Roadshow launching to stop Government bulk funding proposal

7 October 2016

NZEI Te Riu Roa and the PPTA are launching an education bus tour in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch next week to raise awareness of the Government’s proposed radical reforms to school funding and the chronic underfunding of schools and early childhood services.

More than 100 schools and early childhood centres nationwide will be visited by the Better Funding Better Learning roadshow. Educators will be talking to parents at drop off and pick up times about why children’s education needs more investment.

At some of the largest union meetings in recent history, more than 37,000 NZEI Te Riu Roa and PPTA members voted overwhelmingly to campaign to stop the Government’s proposal to reintroduce bulk funding. Ninety-nine percent of educators attending meetings voted to reject the bulk funding proposal because it increases inequity in education, risks increasing class sizes and a narrowing of curriculum.

“Bulk funding is far from off the agenda, and the timing of the roadshow coincides with a looming Cabinet decision on Hekia Parata’s proposed overhaul of education funding,” says NZEI Te Riu Roa President Louise Green.

“This roadshow is about educators connecting with parents and school communities about why we need to stop bulk funding and unite to win better funding to ensure better learning for kids.

She said bulk funding is an easy way for a Government to reduce education spending but devolve the hard decisions about cuts to schools at the chalkface.

“We are already seeing this with the Government’s freeze on the school operations grant, which funds support staff salaries and other general operating costs, and which has been frozen this year. Recent analysis of the 2016 operations grant shows that a majority of schools will be worse off when inflation is taken into account.

“Meanwhile, bulk funding in Early Childhood Education has also been frozen for five years in real terms, with services now under huge financial pressure to cut qualified teachers and increase group sizes.

“The quality of our children’s education shouldn’t be put at further risk from underfunding and flawed funding models. We need to restore full funding for quality teaching in early childhood, and at least an inflation increase to the operations grant to ensure schools have enough money to cover basic running costs, and to pay and keep on support staff who are funded from this allocation.

“No parent wants larger class sizes or fewer teachers for their kids. Our campaign is about valuing education and ensuring there is better funding to deliver the best education possible for New Zealand kids.”

Starting on 10 October, three buses in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will become mobile billboards for Better Funding, and set up outside selected schools and ECE services before and after school. The three-week tour will also take in Hamilton, Rotorua, Tauranga, Palmerston North and Whanganui.

Educators will speak with parents and encourage them to sign the NZEI/PPTA postcards to the Minister of Education, rejecting bulk funding and calling for better funding of education.

The bus tour road show will be launched simultaneously at 8am, Monday 10 Oct at:

Karori West Normal School, Wellington

May Road School, Mt Roskill, Auckland

Halswell School, Christchurch

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