When it comes to investing in early childhood education, the federal government should put its money in non-profit day care rather than commercial centres, suggests a new study.

The study of 325 day cares across Canada found that non-profit childcare centres on average scored 10 per cent higher than their for-profit counterparts.

One enthusiastic parent in Toronto agreed.

"If I had my druthers, my son would stay here until he was 40," Ruth Warren said. "This daycare is so fabulous."

"Non-profits and for-profits are apples and oranges, and the decision that federal and provincial government need to make is do they want apples or oranges educating our children," Gordon Cleveland, a University of Toronto professor and co-author of the study, told CTV News on Monday.

Sylvain Levesque of the Canadian Child Care Management Association took issue with the findings, saying the study was "completely unfair."

For-profit daycare managers say they don't get as much government money as non-profit daycare, which makes any comparison questionable.

University of Toronto professor Michael Krashinsky, the co-author of the study, said they found the same results even when they controlled for differences between the two, such as funding.

"Even after we controlled for the resource advantage that non-profits have, we still found that they were better," Krashinsky told CTV.ca.

Krashinsky notes that while there may be good commercial centres, the bulk of those studied in this case fell into the mediocre category, while the majority of the non-profit centres rated as above average.

Part of the reason is that non-profit centres don't have an incentive to divert surplus money into profits. "So that's more money to spend on childcare," Krashinsky said.

More money is also spent on workers at non-profit centres, which the study found resulted in higher-quality care.

"It's not flashier toys or better murals. It's the people working in the centres that account for quality," Krashinsky said.

The study comes at a time when the federal government is negotiating a national childcare program with the provinces and territories. Ottawa has promised to spend $5 billion over five years on an early-childhood education system.

Krashinsky says if the government is concerned about quality "the money has to be spent in the non-profit sector."

He was supported in that view by Kira Heineck of the Ontario Coalition for Better Childcare.

"It can't be denied that if they design a not-for-profit system they will get a better return on taxpayers' dollars.  I think that's important for them and it's important to your average Canadian," she told CTV News.

Economists Krashinsky and Cleveland analyzed data collected in 1998 from several hundred day-care centres across six provinces -- Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and the Yukon.

A seven-point scale was used to assess classroom conditions that impact child development, such as meals and rest, diapering, furnishings, learning activities, and interaction between children and staff.

The researchers found that differences in quality between non-profit and commercial centres were greatest when it came to four specific areas:

• Personal care with children, such as diapering and meals
• The materials used that helped with language and thought development
• The way staff interacted with children
• Communication between parents and staff

With a report from CTV's Scott Laurie