Educators call on government to waive police check charges

<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Teachers&&num;8217&semi; union NZEI Te Riu Roa is calling on the government to waive costs of police checks for adults who work around children&period; <&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">From July&comma; schools will be charged nearly &dollar;10 for each police check of staff&comma; parents and volunteers working with the children&comma; after an initial 20 checks&period; However&comma; school principals have said that without any additional government funding to meet the additional expense&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;ll come at the cost of education&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;The safety of New Zealand&&num;8217&semi;s children should be a top priority for both the government and for the police&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says NZEI president Lynda Stuart&period; &&num;8220&semi;The cost of vetting should be waived for education in the same way that it will be for charities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;Schools and ECE services want to be absolutely certain that every adult who works or helps out around their children is safe&period; But asking us to pay hundreds of dollars for vetting&comma; when our budgets have been frozen&comma; will force us to find ways to cut costs elsewhere&period; Whenever cuts in education are made&comma; children lose and that&&num;8217&semi;s not right&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;ve been asking the education minister for months to reverse a freeze on schools&&num;8217&semi; operations grant this year&comma; and to reverse six years of cuts to ECE funding&period; Now we&&num;8217&semi;re asking the police minister not to add to the financial pressure schools are under by forcing a new costs onto already stretched budgets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;New Zealand can afford to give our kids the best and safest education in the world&period; Our kids are worth it&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;