Parents will now have to fork out as much as $50 a week to send a child to Wagga's only public preschool under state government changes to a once free system.
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Starting last week, parents must now pay $10 a day for their child to attend Bimbi Preschool - which is attached to Tolland Public School - or $5 if their child is of Aboriginal or Torres Straight Islander heritage.
Even if the family holds a Commonwealth Health Care Card they will still be charged $1 a day under the 2012 fee schedule.
The fees are small compared to what has been implemented in Sydney where many parents will now have to pay $40 a day for their child to attend a public preschool.
The consequences of this decision for the 40 children who go to Bimbi preschool at any one time could be severe according to Angels of the Fogotten CEO Melina Skidmore.
Ms Skidmore who works within the Tolland area helping people under her charity said it was sad that such an important service for vulnerable people was now going to cost money.
"That much out of your income is hard - most of the clients who live out in Tolland are probably on pensions," she said.
"Parents will end up taking their child out of preschool and that is detrimental to their development.
"Preschool should be like a state school - it's our children's right."
When the government's decision to implement public preschool fees was initially revealed in the state budget Minister for Education Adrian Piccoli told The Daily Advertiser it wasn't to inject more funds back into the current system.
He said the reason behind the decision was to bring public preschool funding in line with community preschools.
A single mother interviewed at that time the news broke said she would have to take her child out of the preschool when the fees were implemented.
