Alliance Party says public schools face hard times as private sector gets handouts

Alliance Party media release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday 24 March 2009

In a time when New Zealand's schools are crying out for funding it is appalling the Government is giving handouts to private schools, says Alliance education spokesperson Richard Mitchell. 



The recent announcement that the Government is preparing to inject $10 million into private schools just goes to show how wrong the National/ACT government's priorities are.

Mr Mitchell says Associate Education Minister Heather Roy's claim that private schools appear to be "a benchmark for quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness" is nonsense, because private schools can pick and choose who can attend them.

He says public schools do not have that luxury and must try and teach all those who attend their school, regardless of their background or parental income.



“Every dollar that the government gives to a private school is a dollar that is not going to the public schools."

Mr Mitchell says it looks like the ACT Party had seized control of education policy in the new Government and would aggressively push for "welfare for the wealthy."

"The agenda will be to run public schools down so that private business can move into profitable areas."



The Alliance would eliminate public funding for private schools and the money saved would be put back into the public sector.

The Alliance would also increase funding to New Zealand's schools to enable them to eliminate "fees" and reduce class sizes to a maximum of 20.

ENDS

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