“It’s a critical time for early childhood education (ECE)” said Amanda Coulston, Kindergartens Aotearoa (KA)1 spokesperson. “After months of upheaval and change in the sector, we now have another report proposing more changes – this time to funding.”

Amanda Coulston was speaking in relation to the release of a consultation document that forms part of the government’s review of ECE funding.2

Kindergartens Aotearoa is concerned that the document ignores the fundamental issue: the level of funding is simply not enough and it hasn’t kept pace with rising costs. “That causes pressure on services to compromise quality standards and/or increase fees to parents and whānau. Now the government is looking for ways to address both those issues – which are of their own making - through this review.”

The ministerial appointed funding review group mostly comprises representatives from business, and private, for-profit ECE providers. “The group has presented a number of options for consideration, all of which simply mean shifting money around rather than increasing it”

Amanda Coulston said.

“For example, the group focuses on teacher qualifications, the type of qualification and number of staff holding qualifications as well as teachers’ pay and conditions as aspects of funding where compromise and trade-offs can be made. These factors are fundamental to high quality provision that the review group is proposing be undermined. This would be devastating for over 180,000 babies, toddlers, and young children attending teacher-led ECE services each day.”

Kindergartens Aotearoa is also concerned that the consultation document is silent on two vital elements of the funding picture. It fails to quantify how much public funding to ECE services is diverted into corporate profits, and it fails to set out how much parents and whānau are already paying in fees to bridge the funding gap.

“Without this transparency, parents, whānau, teachers and the wider public are not being given the information necessary to provide informed and accurate feedback. It risks limiting the quality of public input and undermines confidence that all options — including how funding is distributed and used — are being properly considered.

“Parents and whānau spend significant amounts on fees and yet there is no information in the document on exactly how much is spent on fees. Moreover, a sizable portion of the millions of dollars we as taxpayers contribute to ECE services never makes it into supporting teaching and learning,” said Amanda Coulston.

“While looking for savings in one area at the expense of another, the group failed to mention or explore the amount of funding corporate ECE service providers take out of the system as profits and returns to shareholders.”

“Arguably, if there was no or a limited profit imperative, we would have some hundreds of millions of extra taxpayers’ dollars to relieve or lower parent fees and to ensure provision of high-quality services across all communities.”

“We call on the review group to also present that as an option for the public to provide feedback on during the consultation” Amanda Coulston said. “If the aim is to realise our public investment in ECE to best effect, then it is reasonable to ensure all public funding is used for its intended purpose.”

Consultation is open until 6 August.
Read the report and have your say

 

1 Kindergartens Aotearoa represents six regional kindergarten associations around the country that operate more than 280 services, catering for over 13,000 tamariki each day. Nationally, kindergarten associations employ over 4,200 qualified teachers.

2 The Early Childhood Education Funding Review Ministerial Advisory Group consultation:have your say on how the government spends money on early childhood education report was released on 30 June 2026 – consultation is open until 6 August