The Green School in Oakura, Taranaki is a private education facility, owned by Michael and Rachel Perrett. The school charges up to $40,000 a year per student.

The Green School has been approved to recieve $11.7 million dollars of government funding to increase their capacity to 250 students, creating jobs in the region, and bringing more wealth to the province.

The Green School is currently well under their capacity of 120 pupils, with just 40 students. There is no demand for the infrastructure.

I understand this was a business grant, and the Green School were eligible to apply for this grant. Because it is a privately owned business, not a public education facility.

What this $11.7million grant will do is increase a privately owned business, from the current capability of earning $4.8million a year in school fees, to accommodate a roll of 250 students. At $40,000 a year in fees per student, thats a potential $10million per annum. For a privately owned business, not our region.

Including new buildings will also appreciate the school/business owners assets: this is not what New Zealanders pay taxes for.

There was a much wiser way to spend this amount of money. Sure, the Green school ticked all the boxes for shovel-ready projects; give them a million dollars, not eleven. If our nation has that kind of cash to giveaway, why are our public schools crying out for funding for infrastructure? Why are our teachers paid less than they deserve?

The same money distributed amongst our public schools to maintain or repair infrastructure will create the same number of jobs. 

The same money could have been granted to our council to complete and maintain our parks, walkways and bike tracks. This would bring people to the region too.

This petition is to request that the government reconsider this business grant, and reduce the amount of money being given to this privately owned education business, with more funding being allocated to public schools maintenance and infrastructure needs.