Sue Moroney
Education spokesperson

22 August 2011

What is National doing on 20 hours ECE?

Confusion reigns on what is in store for parents of young children if National is re-elected in November, says Labour's Education Spokesperson, Sue Moroney.

“Anne Tolley appeared to rule-out funding cuts to 20 hours ECE being proposed by her Taskforce on TV3’s ‘The Nation’ but just hours later she refused to rule out those same funding cuts when asked a direct question at the NZEI conference,” Sue Moroney said.

“The yesterday, National MP Louise Upston said the taskforce recommendations were still being considered and no decisions had been made when she spoke at the NZEI conference.

“So what’s the story? Is National saying one thing in front of the TV cameras and doing something completely different in the background?

“We all remember that National broke the promise they made to keep existing subsidies and fee controls in place for early childhood education before the last election.

“In February this year, they cut the existing subsidies for services with more than 80 per cent qualified staff, which resulted in fees being raised at many Early Education Centres around the country.

“Now they can't even seem to keep a consistent position over the course of a weekend,” Sue Moroney said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media