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Simon O’Connor / Stuff
Seventy-five percent, or about $ 8.7 million, of the government’s recent $ 11.7 million for the Taranaki Green School is a loan, says CEO Chris Edwards. (File photo)
A week after it was announced that it would receive nearly $ 12 million in government funding, the principal of the private school Taranaki Green School has clarified that the money is primarily a loan.
“To be clear, it was never, ever a 100 percent grant at all,” said Chris Edwards, executive director of Green School New Zealand, on Wednesday. “The application was for a 25% grant; the rest was a series of loans.”
Last week, Deputy Minister of Finance and Co-Director of the Green Party, James Shaw, announced that the Green School in Ōākura would receive funding for its multi-million dollar expansion project.
This was widely criticized across the country, with Taranaki principals billing the government for millions of dollars to obtain equal treatment for their students.
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* The director of Taranaki sends the government a bill of 26.9 million dollars to ask for equal treatment
On Tuesday, Shaw publicly apologized for his decision to invest in the private school, saying the best that could happen now would be for the funds to be converted into a loan.
But Edwards, who is the executive director of the school and has 30 years of experience in education, said this was already partially true.
In an interview with RNZ ‘s Morning reportsaid the application was for a 75 percent loan and a 25 percent grant.
ROBERT KITCHEN / Things
Greens co-leaders James Shaw (right) and Marama Davidson held an apology press conference in Parliament for the $ 11.7 million funding on Tuesday. (File photo)
This would mean that $ 8.77 million would be returned and $ 2.92 million was a grant.
“We are still awaiting information from Crown’s infrastructure partnership on the nature of the fund,” Edwards said. “We are waiting for more information on what it will look like.”
When asked if the money could be withdrawn, Edwards said it was his understanding that a contract had been “somehow signed”.
Andy Jackson
If the $ 11.7 million were divided into Edward’s calculations, it would mean that $ 8.77 million and a grant of $ 2.92 million would be returned. (File photo)
In addition, he did not think that taking it out would do any good, since the money came from a “specific covid fund for ready-to-use infrastructure projects.”
Edwards said the school applied for a “job creation and values-based community wealth fund” that would help the Taranaki community.
“If the money is reimbursed, hypothetically, none of that will happen,” he said.
“I understand that not a penny goes back to the public sector, for example, it is not an education fund, and not a penny of that goes back to Taranaki.”
