Budget 2018 is an excellent one for schools, but the best thing about it is the joined-up approach to improving outcomes for children and families.

The direct support for education through improved operational funding, provision for additional teacher aide funding, recognition for Early Childhood and other improvements to learning support in particular are all very welcome. They will be all the more effective for being supported by other initiatives to remove some of the barriers to learning like housing conditions and access to healthcare that have affected too many of our children over recent years.

"It does feel as if boards of trustees, parents and school staff have been heard in this budget," says NZSTA President Lorraine Kerr.

"The government has branded this budget as "Foundations for the future" and that is exactly what it appears to deliver. There is a clear sense of better days coming for education, and more importantly for our children and young people.

"So long as these new funds really do end up at the coalface and not gobbled up within the Ministry of Education or elsewhere, we are looking at a really sound platform for bringing our education system back to the top of its game."

NZSTA is working on its own analysis of Budget 2018 for its member boards, as it does each year.

"There’s still a lot of detail to process, but we are very pleased with what we’re seeing.

"Congratulations to Ministers Hipkins, Davis, Martin and Salesa. In fact, congratulations to this government. People do matter."

ENDS

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