There will be a chance to quiz three Wairarapa electoral candidates on educational issues tonight at a public meeting at Tararua REAP.
"We want to know what each candidate and their party will do to improve education," organiser for the NZEI event, William Knight, said.
Mr Knight, an early childhood educator at Dannevirke's Appleton Kindergarten, said one of the most important issues was the degradation of education.
"We feel we, as a teaching profession, are being degraded and shown a lack of respect," he said.
"There is also a real lack of funding, especially the per child funding, which is adjusted for inflation. It's being reduced, despite what we're being told."
Mr Knight said educators were also very interested in what the main parties had to say regarding Community of Learning (CoL).
"CoL has some benefit in all education sectors working together which is great, but there are big questions about the future," he said.
"We know CoLs are here to stay, but we need some reassurance about funding and resources.
"There are also concerns about special-education funding and what is going to happen in the revamp of that.
"Hopefully this will be a productive discussion as we want to highlight what is important for the education sector, which is so important to everyone."
Three Wairarapa candidates, Kieran McAnulty from Labour, John Hart, Greens, and sitting MP Alastair Scott, National, will attend the meeting at the Tararua REAP Pioneer Room, Gordon St, Dannevirke, tonight between 5 and 6.30.
Supper will be supplied by the NZEI.