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Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says proposed changes to school funding are likely to hit hardest on schools where the bulk of Maori children study.
The teacher unions have taken the unprecedented step of calling joint stopworks next month to discuss the proposals, which are being labelled a return to the bulk funding of the 1990s.
Ms Turei says wealthy schools which get extra money from parents and fundraising may benefit.
Low decile schools, where most Maori children are, will find they need to make hard choices between maintenance, resources and keeping good staff.
"What it means in essence is that our kids will have schools that are way under resourced compared to other schools and they suffer educationally as a result. Then government will blame teachers, they'll blame parents for not being perfect parents, they'll blame the kids. The whole system just starts to collapse," says Metiria Turei.
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