The National Party has unveiled a multibillion-dollar plan to fast-track school repairs and upgrades over the next 10 years by forming an "alliance" with the private sector.
If National triumphs at the election, leader Judith Collins says it would invest $2 billion in a 'Fix New Zealand Schools Alliance' that will bring together builders, educators, architects and engineers to work with the Government to improve school infrastructure.
The $2 billion alliance budget would be part of $4.8 billion committed over the next decade for education infrastructure. The remaining $2.8 billion would be allocated for new spending to fully fund the first 10 years of the plan.
"This will accelerate our COVID-19 economic recovery and create a more stable, long-term project pipeline that enables the construction sector to gear up for delivery," Collins said on Monday.
The alliance model is not a public-private partnership, National's infrastructure spokesperson Chris Bishop explained. He said the Crown will remain owner and operator of the schools.
"Construction companies and professional service providers will have to compete to form the alliance with the Ministry of Education. The Government will set key performance outcomes and a target outturn cost," he said.
"The alliance will work alongside schools to deliver the projects professionally and faster. Alliances have a reputation for high-quality outcomes and speed. The reopening of State Highway 1 a year after it was devastated by the Kaikōura earthquake is testament to that."
The Ministry of Education would be tasked with developing a "simple, equitable and transparent process" for schools to access a fair allocation of the funds that would take into account both roll size, projected growth and the level of need.
The model would be used to streamline projects costing more than $100,000.
Schools would continue to receive their existing property maintenance grants for maintenance work on Ministry of Education-owned buildings or facilities, and they will also continue to receive funding for capital upgrades.
Here's how it would work
Alliance contracting means the Ministry of Education would set the terms and conditions and construction companies would agree to the final cost of the overall project, identifying the risks that need to be managed.
Once the project is underway, if costs start to rise unexpectedly they would be shared between the client and the contractor, and if the project runs under budget then the savings would be shared too.
All parties would be incentivised to work collaboratively to resolve problems to avoid underbidding, collapsing building companies and cost blowouts. Smaller builders would be employed as sub-contractors.
National predicts about 60 new schools will be needed by 2030 on recent projections of an extra 100,000 students within a decade. Half of them need to be built in Auckland, with the other half built in high-growth areas or areas that are currently at or over capacity.
National's education spokesperson Nicola Willis said while the potential demographic impact of COVID-19 is still unclear, it's likely that Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga and Queenstown will need extra investment to accommodate students as their populations grow.
The announcement to put billions of dollars into education infrastructure follows National's plan to invest $31 billion in new transport projects over the next ten years.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said on Friday the Government has put $1.6 billion into upgrading schools, which included $400 million announced in December last year for public school property development.
"I am very, very proud of our record in education spending," Robertson said.
It comes as the Government faces backlash after signing off on an $11.7 million cash injection for a privately-owned Green School in Taranaki, advocated for by the Greens who have a policy of phasing out funding for private schools.
Robertson argued the funding was signed off as part of 150 shovel-ready projects the Government approved to help stimulate the economy. He said the funding is separate from the funding that goes to the education sector.
National's wider education policy will be announced in the coming weeks, but the party has already unveiled some proposals in its education policy discussion document released in November.
It proposed a reversal of the polytechnics shakeup, reinstating partnership schools, and sought feedback on replacing the Government's first-year' fees-free' policy.
