The cost of what the Budget doesn’t address will cost us all in the long run

The recent Federal Budget offers a solution to the cost of childcare for families, which will be a welcome relief for many families who are struggling with the cost of living. However, it does not deal with the elephant in the room, the lack of educators.

Whilst some recent state policies are designed to encourage people to study to become early childhood educators (ECEs), the efforts are costly, long term and do not address chronic attrition. In other words, they are using a sieve to bail out the sinking boat. Our 2021 international study revealed the reasons why educators are staying in the sector (protective factors), and why they leave (risk factors). Before the pandemic, there was a delicate balance between the two, but since the pandemic, the risk factors are higher.