Alliance education spokesperson Richard Mitchell says that the goal of a free education system is not lost.

Mr Mitchell was responding to the comments made by Principals’ Federation president Ernie Buutveld who has essentially stated that free education is a lost dream.

“It is disappointing to hear principals talk about free education being a long lost dream when we have consistently shown how it can be done. By no longer providing a public subsidy to private schools we can inject more funds into the public school system. Every dollar that the government gives to a private school is a dollar that is not going to the public schools,” says Mr Mitchell.

Mr Mitchell says public schools have been under funded for so long now that people seem to have forgotten that there is another way.

“Eliminating the need for school fees would only cost this country $70 million dollars. The Alliance Party believes this is a relatively small amount considering the relief it would provide New Zealand families struggling in these hard economic times.”

He says to fund free education from early childhood to tertiary, we will need to re-introduce a genuinely progressive tax system where the bulk of ordinary New Zealanders will pay less tax while those at the top end of the income scale, such as John Key, will pay more to provide us with the education system that New Zealanders deserve.

Mr Mitchell says that New Zealand can wake up from the nightmare of student debt we are currently experiencing and live the dream that is free education.

“In the end we all just have to choose it and a vote for the Alliance Party at the next election will be the way to do that.”