Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 19 June 2014. Volume:699;Page:18726. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka)to the Minister of Education: Is she satisfied that schools receive sufficient funding to deliver the New Zealand Curriculum; if so why?Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education):Yes; because the Government is investing more than $5 billion to support curriculum delivery in primary and secondary education. Despite tight fiscal constraints this Government has made year-on-year increases through the last six Budgets and is now investing $10.1 billion in Vote Education—the highest ever.Chris Hipkins: Why is she satisfied that school funding is sufficient to deliver the curriculum when parental donations to schools have increased by over 30 percent during National’s watch meaning parents are now forking out almost $100 million a year in supposed donations to pay for their kids’ education?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I am satisfied because we are investing just over $5 billion. What we do know though is that there has to be better discussions between boards and their parent communities about what they expect over and above the delivery of the curriculum. I do not have the specific figure to hand that indicates what the proportion of those donations is but it is a very small percentage.Chris Hipkins: Why does she believe that schools are sufficiently funded given the latest New Zealand Council for Educational Research national survey revealed that some schools are asking parents for donations of as much as $600 per year?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I can but repeat my answer: it is because we are investing the most into education that has ever been invested under any Government because we are getting the achievement lifts across the system and because we are investing in the quality of teaching and learning including the initiative the Prime Minister announced in January of an additional net new $359 million into the profession whose members are the key contributors to raising achievement.Chris Hipkins: What action has the Government taken to ease pressure on parents to contribute to school donations given previous comments that “It’s about time Government admitted education is not free.” and “Without fund-raising schools are screwed.” both of which came from Bill English when he was in Opposition.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Schooling has never been free; it has been a cost to the taxpayer. Now the cost that the taxpayer is bearing is $10.1 billion into schools. Parents have always paid extra for things they particularly want but the Government is fully funding the delivery of the school curriculum. We are seeing more achievement and we know that because we have data and information that tells us factually rather than the kinds of myths that that member is keen on perpetuating.Chris Hipkins: Does she agree with Bill English’s comment in 2004 that school education in New Zealand is not free for parents; if not why not?Hon HEKIA PARATA: I agree with almost everything that Mr English says including that.Hon Members: Almost!Hon HEKIA PARATA: Well the great thing about this party is that we can have robust debates about what will make the difference and that is what we do including the fact that the nice problem we have is a rising GDP notwithstanding that within that we have increased the amount of funding for education. We put our money where our mouths are.Chris Hipkins: Why is she satisfied that schools are adequately funded when there are increasing reports that schools are putting pressure on parents to make donations?Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I notice that the Minister could not actually hear anything because of her colleagues’ noise so perhaps you might—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I invite Mr Hipkins to start his question again.Chris Hipkins: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Why is she satisfied that schools are adequately funded when there are increasing reports that schools are putting pressure on parents to make donations including by removing students from classes and leaving them in the school hall and giving bag labels to children whose parents have paid donations in an attempt to shame the parents who have not?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Of the 2538 schools in New Zealand one school did that and we dealt with that matter—we dealt with that matter. But in the meantime—you know I have difficulty keeping track of where the member is because education is such a priority that it is on the second bench. But never mind. We have been focusing on how we raise achievement and that is what we are doing. We have got National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 at an average of 77 percent we have got more Māori and more Pacific Island kids passing NCEA we have got national standards telling us that we have increased reading writing and mathematics and we are getting that for the investment that we are making.