A petition has been launched in Tangambalanga for the region's only locally-run kindergarten to be included in the Victorian government's promise for free kinder during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Parents were left angry when they were invoiced for term 3, while families at other centres were covered by the government.
Kiewa Valley Kindergarten owner Jane Elkington said the centre educates 58 children across 4-year-old and 3-year-old programs, but missed out on the funding because of a loophole.
The funding was limited to community-based, local government and school providers in order to exclude long daycare providers who run in-house kinder programs.
"We operate our kinder as a community service, so when the government announced 'free kinder' we didn't think there would be fine print that would deny our families the same funding as the rest of Victorians," Ms Elkington said.
"We lost $27,000 last term and as a small operation, that has hit really hard. We've had to invoice our families to try and stay afloat but they're rightfully asking why they don't get access to the promised 'free kinder' and we don't have an answer."
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Northern Victoria MP Tania Maxwell has written to the Education Minister and sponsored the petition, saying she was hopeful the government would recognise this was a service that had fallen between the cracks.
"Small towns like Tangambalanga and the Elkington family worked hard to establish their own kindergarten and it would be tragic if it were forced to close," she said.
"Families in this region have suffered enormous hardship this year due to bushfires, coronavirus restrictions and border closures.
"This is another blow for a community already hurting."
