$373.9m spending on school infrastructure

The Budget provides $373.9 million for school infrastructure, Education Minister Hekia Parata and Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye say.

This includes $130.1 million operating funding over four years and the $243.8 million capital expenditure the Prime Minister announced last month for new schools, kura and classrooms.

“This spending is about securing and ensuring the safety of property and improving school infrastructure and services,” Ms Parata says.

“It is over and above the $1.14 billion of capital funding already committed to rebuilding and repairing schools in greater Christchurch and $450 million of existing capital funding to supporting the annual maintenance, development and modernisation of New Zealand’s 2,100 state schools.”

Of the $130.1 million operating, $4.9 million will be invested in 2015/16 to accelerate a national programme of earthquake resilience assessments of state school buildings.

“The Government is committed to providing safe schools for children and teachers and we already spend $80 million a year assessing school property and strengthening buildings or addressing leaky buildings,” Ms Parata says.

“Buildings at greatest risk have already been assessed, but it’s important to assess other buildings as quickly as we can so that earthquake strengthening can be prioritised in planned property work.”

Ms Kaye says $34 million of the spending is to meet increased insurance costs for state school property.

“These costs increased after the Canterbury earthquakes. It’s important that our $22.67 billion state school property network is properly covered, and this funding will help make this happen,” Ms Kaye says.

“We will also reprioritise $3 million over four years towards improving the school transport system.

“We want improved school transport services and to do that we need to use the best technology available to understand the needs of families who access the service, and then deliver the best possible service to those families.

“The remaining $88.2 million of operating spending on infrastructure is associated with the $243.8 million of new capital funding the Prime Minister announced last month for new schools, kura and classrooms, which includes funding for the first two schools of the accelerated Auckland growth package.”