With time over the long weekend to reflect on Budget 2019, NZSTA is convinced that this Budget is genuinely transformative.

Budget 2019 ("The Wellbeing Budget) marks a step change in the way governments prioritise and evaluate the effect of government decision-making on people’s lives, including education.

What’s changed is not just on the surface, but the whole process of valuing our children, our communities and how we contribute to a healthy society and a healthy economy. NZSTA has no doubt that the significance of these changes will become increasingly obvious over time.

"For years - decades even - we’ve been seeing schools trying to hold back the tide of things that just aren’t working for our students right across society. For years it hasn’t worked. For years we’ve been saying that schools can’t do this alone. This budget gives me faith that finally we’re not going to have to," says NZSTA President Lorraine Kerr.

"We’ve got used to the idea that each year it’s going to be same meat, different gravy - nothing’s really going to change, it’s just going to get a bit of a spruce-up or a different name. This feels like the start of something different."

New Zealand has been underinvesting in our education system for decades. Fixing that will take more than one or two Budget cycles.

"The thing about transition is that if you don’t understand the bigger picture it can feel directionless and as if nothing’s happening," Lorraine says. "You work harder and harder for less and less effect. That’s when it’s time to stop and evaluate what you have been doing and what you’re trying to achieve, and move on to something that will move you forward.

"This is not a magic wand - but there isn’t one. Anyone who tells you different is living in a fairytale. We’ve got to stop looking for the easy fix and commit to the long haul instead. Real transformation takes time."

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