(PPTA News, August 2009, p. 3)
Instead of the traditional viewpoint this month I am publishing an abridged version of a letter sent to education minister Anne Tolley about proposed $50 million staffing cuts. The letter can be found in its entirety on the PPTA website, along with its supporting paper Secondary Education and the Economic Crisis.
Dear minister
Thank you for your response to my letter seeking details of the 1.5% staffing cut proposed for 2011. I am disappointed that you were not in a position to provide any detail about your intentions.
You will appreciate that the prospect of the loss of up to 700 front-line teaching positions is causing some alarm in secondary schools. Members whose jobs may be at risk are looking to me to provide some reassurance and, if possible, certainty. With that in mind, I wish to make a number of brief points:
Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
It appears that the need to find savings of $50 million per year has arisen because the government chose to ignore Treasury advice that the continued implementation of the 1:15 ratio for new entrants was unaffordable. I am entirely supportive of improving class sizes at all levels because of the educational advantages smaller classes offer to students, schools and teachers - but parents and teachers of secondary age students will not accept that improvements in primary school ratios should be at the cost of the quality of education for students in secondary schools.
Savings or Cuts?
It seems the government would prefer the use of the word “savings” rather than cuts, but any change which reduces a component of the staffing formula will result in real front-line job losses in schools…for schools without rising rolls, a cut in entitlement staffing will mean real teachers lose their jobs.
The absence of any detail around the cuts fuels perceptions amongst members and the public that the government is half-hearted in its support for New Zealand’s proud tradition of free public education, particularly when the government proposes cuts to state school staffing while providing a funding boost to private schools.
Apparently the education ministry offered up overall a greater level of budget saving than any other ministry or department, which raises questions about the extent of the government’s commitment to state education.
There is No Fat in Secondary School Staffing
The needs of the system are still not being met by the current staffing levels. Teachers have been subject to increased workload demands through NCEA, personalised learning for students, a new curriculum and increased professional learning expectations - all good in themselves - but each an added time demand.
Alternatives to Cutting the Entitlement Salary Budget
As you asked for thoughts on ways to spend money more efficiently in education to accommodate the shortfall, I will briefly touch on areas where you have the power to make more effective and efficient use of state funds.
Integrating Private Schools
Ministers of education of all parties over the last 20 years have lacked the will to resist spending cumulatively tens of millions of dollars in additional property, operations funding and staffing costs, to set up very small secondary schools.
The integration of each new private school is a significant cost to the taxpayer. A moratorium on integration until the economy has recovered will save considerable sums of money.
Balancing the Cost of Choice
There is a trade-off between the ideological position of unfettered choice for parents and the pragmatic reality of the huge additional costs to the state of providing those choices for quite small groups of largely wealthy parents. Five hundred students are more economically educated in one school than in several small schools.
I would be more than happy to work with you to address the expense generated by having a multiplicity of small schools in locations where, in reality, one or two would suffice.
Cuts or Investment?
Most countries regard education as an area for investment, despite the tough economic times, because failure to do so leaves the country unable to take advantage of any economic upswing. I attach a document we will be discussing with members at a round of paid union meetings this term entitled Secondary Education and the Economic Crisis. It makes the case for investment rather than cuts as the only meaningful way of rebuilding for the future.
Education is a fundamental area of the country’s social and economic framework. It impacts on hundreds of thousands of students each year and that impact goes with them for their working life. We do not expect that the sector will remain unchanged as the needs of students change, but we do expect that any changes made will be thoughtful, coherent and in the students’ best interests.
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