daycare environments in which children are placed enrich their lifelong learning skills to as great an extent as possible.
However, the Ministry of Industry and Trade did not respond to The Report’s requests for comments on this suggestion.
 Few people anywhere oppose some form of public provision of universal education for children, since virtually everyone understands that the benefits that accrue from a more highly educated work force are shared by every citizen, particularly through the higher GDP that then drives higher average wages and living standards at all levels.
But this was not the case for most of history; universal public education is very much an invention of the modern, industrialized world. The case for preschool has been even harder to justify to a public that for a long time regarded the framework of kindergarten as more of a place of play for children than learning.
In fact, Israel has been relatively progressive in stressing the importance of kindergartens and nurseries; the first kindergarten was opened in Rishon Lezion as far back as 1898.
VERY EARLY CHILDHOOD education, sometimes known as “pre- K,” for pre-kindergarten, is still regarded by many as a luxury mainly intended to free working parents from the burden of child care. According to most professionals, however, this view is wrong.
“There is no ‘minimum age’ for beginning to educate a child,” stresses Goldhirsch. “Children learn from the moment they leave the womb and we cannot wait even one day from the perspective of investing in the child’s development. There are claims that learning begins even prenatally. Clearly, the most important elements for children in the first years are the parents, with attachment and bonding with parents of the first importance, giving children confidence and trust in their environment and those caring for them.”
There are several studies underpinning the importance of early-childhood education for lifelong success, measured in any number of ways. For example, a major research effort conducted in 2004 by James J. Heckman and Dimitriy V. Masterov of the University of Chicago concluded that “an accumulating body of evidence suggests that early childhood interventions are much more effective than remedies that attempt to compensate for early neglect later in life… Education, perseverance and motivation are all major factors determining productivity, both in the workplace and beyond it.
“On productivity grounds alone, it appears to make sound business sense to invest in young children… Both cognitive and noncognitive abilities are important for leading productive lives… Skill begets skill and learning begets more learning. Early advantages cumulate; so do early disadvantages. Later remediation of early deficits is costly, and often prohibitively so… Enriched pre-kindergarten programs… have a strong track record of promoting achievement for disadvantaged children, improving their labor market outcomes and reducing involvement with crime. Such programs are likely to generate substantial savings to society and to promote higher economic growth by improving the skills of the workforce.”
Yet despite all this evidence, the Education Ministry remains uninvolved in early child care and it is the Ministry of Industry and Trade that dictates standards and provides accreditation. A daycare center accredited by the Ministry of Industry and Trade must accept children from birth to age three, with some mixed daycarekindergarten facilities accepting children up to age three and a half. An accredited daycare
center must be open between the hours of 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday through Monday, and 7 a.m. and 1p.m. on Fridays. The ministry also recognizes a category of daycare centers that are termed “family centers,” which may be held in private homes and include up to five children under the age of three.
The ministry conducts on-site inspections to ensure that daycare centers maintain ministry determined standards. Daycare workers must meet at least minimal criteria of training for working with very young children and are required by the ministry to attend further coursework on new child-education methods throughout their careers.
A LENGTHY STRIKE BY DAYCARE workers would indisputably have painful consequences – and not only for parents who might lose days of work because of it.
“Entering a framework outside the home for the first time is a difficult experience for children,” says Goldhirsch. “They need time to adjust to being with other children, to daily schedules and routines, to build trust in the adults caring for them. If this period of adjustment is disturbed, it is problematic, and a new period of adjustment needs to begin. The Jewish holidays, every September-October, are already problematic, because just as children are beginning this crucial period of adjustment, it stops and starts, as the holidays break daily continuity. A strike shutting down day centers is then definitely an imposition of hardship on children.”
According to Ada Kremovsky, who is leading the labor dispute of the daycare workers within the framework of the Histadrut General Federation of Workers, the struggle for better pay on the part of the daycare workers is far from over. “We will not back down,” she says. “The labor dispute is still on. We hope that the subject of daycare worker pay will be discussed within the collective bargaining negotiations now taking place between Histadrut negotiators and government officials. If necessary, we will go on strike again, while making every effort not to harm either our workers or the beneficiaries of their services, the small children.”
The strike threat in September and October involved employees of the Na’amat network of daycare centers. With over 260 centers throughout the country, and catering to nearly 18,000 children, the Na’amat network is by far the largest.
Na’amat describes its mission as “advancing and strengthening the status of women in the family, in the work force and in society.” Its website proudly points out that Project Head Start in the United States, which has garnered a great deal of attention, was partly modelled after the way Na’amat centers are run in Israel.
The vast majority of its staff are certified professionals. In addition, 22 of Na’amat’s daycare centers are specialized centers intended to provide secure environments for preschool children who are orphans, have been abused or traumatized by terrorism, live in poverty or have other difficult family situations. These centers are staffed with specialized counselors, teachers, psychologists and teachers trained to work with at-risk children.
Livni tells The Report that she is extremely sympathetic to the Na’amat workers who threatened to strike. “We have extremely highly trained professionals, with 30 years of experience, who are earning less than 4,800 shekels ($1,300) a month,” she says.
But Livni goes on to say that, given constraints imposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Na’amat feels squeezed on all sides. “A business that wishes to raise salaries for its employees is free to raise what it charges for its products or services to compensate for the higher salaries,” she explains. “But we cannot do that because the fees we charge are fixed by the ministry. This places the organizations running the daycare centers in a difficult situation – if we respond to the legitimate claims of our employees, we find ourselves unable to compensate [on the revenue side].
“We have therefore asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to persuade the Finance Ministry to find a way to enable us to pay our employees higher salaries without having the entire burden of the increase fall on parents, who are already bearing heavy fees for daycare. Parents in families of limited means receive some public subsidy for daycare, but a typical middle-class household with two working parents is not eligible, placing a heavy burden on young families, who are already struggling with the heavy cost of starting a family, paying a mortgage on a home they have bought for their family, and so on.”
Na’amat, according to Livni, has suggested to the Treasury that it go beyond limited steps to deal with the latest strike environment, and make pre-K daycare free for all children, just as K-12 education is publicly provided. This, she says, will only enrich the country.
“We have suggested to the Ministry of Trade and Industry that serious consideration be given to universal, public-supported daycare,” says Livni. “This can have a significant impact on the poverty rates in this country. About 68 percent of households below the poverty line have only one breadwinner. If mothers in those households can have access to free daycare, while not being punished for going to work by having that free daycare denied them if they take a job, we can help many families lift themselves out of poverty. This should be regarded not as a subsidy, but as an investment with multiple returns. Hopefully, the subject of the salaries of daycare workers will be raised in public sector wage and salary negotiations.”
Goldhirsch stresses the amount of training a preschool teacher should have by listing what is required of kindergarten teachers. “The kindergartens run by the Education Ministry all have teachers who have at least bachelor’s degrees and have passed specialized training courses in preschool education and child development,” she says. “They all have gone through an apprenticeship period in which they are guided by more experienced kindergarten teachers. Throughout their careers, they are sent to further education courses, perhaps more than teachers at any other level. The skills required of preschool teachers are extremely broad and challenging.”
Livni agrees with the description of the advanced training that working with young children requires, and then notes with a sigh that “it is difficult to draw good and highly trained workers to a job that pays minimum wage. I have for some time wanted to open two new daycare centers in areas with high demand, but have been unable to hire enough workers to do so.”
“We are talking about the most important period in the development of a child,” sums up Livni. “Every child must receive only the best possible care. We as a society should have every reason to support that, for our benefit, and not place the entire burden on young parents.”