Changes to decile funding ignore the real issue

Changes to decile funding ignore the real issue

13 November 2014

News that the school decile funding system will be reviewed ignores the real issue in primary school resourcing – a 7.5% reduction in funding between 2013 and 2018.

CTU economic analysis of the 2014 Budget showed a continuing fall in government expenditure as a proportion of the size of the economy, from 33.0 percent of GDP in the year to June 2013, down to 29.9 percent in the year to June 2018. Forecasts for Education, after taking into account price rises and student numbers, show Early Childhood Education spending falling 6.9 percent in real terms between 2013 and 2018, Primary 7.5 percent, Secondary 3.1 percent and Tertiary 8.7 percent.

Education Minister Hekia Parata has repeatedly hinted at replacing decile funding with funding linked to student achievement, but NZEI Te Riu Roa says any review of school funding must increase the overall investment in schools and increase all children's ability to access high quality public education.

Regardless of decile, all schools struggle to stretch their funding to meet the needs of all students, and funding needs to increase across the board, NZEI President Judith Nowotarski says. New Zealand spends less than the OECD average on primary education for each child and the CTU economic analysis shows that education spending is dropping in real terms.

“We need to lift real funding in the sector, before changing the way the funding is delivered,” she said.

Ms Nowotarski said the fact that National Standards results aligned almost perfectly with schools’ decile ratings, showed that the socio-economic background of families was by far the biggest factor in educational outcomes. Rather than scrapping decile funding, a more sophisticated and fine-grained approach to linking funding to socio-economic status was needed, she said.

ENDS

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