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Polls: Finns would curtail daycare rights - but not cut education budgets

Most Finns said that families with at least one parent at home don't have a subjective right to daycare for kids. Skimping on education, meanwhile, was seen as the worst way to cut public spending.

Suomalaislapsia on rokotettu tuhkarokkoa vastaan vuodesta 1975. Kuvassa on menossa päiväkodin tanssihetki Kangasalla.
Tuhkarokko kuuluu kaikkein tarttuvimpien virusten joukkoon. Suomalaislapsia on rokotettu tuhkarokkoa vastaan vuodesta 1975. Ennen rokotusten käyttöönottoa käytännössä kaikki sairastivat tuhkarokon lapsena. Kuvassa on meneillään tanssihetki päiväkodissa Kangasalla. Image: Mika Kanerva / Yle

A pair of surveys released Tuesday give an indication of how Finns are reacting to the government's austerity plans. According to one poll, most people do not consider children's childcare to be a basic right for stay-at-home parents.

In a Taloustutkimus survey published by the Lännen Media newspaper group, 88 percent of respondents agreed that the subjective right to daycare could be limited for families where at least one parent is at home.

On the other hand, just over half of those polled disagree with the government's aim of expanding the size of daycare groups for children above age three as a way to save money.

Don’t cut schooling

Meanwhile another survey suggests that Finns think that cuts in education are the worst of the savings proposed by the new cabinet.

Twenty-three percent of people questioned in the Helsingin Sanomat/TNS Gallup poll said that education, science and culture should be off-limits for any cuts. One in five said the same about social and healthcare services, while 12 percent would ringfence internal security expenditures.

Just over a thousand Finns were interviewed for each poll, the LM poll in late May and the HS survey in late May and early June.

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