ELAA in the media

ELAA Director - Advocacy and Member Solutions, Megan O'Connell, was interviewed on 7 News this evening responding to the Federal Educations Minister, Jason Clare’s, comments that Australia needs a national overhaul of its education system starting at ECEC.

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Megan O’Connell ELAA’s Director of Advocacy and Member Solutions featured on Channel Ten’s The Project to discuss the Productivity Commission reviewing that families that earn up to $80,000 will be eligible for a 90% Child Care Subsidy (CCS). This supports ELAA’s advocacy for all children and families to access affordable, quality early education, whilst also boosting productivity and increasing women’s opportunities to reenter the workforce.  

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The news story asked Australians on the street if they believe that Early Childhood Education and Care should be universal and free or not. Some supported the idea that early years should be government funded, whilst others expressed that those from a higher socio-economic status should pay more.  

“Just like we do with schools we don’t make parents who earn a significant amount of money pay for school, nor do we make them pay for healthcare, they can if they want a different offering, but all children have a right to education.” – Megan O’Connell responding to if ECEC should be free for high income families.  

Megan addressed the infrastructure and workforce limitations that the sector faces and advocated for a higher rumination for ECEC workers to make universal Child Care an achievable goal.  

“…the interesting thing about early childhood education is by funding that as a government and enabling children to grow and develop you also enable parents to work. So straight away you have the economic benefit of parents, particularly mums, get to go back to work and work more days.”  

Megan O’Connell is a leader in education policy and practice for over 20 years. She has played pivotal roles across government, not-for-profit and university sectors, with a focus on supporting children and young people to engage and thrive in education. Megan draws together data and evidence to create powerful narratives, highlight and address policy problems, and build coalitions of stakeholders. 

While it’s best practice to address issues of underperformance in a timely manner, these conversations can be complex for early childhood education and care (ECEC) leaders, and can be a pain point for many. The Early Learning Association Australia (ELAA) has released a number of tip sheets and tools which have been collated into a Managing Performance Related Concerns (MPRC) resource.

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