Andrew King: Rural Schools Leadership Association President on the Government fuel relief package for rural schools
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What government support is being provided to rural schools for fuel costs?
some more government support because of the petrol drama a mileage rate for relief teachers are going to go from 37 to 83 cents that's a k uh rural schools with under 100 students will get a two and a half thousand dollar top up 37 million going into replacing diesel boilers andrew king he's the president of the new zealand rural schools leadership association and he's with us andrew morning to you good morning mike how are you very well thank you you like the look of all of this
Yes, it's really positive news targeted at our most isolated and smallest rural schools here, which is very welcome news.
Would you defend it in the sense these relief teachers, which I know there are a tremendous number because teachers are away all the time. See, I have to still pay to come to work, as does everybody else. Why is a relief teacher special?
Well, it's because a relief teacher can teach in any school that they choose during the week. And so it's really important that we've got teachers something in the system that supports them to commute as far out. Some schools could be up to 100 kilometres away that they might need to drive to in our most isolated communities.
And was Erica right yesterday when she was explaining the small schools, the really small schools, just have no budget, they're tight as, and you can't soak it up, whereas some of the bigger schools might be able to soak it up. Is that fair?
Well, yes, I think we've got a system that's based on numbers of students in terms of funding, and the smaller you are, the less of an operations grant you have, and the more manoeuvring, the trickier the manoeuvring of budget outlines that you've got to do. Having that $2,500 means they don't need to think about where they need to take money from elsewhere and they can focus that $2,500 on fuel shortage related costs or fuel increase costs.
Good.
How does the funding impact small rural schools specifically?
I don't know if it applies to you or many of you in the rural part of the sector but this boiler thing, why are schools running on boilers for goodness sake?
Well that's a really good question so it's good to see something really proactive in basically disestablishing the reliance on diesel boilers. That's something that needed to be done years ago though wasn't it? Surely. Yes, it would have been great if it happened sooner, but it's good that it's happening now.
Why are diesel boilers still in use at rural schools?
Are you handling the school bus issue OK in terms of petrol and distance and all that sort of stuff?
Yeah, so we've got ministry-run routes, plus we've got direct resourcing routes, and the increased costs there, the ministry deals with that. With our direct resourcing bus routes, though, that gets reviewed six monthly in terms of the operational cost. But we're working with the ministry on that.
Nice.
How are rural schools managing transportation challenges amid rising fuel costs?
All right, Andrew. Appreciate your time very much. Andrew King, who is, what bank was he from? He's the president of the New Zealand Rural School Leaders Association. I don't know when he's calling for the first cash rate rise there.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What government support is being provided to rural schools for fuel costs?
0:00–1:43
2
How does the funding impact small rural schools specifically?
1:43–2:08
3
Why are diesel boilers still in use at rural schools?
2:08–2:36
4
How are rural schools managing transportation challenges amid rising fuel costs?
2:36–2:55
Speakers
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