PPP schools not at expense of community groups

The Government must guarantee community groups will not be the losers out of its signing of a $298 million deal for four more public private partnership (PPP) schools, Labour’s Education spokesperson Chris Hipkins says.

“Community groups will find it more difficult to gain access to facilities at these schools after-hours and the Ministry of Education has previously admitted (see attached clipping) in some cases they will face additional costs for using them.

“The first school National built under the PPP model demonstrated the savings trumpeted by the Government are likely to be non-existent.

“The Government is now claiming it will save $27 million over the next 25 years using the PPP model. We are calling on Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye to show how she arrived at this figure.

“Labour has real concerns local community groups will be forced to pick up the tab for the supposed savings under this new model for building schools,” Chris Hipkins says.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1505/Press_Article_7_June_2013.pdf

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