12 February 2013
School Trustees Question Treasury's Motives
Wellington Wairarapa School Trustees Association have concerns that, as was the case with last year’s class size
debacle, Treasury are calling the shots over public education, says Chris Toa, Chairperson, WWSTA.
Despite no mandate to do so, and a clear message from the people of the 1990s, Treasury have indicated a preference for
bulk funding in schools. It was revealed last week, in documents released under the Official Information Act, that it
was Treasury’s plan to prioritise radical workplace reform in education, including bulk funding of teachers' salaries.
Bulk funding risks yet another nail in the coffin of public schooling in New Zealand., warns Mr Toa. School Boards of
Trustees under financial pressure would find themselves considering the cost of employing a teacher over the quality or
experience of that teacher. It would be a case of the poor getting poorer while the rich got richer. Salaries funded in
the present system mean that even the schools facing the most challenges amongst their student body can attract, and pay
for, the very best of the teaching community. It creates a degree of equity that bulk funding would destroy.
“The bulk funding move follows the debacle over class sizes, also driven by Treasury. You would have to wonder if they
have had a hand in Novopay too” asks Mr Toa. A clear picture is emerging of unjustified attack on the public school
system, at the same time propping up certain financially unviable private schools by manipulating their status to allow
public funding. The Education Amendment Bill, currently being considered, would take the next step of taxpayers funding
Charter Schools who may act without the constraints, measures and legislation present in the public system.
It may suit a National government (and their close associates in the business world) to destabilize public schooling in
New Zealand to the point that any parent able to, will opt to pay for private schooling, thus reduce the total number of
students, schools and teachers funded in the public system, but it is unlikely to suit the most vulnerable in our
society and the fair-minded of us, states Mr Toa. “Trustees believe in a publicly funded education system and every
child in New Zealand having the ability to access that quality education. That’s why they stand to be on school boards.”
ENDS