PPTA Urges Nats To Boost Public Schools Spending

Boost spending in public schools

Secondary teachers are urging the National Party not to move away from its plans to ditch salaries bulk-funding and to reconsider moves to boost public funding of private schools, PPTA president Robin Duff said today.

Mr Duff said increased funding for public schools was more urgent.

“Any increase to the funding of private schools can only be money taken away from the public sector which desperately needs it and will only result in parents paying out even more in donations to prop up their schools.

Research PPTA commissioned earlier in the year highlighted three major concerns of parents: the lack of individual attention for their children, student behaviour and the concern that schools’ energies were being sucked dry by compliance and bureaucracy.

“If the National Party wants to make a difference for New Zealand families it would make more impact by putting more resources into our public schools to reduce the size of classes, and support schools to deal with difficult student behaviour and the requirements of the NCEA.”

Mr Duff said there was scant evidence internationally to suggest that boosting public spending of private schools improved student achievement across the board.

Rather, in countries where private ownership and funding of private schools had increased a two tier system of schooling had developed with public schooling falling behind because public resources had been shifted to the private sector.

“There is no clearer illustration than in Australia where some 70% of federal government funds are directed to private and integrated schools that educate 30% of the population.

“Recent research shows that public schools in Australia are under funded by about $3 billion per year. Rather than provide them the resources they desperately need their prime minister John Howard continually denigrates the value and strength of public schools by saying they should merely guarantee a ‘reasonable quality’ of education.”

“High quality education should be available to all, not a privilege to a few.”

Mr Duff said there was no guarantee that increasing funding for private schools would make them any less exclusive as fees still increased in the 1990s when private school funding was last increased.

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