20 December 2004

Hon. Jim Anderton MP, Progressive MP for Wigram

Schools' funding lift from targeted programmes review

Progressive leader and MP for Wigram, Jim Anderton, today welcomed the news that 30 schools in his electorate would receive an estimated extra $416,000 in operational funding as a result of changes to the decile funding formula, and twenty seven schools in Ilam will receive an estimated extra $329,000.

New funding of $27 million per year is to go into schools across the country, as a result of the changes to school deciles announced by Trevor Mallard as Co-ordinating Minister, Race Relations.

The changes mean 98 per cent of schools will receive additional operational funding from 1 January 2005. The remainder won't lose any funding.

"This shows the Labour Progressive coalition government's commitment to lifting education standards for all our students. It is excellent news for local schools, and I’m sure will be put to really good use for local students," Jim Anderton said.

This increase for 2005 means that overall, schools' operational funding will increase by over $50 million in just one year - a five per cent increase between 2004 and 2005.

"In 2005, the Labour-Progressive government will have increased operational funding by 13.3 per cent in real per-student terms since 1999."

Final funding won't be known until the March 2005 roll returns.

In today's announcement, the ethnicity weighting is being removed from the decile funding formula. This is because evidence showed there were better ways to lift the educational achievement of Maori and Pasifika students.

The government is investing, in particular, in tailored programmes that actually work in the classroom such as teacher professional development, and today two new teacher development initiatives were also announced.

ENDS

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