Může si ČR dovolit větší investice do předškolní péče?

Steven Saxonberg, Professor of Sociology, Masaryk University (Brno) and Dalarna University (Sweden)

1) Daycare is beneficial for children

2) Daycare is beneficial for mothers and the economy

Arguments

Czech Children at the age of 2 years, 364 days

Child one day later

• Fröbel: kindergartens should take children above 2 because they are old enough to begin playing together

• Church: task to raise obedient children, loyal to the Kaiser. Below 3 cannot understand about evil

The Emergence of Threeness

List of International Scientific Psychological Studies Showing that Chilcdren Should Stay at Home for the First 3 Years

• Normally do not ask the question of the optimal year to begin daycare

• Most studies from Anglo-Saxon countries and Sweden, where there is no discourse about 3-ness

• Andresson’s Swedish study shows that children do best when they begin at 6 months

• Results depend on many factors, such as the quality of daycare, background of the parents, whether it is a “problem family”

International Studies

• Quality matters: Children are less likely to have emotional problems if they attend high-quality daycare, with low child-staff ratios, university-educated teachers, and small groups.

• Family background matters: In the case of high-risk families the child will benefit greatly by entering high-quality daycare at an early age (6-18 months)

• Daycare helps school performance: When infants younger than one year old attend daycare they are likely to develop social, vocabulary and academic skills, but they are also likely to have greater social problems. However, in the long-term these effects are rather weak.

• The Nečas solution is the worst: When babysitters, neighbors and friends take care of the children, the results are much worse than when children attend formal daycare or are taken care of by grandparents

Basic Conclusions

1. Lower risk of child poverty

2. Lack of daycare leads to lower fertility rates

3. Children do better in school and are less likely to drop out if they attended daycare at an early age:

Esping-Andersen cites a study of early childhood programs in the US which shows that if the quality of care is high, then one dollar invested in childcare gives a return of 5.60 dollars. Esping-Andersen adds that this estimate is very conservative, as “more recent estimates suggest a return in excess of $12.00.” However, these studies were for poorer children. The effect is probably not as high for children coming from wealth families

Human Capital Investment

• Children who attend daycare before the age of three are more likely to do well in school and to have better social skills

• It is a long-term investment in human capital with a very high return on investment

Conclusions for Children

• Mothers can compete more equally if do not leave the labor market for 3 years

• The drop in employment among mothers with children under 6 is the highest in the EU

• Our survey of Brno shows that almost 2/3 of mothers were not able to return to their previous jobs after mother leave

• Employers discriminate in hiring because they expect mothers to go on long maternity leaves

• The entire economy functions less efficiently if half the labor force is discriminated against

Influence of Daycare on Mothers/the Economy

1.If mothers return to work more quickly they pay taxes and social insurances to the state budget, which would almost equal the costs of a daycare place

2.The state saves the monthly parental leave payment which also is about the price of a daycare place

3.When mother is on leave, the state must pay her social insurance, which is an added cost

4.Thus even in the short-run daycare is profitable!

Is Daycare for Children under 3 too Expen$ive? A) Direct Effects

1.The multiplier effect: if mothers have higher incomes, they will spend more, which puts more money into circulation in the economy and creates more jobs

2.When the mother goes back to work earlier, then it adds to employment as daycare centers must hire more teachers/childminders

3.Long-term career effects: if the mother returns to work sooner then she will advance more in her career and therefore spend more money and pay higher taxes

B) Indirect Effects

• The main advantage of today’s model is that it supports conservative ideology, so if one thinks that keeping an ideology is more important than the results of the policy, then the policy is acceptable.

• If one thinks that child development, women’s rights and economic development are more important than maintaining an ideology, then today’s policies are a failure.

Conclusions