Living in poverty is the thing that hurts children more than anything else
However technology has made massive changes to how education can be delivered. Throwing money on childcare shrinks the already tightly squeezed pot. Which means less access for fewer people if funds are diverted away from the actual delivery point.
There exists a huge network of free and highly subsidised forms of access to education which allows people in a massive range of difficult contexts to access learning, certification and create the solid foundation required to go on to higher levels of study. And people don't seem to know about it. I'd rather some of the withheld childcare funds were spent raising awareness of the fuller range of possibilities beyond what happens to be on offer in the institute up the road. We don't have to have our educational opportunities defined by geography and "set classtime" constraints in the way it used to be.
Helping children in poverty is a numbers game. Not everybody will complete their studies successfully. Not everybody will translate education into OK paid employment. And as of yet we don't have crystal balls that allow us to accurately predict who will translate investment into a net gain, and who will end up not following through despite a significant investment. If numbers are restricted because money has to be diverted from delivery and directly involved resources (textbooks in electronic or paper form) then fewer children will potentially benefit from being lifted out of poverty. Finite resources means finite places. I vote for more places given that we do have delivery modes that permit alternative routes around roadblocks to access.
Multiply the total cost of childcare per child by X number of children for Y number single parents returning to education and it will not be a negligible amount when compared to how many additional subsidised (fees etc.) places could be provided for the same investment.
And you cannot ignore that one of the greatest gifts a parent can give their child is to show them a successful model of facing challenges, seeking self created solutions, doggedly chipping away or around roadblocks and refusing to be defeated at first refusal. Particularly when it comes to modelling attitudes towards education. Education alone cannot provide all the answers. The "personal outlook" attitudes it encourages to bloom and develop are a fundamental part of the package that leads to successful completion and a translation into real world application of skills and knowledge gained.
Roadblocks are only going to get bigger for future generations. They will face a Tsunami like challenge from opportunity-hungry nations where technology will offer educational access that has never been possible before. Those people will not be sitting back and complaining they aren't getting funded childcare. I've watched what happens in the MOOC environment as a participant. The "never been spoon fed anything ever" truly opportunity-hungry make short work of the challenges that some of us flop about in the face of ... and leave us in the dust. That is the competition of the future, for work, investment and opportunities of every kind.
In the face of that kind of drive and well honed, problem solving skills, what hope for those of us who were taught that it is somebody else's job to smooth each and every roadblock that stands between them and their goals ?
It is not a question of not helping, refusing second chances and saying "well you should have thought about that before". That doesn't make sense given that genies don't go back in bottles. But how we frame easing people into accessing education and training will influence attitudes towards opportunities, attitudes which are going to have to move forward and be able to compete in a very different age compared to what we have been used to.
Lets face it. It's not just education that will continue to morph and take advantage of the freedom from geographical constraints that technology offers. Many sectors of employment are going to continue to look at developing ways in which they too can free themselves of the small pond of talent in one locality and instead allow themselves to pick and choose from the massive ocean of talent scattered all over the globe.
Yesterday's solutions are not the best foot forward in preparing people for the challenges and opportunities of today's and tomorrow's world. They just aren't.