While Aussie child care is now subsidised, it is still very expensive and the subsidy is income-related. You need to be working full-time to qualify, but te means test means that the subsidy is minimal if you work full-time.
Back when I was working full-time with three kids in child care, half my income paid the child care bill, the other half paid the mortgage. There was absolutely nothing left of my income to live on; we lived on husband's income, it paid all the other bills including food, utilities, transport, car payments etc.
Our health system is good but we still have private insurance available to beef it up above the bare minimum. I really hope you can get some improvements in health care.
Just a clarification - we don't consider ourselves to have year-round school. For us, the school year has a clear beginning and end, the gap in between school years is between five and six weeks long. I guess it's what you're used to. When I was a kid, I often heard parents complain (every year!) that six weeks' summer holiday was far too long, for kids and for parents. So people will always find something to complain about.
We don't have as man states as the US so you would expect it to be easier for us to have a more nationally coordinated education system. However, our states are still not in line with one another. There are moves to get it there, however. Even our health system is state-administered, despite our nationalised health care.
Whenever there is an inservice for staff, it is done within state. Often we make use of satellite technology with teachers gathering in regional areas rather than travelling to the state capital. Even union meetings are handled via satellite. We don't have many states but the ones we have tend to be big in area, plus our roads aren't great. It's more a matter of timing - conferences, meetings etc can be held at convenient times because of how it all coordinates time-wise.
Those who can, travel. But when large numbers of people are involved, satellite hook-up deals with it.
We also often used the community library as rendezvous. Because we're living virtually on an island (with road access, but it involves a long detour) we often had to make some tricky arrangements with transport. That's why the kids travelled by boat to get to the mainland and further transport to school! And crikey, it sure is cold on the water before sunrise!
[Aside - we were going out to lunch today, had planned to catch the boat. But with gale-force winds expected, we chose to drive instead. It would be just our luck to come out from lunch to find the boat service cancelled for the rest of the day due to high seas whipped up by the gales. It happens often, and during school terms they have to put on a special charter bus to get the kids home, otherwise they'd be stranded.]
I hated school too, as a kid. Absolutely loathed it. I couldn't wait until my school days were behind me. I don't think longer summer holidays would have helped me - knowing my luck, my mother would have found more creative ways to keep me occupied and I STILL would have been miserable!
I'm not sure who it was who said it, but I agree - the problem with education is NOT so much the amount of time allocated to education, it is the way it is put to use. In the time siince difficult child 3 was transferred to Distance Education, I have finally learned what teaching is really supposed to be like. I have seen kids who previously hated school, who weren't coping, who were treated like dirt by teachers, suddenly discover that not only is it possible to enjoy school, but there are teachers out there who enjoy helping them, who teach them about respecting others as well as self-respect, and who make education effective and enjoyable. The amount of lesson time that these kids do is often less than when they were in mainstream; but they are learning more and doing a lot better, because the effort involved (on everybody's part) is much more efficient.
It's like - we've been through purgatory, we've paid our dues, we've endured the worst. Now is our reward in heaven. At least, that's wat it feels like now.
If only all school could be like this (and I don't see why it can't) then the issue of "I hate school" would arise only very rarely. And would be immediately investigated and remedied, by the school staff.
It will be interesting to see what arises from this debate. But I very strongly doubt that it will involve ANY increase in the total annual school hours.
Marg
