Hipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 04 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10752. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to the Minister of Education: Does she stand by her statement that “schools have never been more well-funded than under this Government”; if so why is the cost of primary and secondary education rising at almost 10 times the rate of inflation?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Yes in the context it was made which was: “Schools have never been more well-funded than under this Government at $10.8 billion.” The cost of primary and secondary education is not rising at almost 10 times the rate of inflation. The assertion made in the question relates to voluntary donations and the rise in private school fees. To provide accurate information for the member Vote Education has increased by more than 31 percent since National came into Government.Chris Hipkins: Why does she deny that funding for schools is dropping when the Ministry of Education’s own data on its website shows on the bottom line of this chart that I am holding up—that is that one down there—that the funding per student has dropped by $149 per student in the past year?Hon HEKIA PARATA: We have dug out the particular table. I am very familiar with it and the member will also know that below that bottom line it has eight caveats but let me just go through it. Since last year the number of students has increased by 1 percent; Vote Education has increased over the year by approximately 5.5 percent. Some education funding is allocated on a per student basis; some is allocated on other bases. The table that the member is referring to tracks changes in spending that is allocated on a per student basis. It does not show what is happening with education expenditure overall. In addition the table tracks changes in per student spending not per student funding. That is an important distinction because schools control the timing of some of that expenditure. That means the numbers show what schools are spending at a particular time of year but not what they are funded to spend. When major building projects are involved for instance that can have quite an impact on the numbers because the spending is not even. The picture is further complicated—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am going to have to get the answer brought to an end.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Well I just want to solve all the problems at once. The picture is further complicated by the fact that the table reports—[Interruption]; the member’s problems the member’s problems—expenditure on a calendar year while Government funding is allocated on a financial year and it does not include all of the programmes we invest in that are not for every child but for different ones.Chris Hipkins: So is she confirming at the end of all of that that the funding schools receive per student has declined?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Well absolutely not because if student numbers have gone up by 1 percent but funding has gone up by 5.5 percent then how can it be a drop? Emphatically unassailably no there has been no drop.Chris Hipkins: If the spending per student has dropped while the Government claims that the funding has been going up then where are schools putting the money? Are they shoving it under the mattress for another day?Hon HEKIA PARATA: That is why with the House’s indulgence I went through what the table—which the member is basing his concerns on—related to. So that particular table—at a particular point in time dealing with three variables of funding with 10 caveats—gave those particular sums. But actually the overall funding for education has gone up 31 percent since we came into Government while student numbers overall have gone up 4 percent.Chris Hipkins: Why did she claim that funding for school property had declined due to a drop-off in demand as her office claimed yesterday; or is she denying that there are hundreds of schools around the country waiting for funding for property projects some of which are urgent?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Our investment in property has gone up 11.5 percent.