?Proverbial bolt from the blue? devastates community ties
By Jamie Melbourne-Hayward
The National Government?s decision to cut Adult Community Education (ACE) funding is ?deplorable?, says Hutt Valley High School Principal Ross Sinclair. ?It sends the signal to people that their earlier efforts [to up skill] are of no value. ?Our adult courses are a pay as you go system, and fees will increase by two and a half times, it?s not realistic for most people,? says Mr Sinclair. Community education funding is a vital connection between the school and the community, and local people will find it much harder to make a shift into the wider world, he says. ?Classes are a bridging mechanism for people, and this is a sad social decision.? $16 million has been cut from ACE funding, and a new $34 million dollar scheme has been announced to help fund private schools. Mr Sinclair says there are ?wider implications? from this change, as public schools? ask for $200 - $250 in school donations while private schools? ask $5-15 thousand in fees. ?It?s a sad social decision, and it appears one area is losing funding in order to fund another,? says Mr Sinclair. Newlands College Principal Grant Jones says the announcement that ACE funding would be cut was ?dropped on us just before the budget?. The school has a ?very competent? ACE programme that has been growing in popularity since 1983, and this year the school expects nearly 3000 people to pass through their courses. Mr Jones says there are ?bigger issues? at stake in this change. ?They have pulled funding, saying people can pay for their education, but they can?t. ?If you have a small business person wanting to learn how to use MYOB they were paying $60-70, now they will pay $220 or more, it?s trebling the cost ? Tawa, Onslow and us, we have all seen our community education fold,? he says. Tawa College has been ?hugely affected? by the cuts says Tawa College Principal Murray Lucas. ?We have a really good community education programme going here; its been going for 30 years. ?We have a sign language course run by two deaf women, that will probably be covered, but our other courses, we don?t know,? says Mr Lucas. Tawa prides itself on being a ?school of the community?. ?We are gutted about it; the move by the government has us pretty upset.? Mr Lucas says if private schools took on more ?behaviourally challenging? students then the funding shift to private schools might be justified. Samuel Marsden College is a private school where parents enter into a contact with the school around payment of fees. Principal Jenny Williams says the additional funding for the school should arrive in 2010 and will help private schools keep fees down. ?We are hoping it will be given as a per capita fund, in real terms we have seen an increase of 40 percent in fees over the last five years,? she says. As for taking on students that are a ?behavioural challenge?, she says her school has their fair share and try to be involved in the community as much as possible.
