An economist says education spending will keep shrinking as a share of GDP under the fiscal plans released by ACT, Labour and National.

Parents’ Alliance chair Cameron Bagrie, an economist at Bagrie Economics, says education spending has fallen from 4.8% of GDP two years ago to 4.6%.

“We’re not over-investing in the sector, we’re actually under-investing,” he says.

He says every party apart from ACT is putting heavy spending into health.

“If you throw a lot of money at health, well, guess what? Your $2.4 billion operating allowance has basically disappeared.”

Bagrie says the alliance backs Labour’s pledge to restore rural school bus routes, provided each route stands up to a rigorous cost-benefit analysis.

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