Kia ora,
Welcome back to Collective Matters.
Like every year, May is Budget Month, a chance for the government to lay out its priorities for the year. Rightly so, educators want to make sure their voices are heard.
That is where we need your help. Please take 10 minutes to complete our survey and encourage your networks to complete it.
Supporters of AEC will be aware that in the lead up to last year’s budget we launched Beyond Capacity, a report into the state of learning support. Since then, we have had the Minister launch her ‘Learning Support’ budget. We wanted to follow up to see what has changed. Here is a snippet of our updated report. The full version will launch closer to the budget.
Still Beyond Capacity:
Learning Support in Aotearoa After the 2025 Budget
A new report from the Aotearoa Educators Collective — publishing soon
In May 2025, the government announced what it described as the largest investment in learning support in a generation. A $646 million package. Historic. Transformational. A seismic shift.
One year on, the Aotearoa Educators Collective went back to those closest to the system and asked a simple question: Has anything changed?
The answer, across every response and without exception, was the same.
For us, no real change at all.
School Principal
In my day-to-day reality as a principal, the 2025 Learning Support Budget has not resulted in any meaningful improvements for my students. In fact, the situation has become considerably more difficult.
School Principal
The report documents what that reality looks like across Aotearoa. Schools spending $238,000 on learning support while receiving $68,000 in funding. Principals running sausage sizzles to pay teacher aide wages. A five-year-old stood down seven of every ten school days while Te Mahau confirms it is short four behaviour practitioners and cannot pick up new cases.
And from a classroom teacher in a high-equity Wellington school, writing about the child she supports every day without adequate resourcing:
I am trying to fill a canyon with a teaspoon. No matter how much care, time, and energy I pour into supporting these tamariki, it never feels like enough. I leave school each day emotionally and physically drained, carrying a deep sense of helplessness — not because the commitment is missing, but because the level of need is greater than what one person can give.
New entrant teacher and acting SENCO, High-Equity School, Wellington Region
Still Beyond Capacity examines four themes:
The funding gap that has not closed,
ORS reform that has not changed access or adequacy,
The missing middle that remains unsupported and a workforce whose capacity has not increased, and
Specific and compounded failures facing kura kaupapa Māori and bilingual providers, including the near-total absence of validated screening and diagnostic tools in te reo Māori, the disestablishment of RT: Māori roles and the legislative removal of school boards’ obligation to give effect to Te Tiriti.
The report does not dismiss the government’s intent. It holds space for the possibility that some Budget provisions, not due until 2027 or 2028, may yet make a difference. But it is unambiguous about what the sector is experiencing right now.
As the report concludes:
The system is still beyond capacity. The children it exists to serve cannot wait another year for that to change.
Events
Shifting our focus from an AEC Conference to a series of Pre-election Roadshows
We have made the difficult decision to suspend UpliftED 2026. The conference was originally designed to sit within the term break to make attendance as accessible as possible for teachers. However, in the current climate, we’ve heard consistently from Principals that ongoing uncertainty particularly around travel costs is making it hard for them to commit staff to professional development. We felt it was more respectful to everyone involved to make this call now, rather than let the uncertainty drag on.
We’re already thinking about what comes next. We’re planning regional gatherings later in the year and we would love to explore ways to keep amplifying the messages we all carry. We’ll be in touch as those plans take shape and we hope very much that you’ll be part of them.
How you can help
Help fund our work, join our Substack as a paid member.
We want to work alongside people to create content for the Substack. You do not need to agree with everything the Collective has said. But we do want to create a place for wide-reaching professional discussion. You can see more info here.
Become a collective member. Be listed on our website as a collective member and help build this movement.
Substack Summary
Here is the list of the published posts from April 2026 on the Aotearoa Educators Collective (AEC) Substack:
30 April 2026: ACTION REQUIRED: Budget 2026 Education Survey — Link
29 April 2026: The Incoherence at the Heart of New Zealand’s Curriculum Reform — Link
28 April 2026: Eight months on in education - are our opposition parties finally finding their voices? — Link
27 April 2026: NZ Science Curriculum Feedback (Years 0–10) | 700+ Educator Annotations — Link
26 April 2026: School Briefs - Curriculum at speed will fail, ignoring educators, is AI being used? — Link
25 April 2026: Sunday Read: The “value for money” question/s Part 2 — Link
23 April 2026: Under Pressure: Is the New Reporting System Already Cracking Under the Pressure? — Link
20 April 2026: Afterschool Special: Draft Curriculum Framework Final Consultation Session Live — Link
19 April 2026: School Briefs - Urgent Waitangi Tribunal case, A rogue press release, and curriculum consultation — Link
18 April 2026: Sunday Read: What’s happening in ECE Part 1 — Link
16 April 2026: What the removal of Te Tiriti can allow some schools to become — Link
15 April 2026: Afterschool Special: Completing the consultation on the draft Social Sciences curriculum — Link
15 April 2026: Quantity Comes First: The Case for Writing More … and Messily — Link
14 April 2026: Afterschool Special: Completing the consultation on the Learning Languages Curriculum — Link
13 April 2026: Afterschool Special Draft Health and Physical Education Live with Claire Coleman — Link
13 April 2026: The Urgent Waitangi Tribunal Hearing — Link
12 April 2026: Setting the Record Straight — Link
08 April 2026: AIMHI Principals – Request for Urgent Review of New ERO Reporting Format — Link
07 April 2026: More like a Manifesto than a Curriculum — Link
06 April 2026: The Elephant in the Classroom — Link
05 April 2026: Collective Matters #17 — Link
05 April 2026: School Briefs - Deep Learning, Primary Teachers settlement, more election comms — Link