New Zealand : The global budget-bulk funding by any other name

Bulk funding: trading teachers for cash.

The Ministry of Education is seeking the sector’s feedback on seven proposals for changes to school funding.

One of these, The “Global Budget” would remove

the split between funding for staffing (which covers salaries for a set number of full time teacher equivalents) and cash for operations. The Global Budget means the most important asset of a school, the teaching staff, would have to be ‘traded off’ against other costs that schools face. Instead of the government guaranteeing a minimum number of teaching staff to each school, each year the board will decide how many teachers it would employ. This is the essential element of bulk funding,which teachers and communities rejected in the 1990s.

What the Ministry of Education says...	What it means...
Current funding provides ‘limited flexibility’ for schools.	This provides flexibility in one direction - downwards, meaning schools could employ fewer teachers than currently. They can already employ more than their minimum, and have a limited ability to employ fewer than their entitlement staffing.
This improves administrative simplicity and transparency.	The government would have no responsibility for the number of teachers in a school or across the system. Schools would be blamed for large class sizes or having limited curriculum choices. There would be no transparency about the numbers of teachers employed to deliver the curriculum.
Principals would determine how much of their total funding would go on teaching staffing and how much on other operations funding, like non-teaching staff and costs such as ICT.	Much greater risk to schools from poor financial decisions. At present if a board is in financial strife the teaching staff are secure and class sizes and curriculum breadth can be maintained.
It is currently difficult for schools to share resources.	Schools already share teaching staff, like technology teachers at years 7 and 8 and teachers between Communities of Learning. At present the ministry brokers this, they would save themselves work, but it would mean greater uncertainty for schools.
Increase schools’ ability to flexibly use their funding.	Schools will have to make trade-offs between things like curriculum breadth, class size, non-contact time, teacher-aides and other costs. This is a major threat to collective agreement conditions.
This will support Communities of Learning and collaboration between schools.	Base funding will be removed, making a bigger proportion of school funding dependent on student numbers and creating more pressure to compete for students.
The current system is complicated for schools when they employ over their entitlement number of teachers.	The ministry would still have to recover funds from schools when they employ teachers out of locally raised funds.

Download The Global Budget - bulk funding by another name (110.9 kB)

PPTA News July / August 2016 (volume 37 no. 5) (2.38 MB)

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New Zealand : The global budget-bulk funding by any other name