When the Budget music stopped, ECE missed out

28 May 2026

Te Rito Maioha says Budget 2026 has failed to deliver the investment needed to protect quality early childhood education, leaving the sector continuing to play a damaging game of “musical chairs” where someone will inevitably miss out.

We welcome the Budget increase of 1.5%, however, this falls well short of addressing the ongoing and growing financial pressures facing ECE services, kaiako, tamariki, and whānau across Aotearoa.

“When the music stops in musical chairs, someone is always left without a seat, that seat is ECE,” says Kathy Wolfe, Chief Executive of Te Rito Maioha.

“Despite Minister Seymour saying ‘ECE in New Zealand should be affordable, high quality, and accessible,’ this budget has done nothing to live up to those words.”

“What this Budget means for early childhood education is that someone will miss out, whether it is families paying higher fees, tamariki missing out on education, kaiako stretched beyond capacity, or services still struggling to remain sustainable.”

Years of underinvestment, rising operational costs, inflation, workforce shortages, and increasing expectations have already pushed many services to breaking point. ECE have not recovered from receiving no increases from 2015 to 2017 by the previous National government. We were hopeful Minister Seymour would have rectified that.

“One of the few positives for ECE in this budget is that the Government has brought forward the timing of the funding increase from January next year to July this year, delivering approximately an additional $40 million to the sector annually.”

This Budget does little to relieve the pressure that has already built up, with recent NZEI Te Riu Roa analysis finding that Government ECE funding has fallen more than 13.5 percent* behind inflation since 2020, highlighting the growing gap between the real cost of delivering quality early childhood education and current funding levels.”

“ECE services have been warning for years that the system is under strain. This Budget risks forcing services into impossible decisions such as increasing fees, reducing staffing, delaying improvements, or scaling back support for children with additional needs,” says Mrs Wolfe.

“We are deeply disappointed the Government has failed to recognise early childhood education as the essential public good that it is.”

While the Government continues its ECE funding review, there is no substitute for immediate investment.

“Chronic underfunding cannot be solved simply by changing the rules of the game,” says Mrs Wolfe, and the recent suggestion by Minister Seymour on Q&A that the ECE Sector Review would save millions of dollars is improbable at best.”

“Without meaningful new investment, we are simply rearranging the chairs while expecting everyone to keep playing. In fact, it’s worse than that, with the budget failing to keep up with inflation it’s the equivalent of taking chairs away.”

The organisation says New Zealand risks undermining its internationally respected ECE system if funding continues to lag behind the real costs of delivering quality education.

“Quality early childhood education benefits everyone, tamariki, whānau, communities, and the wider economy. Children begin their learning journey in ECE and build the foundations they need for lifelong learning and success.”

“We know high-quality ECE changes lives, but quality requires investment. It requires qualified kaiako, safe teacher-child ratios, strong learning support, and services that are financially sustainable.”

The organisation says the Government must prioritise:

• increased investment in ECE services to meet rising costs and maintain quality a long-term teacher workforce strategy to attract and retain qualified kaiako

• improved teacher-child ratios

• a funding model that better supports tamariki, whānau, teachers and ECE providers

• maintaining a fully qualified teaching workforce.

“The Government needs to urgently work with the sector on a strategy that properly funds quality teacher-led ECE and keeps tamariki at the centre of decision-making.”

“The music has stopped, and once again early childhood education has been left scrambling for a seat,” says Mrs Wolfe.

“This is not good enough for our tamariki, our whānau, or the future of Aotearoa.”

*updates the NZEI assumption of a 0% increase in 2026 to 1.5%

ECE budget increases through Budgets

Media Contact

Rob McCann - Lead Communications Advisor | Kaitohutohu Whakapā Matua
022 411 4560
rob.mccann@ecnz.ac.nz