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Around 11 private and 40 community-based early childhood education services in Wairarapa are to get boosts in funding.
Wairarapa MP Georgina Beyer says details now emerging from the $307 million Budget 2004 package over the next four years show benefits for those providing early childhood services for their communities or as businesses.
"The real winners are Wairarapa families with young children. Getting our kids in to a local early childhood education facility, and being able to afford it, is a crucial first step on the education ladder," says Ms Beyer.
"The research confirms what we've always known - children who get an early start to regular, high quality education are more likely to do well later in life."
The $307 million from Budget 2004 will from 2007 provide for free early childhood education for three or four year-olds at teacher-led community-based centres.
The budget also funds across the board improvements in the quality of early childhood education.
Almost half the money will go to private centres, of which there are over a thousand across the country and 11 in the Wairarapa electorate, with these businesses able to provide more access for children and be more affordable for parents.
The government is also increasing the subsidies parents can claim to help meet the costs of childcare for pre-school care and out of school care.
Existing subsidy rates rise in October this year and again next year and will be available to 28,000 more families nationally earning higher incomes.
New childcare coordinators are being employed to ensure eligible families know what assistance they can receive and to help them gain the extra assistance.
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