Description:
Today only 71% of BC children arrive at kindergarten meeting all the developmental benchmarks they need to thrive both now and in the future: 29% are developmentally vulnerable. This means that nearly one in three B.C. kindergarten children are at risk of failing to develop into the healthy, well-educated, innovative and productively-employed adults we need to secure our long-term economic sustainability.
For the past decade, HELP has monitored the state of B.C. children in kindergarten. Challenging the long-held notion that a rising tide will simply lift all boats, early vulnerability increased during the recent period of economic growth in B.C., rising from 26 per cent of kindergarten children in 2004 to 29 per cent in 2007, where it remains according to 2009 data.
B.C. suffers unnecessarily high early vulnerability across income classes because it is relying on old thinking to address 21st Century issues. In the absence of an early learning and child-care system, public policy in B.C. and much of Canada remains nostalgic for a time when some women stayed home to rear young children while some men served as sole breadwinners on behalf of their families.
The government of B.C. has committed to lowering the provincial rate of early vulnerability to 15% by fiscal year 2015. This goal is both commendable and achievable. With support from the Business Council of British Columbia, United Way of the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Foundation, HELP has completed a groundbreaking research project that quantifies the costs and benefits of addressing early vulnerability in BC. The resulting report 15 by 15: A Comprehensive Policy Framework for Early Human Capital Investment in BC dramatically illustrates why all of us - individuals, businesses and governments - should care about the real brain drain in BC today resulting from early vulnerability.