Giving Compass' Take:

• Quebec offers parents support in the form of free childcare, but since government-run institutions have long waiting lists, they also offer subsidies to put children into private daycares. These facilities do not have the same level of oversight resulting in inequitable quality of care. 

• How can this system be improved? How can other areas create programs that do not create unequal access to early education? 

• Learn more about the importance of early childhood education. 

The Canadian province of Quebec is two decades into a policy experiment that provides generous parental leave, monthly cash benefits families can use for their children, and a heavily subsidized child-care system.

Quebec’s full-day, year-round child-care program for all children under 5, which the province annually subsidizes with roughly $2 billion in public funding. Quebec families cover part of the costs on a sliding scale, with the wealthiest families paying around $17 per day for their first child. In 2016, nearly 300,000 children were enrolled in the province’s system.

But just because the program is “universal” does not mean it is uniform. A plurality of the province’s young children attend centres de la petite enfance (CPE)—publicly subsidized, nonprofit child-care centers that collect small daily fees. Families apply through a centralized lottery system. But funding limitations mean CPEs can’t serve everyone who wants their services.

So, in 2003, provincial leaders created a tax credit that reimburses families for up to 75 percent of tuition at private child-care centers and home-based care options. This new option helped ease Quebec’s child-care-undersupply problem for more families.

As part of a 2014 government study, observers rated the CPEs considerably higher than they did private providers across a range of factors, including teachers’ interactions with infants, the facilities, and educational programming.

Read the full article about quality childcare by Conor Williams at The Atlantic.