Don't Mess With Success Says Smith

Labour's Policy to Scrap Bulk Funding Puts 1200 School Jobs at Risk Education Minister Nick Smith tackled Labour, in the General Debate in Parliament today, over its policy to scrap bulk funding saying it would disrupt 752 schools that had so far chosen bulk funding. The debate occurred following the release of a Ministry of Education Research Report and a further study by the University of Otago, both of which showed the real benefits for student learning from the increased flexibility that comes with school's having control of their resources.

"Labour's opposition to bulk funding puts the 650 extra teachers and 550 extra support staff employed by bulk funded schools at risk. The loss of these staff and the many other benefits from bulk funding will detrimentally affect the education of 276,000 pupils throughout New Zealand. The irony is that the electorate with the highest uptake of bulk funding is Helen Clark's own electorate of Owairaka. Her 15 schools will lose over $1.8 million in resourcing from Labour's dopey policy."

"Labour's commitment to remove schools' choice to be bulk funded is anti-democratic and will be highly disruptive. Labour should not veto the quite legitimate decision of Boards, elected by parents, to flexibly manage all the resources of their school. Most of the 750 schools, nationally, that have taken up bulk funding have organised their staffing differently and to re-impose central resourcing will be highly disruptive, if not impossible. Understandably, Labour has not explained how it will do it. It is like trying to put the genie back in the bottle".

"Labour's major policy planks of scrapping bulk funding and the independent Education Review Office shows the extent to which they have sold out to teacher unions at children's expense. The irony is that they passed the legislation to do both when last in Government. It is a sad reflection on just how backward looking and ideological Labour has become."

"The National Government's policy of allowing schools to take up bulk funding voluntarily is both fair and practical. My message to Labour is don't mess with success."