Collegiate a huge benefit to the region

Anna Wallis PHOTO/FILE

The question of Collegiate must be a vexed one for any Labour candidate or supporter in Wanganui, especially after Chris Hipkins' spray in Parliament.

Or for anyone who believes the state's role is to bolster public sector education, not private institutions.

Mr Hipkins, the opposition education spokesman, said on Thursday that the $3 million spend annually on the school post-integration was little benefit to taxpayers. Mr Hipkins said with just seven additional places for day students the taxpayer investment of $440,000 doesn't exactly represent value for money.

He advocates spending that money on other secondary schools in Wanganui to even-up the playing field.

There are problems with secondary schools in Wanganui - on the face of it one has too many and several have too few.

Mr Hipkins was derisive of the benefits to the province of having Collegiate in the city. But this is a case of a little local knowledge perhaps putting a different slant on the discussion.

Mr Hipkins should not assume that traditional Labour voters don't send their children to Collegiate, and he should not assume that Collegiate is just a school. Losing Collegiate would have a devastating effect on this province in terms of jobs, status and image, as well as educational opportunities.

It should be viewed as a prominent industry or commercial enterprise. Perhaps there could be a comparison to the propping up of Air New Zealand by the last Labour government in 2001.

Little enough government money is pumped into this city - most of it seems to be heading east as increasingly more government work and tertiary opportunities are centralised in Palmerston North.

So here's something you don't hear very often - "Go Hekia!" All power to education minister Parata's elbow and her "long bow" that keeping Collegiate open is regional development.