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Viewpoint of Kate Gainsford, President of the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA), regarding a changed and lesser funding mechanism for wharekura.
April 2010
Choice in education “means the existing state schools run the risk of getting less.”
It was noted at last year’s annual conference that there was a day of reckoning coming for the New Zealand education system because successive ministers, entranced by the notion of “choice” in education, have been allowing the establishment of more and more small schools. In 1991, the current speaker of the house Dr Lockwood Smith, then the minister of education, warned that this practice was “going to cost the taxpayer millions – and there is no more money – that means the existing state schools run the risk of getting less.”
And verily what was foretold has come to pass. Last week PPTA sought under the Official Information Act a document from the minister of education that establishes a new and reduced formula for those kura kaupapa Māori (primary schools) which wish to offer secondary education and become wharekura (area schools).
Building more schools at reduced cost
What seems to have happened is that the ministry, alarmed by the $100 million plus price tag for seven kura to be equipped, staffed and funded for specialist secondary provision decided it needed to act to reduce costs. The document reveals that these schools are now classified as area schools but are receiving only $50,000 base operations funding, not the $130,000 that other area schools usually get, a flat per student rate of $2000 per head but no funding for other aspects of operations (such as water, heat and lighting) and a severe cut-back to property entitlement.
It may well be argued that this is a reasonable response to pressure on the public purse from the establishment of new small secondary schools either as wharekura under s.156 of the Education Act or the “special character” area schools and secondary schools which are established under either s156 of the Education Act or via the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act but it has ominous implications.
Is a lower funding mechanism consistent with the crown's obligations to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi?
In the first place, is it consistent with the crown’s obligations to honour the Tiriti o Waitangi if that means agreeing to the establishment of multiple small schools but funding them less than other schools?
Secondly, given the well-understood difficulties of providing effective secondary education, including a reasonable range of specialist options for students in very small schools, are the ministry and the minister simply defaulting on their responsibilities? Is it ethical to accede to the desire of many communities and part thereof to establish their own schools without addressing the serious issues of equity and sustainability?
Will the lower funding formula then be 'rolled out' to all small state secondary schools?
And thirdly, where does it leave everyone else? The ministry has called this new funding formula “interim” and has signalled an intention to “investigate different base funding levels for all small composite schools” in 2010. This might mean protected funding for those schools that are small because of their remote locations but reductions for other schools that are small because they are not essential to the network – in other words a long overdue rationalisation programme. Alternatively we could be hearing the sound of a very significant seismic shift in New Zealand education – a more deliberate withdrawal of government funding and a transference of costs to parents. It’s impossible to say at the moment because as far as I am aware neither PPTA not any other affected group has been consulted about these developments.
Choice costs - Parents, communities, students, schools
Parents should be very afraid because choice costs – and they are the ones that are going to pay.
The Australian Scholarship Group calculates that the cost of educating a child in a non-government school in Australia is now $(AU)150,000. And even if you have the money that doesn’t guarantee a place in the school you want – the schools will be doing the choosing.
In England last year, almost one in six children were refused a place at their first choice of secondary school – and the rate rose to one in three in and around London. So serious has this problem become an advisory centre has been set up to help parents deal with the trauma of missing out. Using the acronym CHILD the group advises parents to keep Calm, seek Help, join waiting lists Immediately, Lodge an appeal and consider Different schools as a strategy for dealing with disappointment.
Go figure.
Education Report - Change of class applications (released under the Official Information Act) pdf download
Published in the PPTA News April 2010
 PPTA News archive
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