Premier Dalton McGuinty made a start yesterday on delivering all-day kindergarten provincewide starting in three years, but he acknowledged the money set aside so far for the program isn’t enough.

McGuinty – who first promised full-day kindergarten in his 2003 campaign but didn’t deliver in his first term – yesterday appointed education expert Charles Pascal to develop options the government can follow as it phases in the program across the province over several years.

Right now, about 240,000 children aged 4 and 5 in Ontario go to half-day junior or senior kindergarten and spend the other half of the day at home or in child care. The daylong program would incorporate more learning, which studies suggest will boost children’s math and language skills in later years, McGuinty said.

"We want them to be the best they can be," added McGuinty, who acknowledged the $200 million allotted for 2010 and $300 million for 2011 won’t be enough to open the daylong program to all.

Aside from the learning advantages, the program will help level the playing field for poor families that can’t afford child care, said Pascal, who is executive director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, dedicated to economic and social justice, named after former Toronto Star publisher Joseph Atkinson.

"For the single mother of three kids who’s earning $21,000 a year, this is huge, this is an equalizer," Pascal, who has held a number of education postings, said in an interview after he appeared with McGuinty at Bruce Junior Public School in the east end.

NDP education critic Rosario Marchese said McGuinty’s photo opportunity was a reannouncement and the unclear cost and timing of the program’s phase-in for all children makes it likely the Liberals will be promising it again in the 2011 campaign.

"Why don’t we fix the problem right now?" asked Marchese, MPP for Trinity-Spadina and a former teacher, who said the government should change the law to make kindergarten attendance mandatory.

Pascal said the idea behind the program is to provide "seamless" full-day learning and education-based play for children. Some full-day programs have kindergarten teachers working alongside daycare staff who are accredited early childhood educators. Those early childhood educators hope the program will also be an equalizer for them since they earn about half as much as kindergarten teachers.

"That’s what’s on everybody’s mind," said Eduarda Sousa, executive director of the Association of Early Childhood Educators of Ontario. "The role they play in the classroom is equal."

Pascal’s appointment and the full-day plan were widely hailed in education circles and by Progressive Conservative education critic Frank Klees, who urged him to consider the needs of children with special needs and autism.

"This is absolutely needed," Elizabeth Ablett, executive director of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care, said of the full-day plan.

Pascal is a "perfect fit" for the job because he’s been deeply involved in both education and child care issues," David Clegg, head of the 7,000-member Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, told the Star’s Laurie Monsebraaten.

Pascal said he will not be paid by the province for his work, but the Atkinson Foundation will be reimbursed for his lost time.