Education seen as investment

Press, 13 May 1989, Page 11

Education seen as investment

By

HELEN McLEAN

The Government could not afford not to invest in education, the. leader of the New Labour Party, Mr Jim Anderton, told a conference of university student leaders at Canterbury University yesterday. Commenting on the Government’s proposed student tuition fee charges of about $2OOO a year, Mr Anderton said students were an investment for the future.

The New Labour Party sought to make education free and opportunities equal. Mr Anderton said it was important that education had the financial resources to make it the most important social and economic investment for the future. Students of today would be the professional people of tomorrow who would help New Zealand prosper. Students went without an income now and many had overdrafts of $2OOO or more, Mr Anderton said.

Increasing tax on highincome earners would allow the Government to get back the money spent on education, as many graduates would be in this tax bracket once they started working. Mr Anderton said New Zealand needed to concentrate on social goals and let the people have a say in the running of the country.

“The New Labour Party stands for a social market policy,” Mr Anderton said. He said debate by the students yesterday in front of the Associate Minister of Education, Mr Goff, would not change the Government’s mind. Women, Maoris and adult students would suffer most from the proposed policy. Women earnt 77 per cent of the average male salary. Adult students would have shorter working life spans for repayment, and were often already committed to mortgage and family costs.