The Taxpayers’ Union is slamming Labour’s education policy announced this morning as ideological and wasteful, as the party promises to "work towards pay parity" for ECE teachers with primary and secondary teachers.

Union spokesman Jordan Williams says, “The reason our best and brightest don’t go into secondary school teaching is because the pay is poor. The pay will always be poor when the Government forces primary, and now early childhood teachers, to be paid the same as those who teach physics and accounting at high school.”

“Kindergarten staff do important work, but nobody seriously believes that teaching fingerpainting is as specialised a job as preparing teenagers for crucial NCEA exams.”

“This is a sop to Labour’s teacher union funders. It’s bad public policy, bad for taxpayers, and bad for kids.”

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