Children and families are among the biggest losers in the current Corona crisis in this country. While everywhere loosening follows loosening, meanwhile even our soccer players pursue their contact sport again and cheer over goals in tight bunches, strict rules still prevail at schools and in kindergartens - with at times dramatic consequences for young families. Because on the one hand mommy and daddy are supposed to boost the economy and consumption, but on the other hand have to make up for the fact that their children are only looked after every other day and only by the hour - not to mention the summer. Without a corresponding Corona rescue package, of course.
Yet the pandemic only intensifies a problem that was already there before: The patchy childcare in Vorarlberg. The reasons for this unfortunately are the lack of political will and political flexibility. Take funding guidelines, for example: It is not effective to only fund childcare places for children from the same municipality, as is customary in Vorarlberg. What about, for example, in communities with a strong economy whose employees might prefer to place their little ones near their workplace? Larger companies are often left to their own devices when they want to create their own childcare facilities, and often end up paying for it. Other Austrian states are much more advanced in this respect: In Styria, for example, playgroups or music lessons can be organised across communities and still get full support. Why is this happening so slowly here in the West?
A year ago, the Austrian Federation of Industries, with support from the Chamber of Commerce and numerous employer and employee representatives, set up a task force that is now needed more urgently than ever before and is tackling this challenge. Its goals are not only to improve the quantity and quality of care, but also to optimise responsibilities and funding and to create greater awareness of the issue overall. To achieve this, the task force is campaigning - among other things - for a Vorarlberg-wide regulation for childcare and kindergartens and for a clear concept in education and care services - in the upcoming summer and beyond.
Children are our future. And not only as consumers, but above all as value creators - in the form of employees and entrepreneurs -, volunteers, creative initiators and not least as voters. Let's finally give them the attention they deserve at the state level - that's the only way to make us the most opportunity-rich living space for children!
