Final Version May 5 07

57
respectively, and $14,286 for assistant teachers in New Brunswick; these salaries were all
below the poverty line (Doherty et al., 2000).
Early Learning and Care in the City, a joint report from George Brown College
and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, presents an illustration of the “wagebrain
mismatch,” which demonstrates that compensation does not reflect the critical stage
of child development that early childhood teachers influence. Amongst the various
sectors within the education spectrum, wages increase proportionately with the age of the
learner but brain plasticity lessens. At the bottom salary scale is the early childhood
educator who teaches at the time of the highest brain plasticity (Cooke et al., 2004, p.17).
Research evidence from developmental science and neuroscience consistently emphasize
that a child’s earliest experiences set the stage for lifelong learning, behaviour and health
(Cooke et al., 2004). With recognition of the importance of the early years on later school
success now recognized and supported by research (Leithwood, Fullan, & Watson, 2003),
it is clear that compensation is not commensurate with brain plasticity. In fact, “inequities
in salaries and benefits as well as professional and public recognition drain early
childhood educators from child care environments” (Cooke et al., 2004, p.17).
Without additional funding, child care remains the responsibility of parents,
making it distinct from health care or education. Only one province, Quebec, publicly
funds the major costs of the service offering child care to parents at a nominal daily fee.
In other provinces there is a patchwork of subsidies and tax deductions for child care,
with some funding of the regulated sector through small operating grants. “This
hodgepodge of subsidies across Canada means the wages and working conditions of