The locally-owned and run kindergarten service in Tangambalanga is under threat of closure after missing out on the Victorian Government’s much publicised ‘free kinder’ funding.

In April, the Victorian Government announced $45 million in funding to support sessional kindergarten providers and their families survive through Term 2 lockdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.  In August, the Premier announced an extension of the funding for Term 3.

The funding was limited to community-based, local government and school providers in order to exclude long daycare providers who run in-house kinder programs.  Families who send their children to a kinder program through long daycare receive the Child Care Subsidy.

The Tangambalanga community went for years without a locally run kindergarten until local family (Jane, Tamara and Hayley Elkington) developed and opened Kiewa Valley Kindergarten to provide this vital early education to their local children.  In January the family took over management from the Kiewa Valley School and faithfully refurbished the building that they lease from the education department.

The Kiewa Valley Kindergarten is a stand-alone, dedicated kinder that educates 58 children across 4 year old and 3 year old programs.  The service does not attract a Child Care Subsidy from the Federal Government.

A loophole meant Kiewa Valley Kindergarten missed out on the extended sessional funding from the Victorian Government, which left them $27,000 out of pocket in term 2.

The kinder has had to invoice families for Term 3 in order to stay afloat, which has angered local families and left the financial certainty of the kindergarten in doubt.

Jane Elkington has started a petition to urge the Government to provide an exemption and has enlisted the help of Member for Northern Victoria, Tania Maxwell to take her plea to the Education Minister.

Tania Maxwell wrote to the Education Minister last week and sponsored the petition, saying she was hopeful the Government would recognise this was a service that ‘fell between the cracks’ and resolve the issue.

Quotes by Tania Maxwell MP

“Small towns like Tangambalanga and the Elkington family have worked hard to establish their own kindergarten and it would be tragic if it were forced to close.”

“Families in this region have suffered enormous hardship this year due to bushfires, coronavirus restrictions and border closures. This is another blow for a community already hurting.”

Quotes attributable to Jane Elkington (Kiewa Valley Kindergarten):

 “We operate our kinder as a community service, so when the Government announced ‘free kinder’ we didn’t think there would be fine print that would deny our families the same funding as the rest of Victorians.”

“Our community went for years without a locally run kindergarten.  We lost $27,000 last term and as a small operation, that has hit really hard. We’ve had to invoice our families to try and stay afloat but they’re rightfully asking why they don’t get access to the promised ‘free kinder’ and we don’t have an answer for them.”