11 March 2005
Our Schools Need More Money

The Greens are supporting a New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) bumper sticker campaign, launched today, calling for an increase in funding for schools.

“Schools simply aren’t getting enough money from the Government,” Green Education Spokesperson Metiria Turei said. “One of the reasons the NCEA has been so poorly implemented is that schools don’t have adequate funding to ensure the new system works properly.”

NZSTA has estimated that parents raise about half a billion dollars a year for schools to supplement the Government’s operational grant funding of $900 million.

“We support 100 percent NZSTA’s call for greater government funding. The current lack of government funding is choking the education system, placing greater and greater burdens on to parents.”

Mrs Turei said there was a broad consensus of opinion emerging – from groups such as the Quality Public Education Coalition – that our schools are under-funded.

“The Government must face up to this problem and announce how it plans to tackle what is becoming a funding crisis.

“The school fees now demanded of parents are causing great hardship for many low- and middle-income New Zealanders, and is eroding the public nature of our compulsory education sector.

“The lack of government funding has also lead to an increase in export education. This is diverting attention in our primary and secondary education sectors away from the provision of public education and on to the raising of funds from international students.”

ENDS

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