Early childhood education as a public good: Challenges and possibilities

This article is premised on a view that early childhood education (ECE) is a public good and a child’s right. As such, there is no place for ECE services to be treated as a private commodity that is bought and sold in the marketplace. Yet, despite policies to transform its ECE system under some enlightened governments, no substantive attempts have been made to shift from a model of marketisation and privatisation in providing ECE. This article discusses recent research on the growth of publicly listed companies in the ECE sector and consequences, whereby financial values and profitmaking are prioritised over education values. ECE services have come to be understood as businesses, competing and selling commodities (“childcare” and “learning”) to parent and child “consumers”. Effects of corporatisation in Aotearoa New Zealand are then exemplified through the authors’ recent research comparing a large kindergarten association with a similar-sized publicly listed ECE company. Differences in the composition of their boards (diversity of ethnicity, gender, age, and representation of parents, staff, and specialists), Education Review Office ratings of services, and payments made to directors are analysed. The article ends by suggesting possibilities for de-privatising ECE in Aotearoa New Zealand