The Development of the Victorian Municipal Preschool Association

Abstract

The Victorian Municipal preschool Association (VMPSA) was established in 1948 as an outcome of the expansion of kindergarten services into local government in Victoria. A significant player in this process was Dr Vera Scantlebury Brown, the then Director of the Maternal and Infant Welfare Branch of the Health Department. She had argued for many years that the best way to organise preschool activities was through local government, and she devised a municipal plan that recast preschool activity as a normal function of the state rather than a philanthropic activity. The rapid expansion of kindergartens in local government in Victoria after the Second World War echoed this shift of emphasis from philanthropy to education, in the establishment of the VMPSA, and, while it was short-lived in its initial inception, the VMPSA did lay the groundwork for a significant local government involvement in the state's kindergartens.