MMP Best Hope For Students

19 June 02

The education system has its only real chance of improving if the next government remains a coalition partnership. New Zealanders need smaller political parties to continue developing and pushing education policies that address the huge liability education is becoming.

“Tertiary education needs fees to be phased out and universal allowances implemented to stop the time bomb, that education is creating,” said Julie Pettett, President of the Aotearoa Tertiary Students Association (ATSA). “With a student debt that is growing at over $415 000 thousand dollars a day (which is over $2.9 Million a week), we can not afford to let this crisis continue.”

“In deciding which party is the best choice for their vote, students and their families need to consider how consistent their policies have been,” says Pettett. “The fact of the matter is that only some of the smaller parties have been totally consistent over the introduction of a universal student allowance and real reductions in tuition fees.”

“Unless larger parties commit to real change in their approach to student financial support, it would be unwise for students to rely on them to deliver real solutions for the under funding crisis public tertiary education is facing.”

ENDS

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