Tawa College faces $20,000 cut to budget under funding change

Tawa College principal Murray Lucas says the possible loss of more than $20,000 in his budget next year will ‘‘have to be made up somewhere’’.

Figures released by Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins show many New Zealand schools face budget cuts under the Government’s new operations grant funding model.

With inflation adjustment, Tawa College potentially stands to lose $20,216 in its budget for 2017.

Lucas said while there was still some ‘‘drilling down’’ to be done and roll changes might affect the final margin, any loss of money for his school was a worry.

‘‘It is a concern for me, obviously, and I will be disappointed if this is the case,’’ he said.

‘‘That shortfall will have to be made up somewhere.’’

Lucas said the new system was creating anxiety.

But Ministry of Education head of sector enablement and support Kim Shannon said the school’s operations funding for 2017 was ‘‘initial only’’ and would not be finalised until schools sent in their final roll figures in March.

The targeted funding was designed to enable schools to address the barriers faced by children most at risk of educational underachievement, she said.

‘‘The amount depends on the roll, the year levels of the students, the decile and the property file - so it changes every year,’’ she said.

However, Whitby’s Adventure School principal, John Wootton said whenever funding went down, there was concern because it meant more pressure on his budget and, potentially, parents.

His school could face a $4878 cut which might affect a school activity or two, he said.

Aotea College principal Kate Gainsford, who had a potential $7620 cut coming, said a lack of certainty about the new funding system made planning tough.

‘‘We have tight margins as it is without this uncertainty and now face the possibility of paring something else in our budget back,’’ she said.

Other schools facing sizeable cuts in 2017 include Bishop Viard College ($8098 less), Mahinawa Specialist School ($3148), Te Kura Maori o Porirua ($5530), Plimmerton School ($5822) and Porirua College ($8009).

Mana MP Kris Faafoi said day-to-day funding cuts would probably affect dozens of Porirua and Tawa schools and, while National was ‘‘talking a big game on funding education’’, the figures showed otherwise.

‘‘I can see more pressure being put on parents to donate,’’ he said.

‘‘National are talking about a big [Government] surplus coming - instead of a tax cut, put it into our schools.’’