Submission #2355

I am an elementary school teacher, and the mother of a child attending a registered daycare center. When my son was a year old, there were no spots available in registered centers. I called hundreds of centers weekly to try and get a spot. During this time, I did a lot of thinking about how our Early Learning Centers relate directly to our K-12 public system. Our culture expects a general maternity leave of 1 year. That means our children need care from age 1, not from age 5. These systems are connected. I also know that cutting personnel at the public school level would be detrimental to students. We heard from Alberta teachers recently how impactful student/teacher ratios really are. I understand that the government is telling us there needs to be cuts. But education is not the place to do this. It is already underfunded.