'Let down': Budget funds charter schools at cost of much needed teacher aides, unions say (2024)

Schools are being asked to make financial sacrifices and “run off the smell of an oily rag” so the government can introduce an “ineffective” pet project in the form of the charter school scheme, an education union says.

Liam Rutherford, a teacher and executive member of NZEI Te Riu Roa, said Budget 2024 included a 2.5 per cent increase in the operations grant that is given to schools and used by them to pay for teacher aides and support staff.

However, the 2.5 per cent increase was below the 4 per cent rise in inflation.

That effectively made it a cut in frontline funding, Rutherford said.

“Every year we’re being asked to run schools off the smell of an oily rag,” he said.

”Meanwhile, the Government’s ineffective charter school scheme has diverted $153 million, which as we’ve said, would pay for a further 700 full-time teacher aides making a huge difference in the classroom.”

Chris Abercrombie, the president of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association Te Wehengarua, meanwhile, welcomed the government’s $1.48 billion to build new schools and classrooms.

However, he also criticised the lack of investment in staff and the re-introduction of charter schools.

“The highlight of the education announcements is property, which is necessary, but it is people that are the most important investment in education,” he said.

Funnelling $153m into an unproven experiment at a time when the government cannot even keep local schools’ operation grants up with inflation is irresponsible – and immoral.”

Associate Education Minister David Seymour has championed the re-introduction of charter schools.

He said up to 35 state schools could convert into charter schools next year while 15 new charter schools could open in 2026.

Charter schools get most of their funding from the government but have many freedoms that public schools don’t have, such as what curriculum they teach, whether they hire registered teachers and what hours they are open.

Charter schools have flexibility over how they operate but have to meet stated goals and are kept more accountable as a result, Seymour has said.

However, the Ministry of Education has said evidence overseas and in New Zealand for charter schools’ effectiveness is mixed.

Seymour has also announced a plan to try and stop students skipping school days that includes a new data portal to keep track of daily school attendance figures.

Cellphones have also been banned in schools while there are plans for a new structured literacy programme focused on maths and English, with $67m put aside for this.

The Government also said it included $191m in the Budget over four years for a cost adjustment of 2 per cent to the Early Childhood Education Subsidy for under two-year-olds, an ECE Subsidy for two-year-olds and over, and 20 Hours ECE, and Equity Funding.

However, NZEI Te Riu Roa, the union for childhood education and kindergartens said the 2 per cent boost in funding was once again below inflation.

There was also $53m over four years for teacher supply, retention, and attraction initiatives, and $163m over four years to support digital services in schools, including cyber security and equipment replacement.

Education cuts at a glance

The Ministry of Education is, however, among the many public services told to reduce costs and now facing job cuts.

The Budget shows the reduction of full-time staff at the ministry following the cuts has saved it almost $150m over the next four years.

Meanwhile, $61.5m in funding until 2028 for contractors and consultants, $5m in funding for non-essential ministry staff travel and $43.9m for professional services over the next four years has also been cut.

The Budget document also said around $23m in annual savings had come from implementing better business processes at the ministry.

Teacher aides badly needed, Auckland parents say

Auckland parents Svantje Reiber and Han Byul Seol say teacher and support staff numbers are among the most important education issues to them.

German-born Reiber and Korean-born Seol made New Zealand their home just under 16 years ago and now have a 7-year-old daughter at school in Mt Eden and twin boys aged 4.

Reiber said she had hoped her boys would be able to start at school in term 4 this year when they turn five.

However, she said she’d been told some new students had been unable to start at the school in term 3 due to a shortage of teachers.

Reiber is a member of the parents association at the school and is proud of the education it provides.

While the school provides support to students with special needs, it is an ongoing challenge to provide the correct individual support for all students, she said.

“At the moment, we on the PTA are trying to raise funds to pretty much improve the learning conditions for the kids,” Reiber said.

It meant Reiber believed the Budget’s lack of funding for teacher aides “didn’t seem to be very considered”.

Overall, she was open to hearing evidence about whether charter schools would be effective or not, and said she would have liked more debate on the issue because the $153m funding could have “benefited a lot of existing schools”.

She also welcomed early childhood learning subsidies but questioned the usability of a rebate scheme.

She said parents have to keep weeks’ or months’ worth of receipts and then claim the subsidy back, and believed a simpler system would have been better.

As a mum of twins and committee member of the Multiples NZ group she said she would also like to one day to see greater support for families with twins, triplets or multiple babies.

Families with twins are often hit hard because they pay double for everything, she said.

It can range from simple things like uniforms where families can’t pass hand-me-down uniforms from the older child to the younger to buying equipment for sports or hobbies, Reiber said.