(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The Labor Party is now investing in brushing the dust off of old proposals for full daycare and free core time for all children in Norway.
It is astonishing to many that the Stoltenberg government has begun to talk about everything they will do for families with children from kindergartens to secondary schools.
In the last couple of weeks, they have been throwing daycare places for desperate parents looking for a place to have their children – while they themselves work to be able to pay increased VAT, fees and loans. But parents are not only concerned with the care of their children, they want a good and proper offer, and they deserve it.
For more than ten years, the Labor Party has been improving for families with children. The kindergarten will be better and cheaper. Norway has the absolute most expensive daycare offer in our part of the world. Sweden manages to get a daycare offer for less than NOK 2000 per child. They have no oil, but several inhabitants. In the west, we have 45.000 Faroese – as a middle-class Norwegian city – with kindergarten places for less than 2000 kroner a month. They build their entire economy on the fish in the sea.
Norway has the money, but so far no majority in the Storting has been willing to bet on the smallest citizens. And now the Stoltenberg government will come up with yet another Ap-twist in connection with an election campaign. They have promised full daycare, but to date they have been nowhere near fulfilling.
For more than 10 years, the Labor Party has promised children's families kindergartens to those in need. The result after all these years is that kindergartens are now being closed down in numbers across the country. And parents despair because they don't care for the little ones while they work. The Labor Party itself has been in government offices for most of these years.
But it is to be hoped, and pressure will be put on the government to provide a lasting guarantee for the kindergarten initiative. In order to get a proper boost for the kindergartens, the politicians must fulfill two things, and it is first and foremost a good and proper offer that follows the laws and rules that govern the kindergartens – that is, the kindergarten law. Then money must be on the table that enables the municipalities to offer what the Storting and the government will impose on them.
It is enticing with four hours of core time in the kindergarten for all children. But this is impossible today. There are not enough kindergartens and educators. Many municipalities have for several years laid down places and kindergartens. And educators are disappearing into other, better-paying professions. Perhaps politicians will give up Norway's most important tool in children's policy, the Kindergarten Act. It imposes strict requirements on day care centers, and other laws and regulations could also put a stop to children being pushed into rooms that cannot accommodate more than 15-18 children. And these places are today occupied by children.
In order to bind the government to keep the promises they have made, something concrete must come to the table during the spring. Minister of Finance Karl Eirik Schjøtt-Pedersen must provide a significant amount to the municipalities in the Municipal Finance Bill to be considered this spring – well in advance of the election.
There, the first signal must come that the government will do something for the kindergartens and not again use this as a lure to get the votes.
And when the first money is in place comes the most important thing. What offer is the children to get and are you willing to take the cost of a proper offer.
The question is whether you can afford not to focus on the children now. They are the future, and deserve better than being used as election meat – again.
