24 March 2012 MEDIA STATEMENT

Teachers asked to take pay cut to fund sector

Reports that Kidicorp is asking staff to fund improved quality of education by taking a five per cent pay cut clearly demonstrates the Government has abdicated it's responsibility to ensure quality early education, Labour’s spokesperson on Early Childhood Education, Sue Moroney says.

"National set this up two years ago when it put unaffordable tax cuts ahead of quality early childhood learning in 2010.

“It cut $400 million from services which had the highest proportion of qualified staff in February 2011 to help pay for tax cuts that favoured the highest income earners,” Sue Moroney said.

“At the same time teachers are being expected to personally pay for the Government’s lack of support, it is also demanding the sector do more and do it better.

"These early childhood teachers – and there’s about 1400 of them - are being asked to sacrifice the living standards of their own families to pay for improved numbers of teachers for other children.

It is hugely unfair. It highlights just how much National has turned its back on quality education and is yet another example of hard-working people losing income because of bad Government policy,” Sue Moroney said.
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