The New Zealand Catholic Education Office continues to be approached by schools and proprietors of schools who have been negatively impacted by the implementation of the New Zealand Equity Index (EQI).
What seems apparent is that a number of schools in more impoverished and disadvantaged urban areas have lost significant funds from their operational grants, and this seems to run counter to the concept of equity.
The first point is to determine whether state-integrated schools are represented disproportionately in those schools that will receive a reduction in their operational grant as a result of the implementation of the EQI.
The second issue is then to determine whether the implementation of the EQI has created inequities that were not fully considered in its design.
It may well be that there are factors of those families that support state integrated education that carry less ‘risk’ according to the mathematical model being used.
However, the current high levels of achievement success of many of our state-integrated schools could well be placed at risk if they lose crucial funding that supports and nurtures the success of students in those schools that serve communities who are disadvantaged.
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