Shadow education minister Lovitta Foggo believes Bermuda’s education system should take precedence over a new airport or the America’s Cup in light of the damning school reorganisation report.

While Ms Foggo said she could not place the blame for the dilapidated state of public primary school infrastructure — which is among many deficiencies highlighted in the Score report — on the One Bermuda Alliance, she said it was wrong to place emphasis on other projects while children were not receiving enough resources.

Speaking in the House of Assembly on Friday as part of the Opposition’s Reply to the Budget, Ms Foggo said: “As far as I know there has been no outcry that this Government didn’t do this or that.

“I made my own press release a month ago saying not just this Government but governments in the past have failed to make sure that our schools are at a certain standard. We didn’t make certain of that and that is a travesty.”

Ms Foggo mentioned the need to improve LF Wade International Airport yet said that people only spend an hour at most in the facility. She then spoke about the $77 million the OBA had dedicated to “a sport”, the America’s Cup.

“But money is not available to invest in your children’s future,” she said. “Which would I pick first? My Bermudian children are far more important to me.”

Shadow finance minister David Burt’s Reply to the Budget criticised the Score report for finding potential for school closure via factors “not founded in academic performance or outputs”.

Michael Dunkley defended the OBA, saying the Progressive Labour Party had 14 years to sort out the problem.

“The best idea they come up with is phasing out middle schools,” the Premier said.

“All of us have a role to play — teachers, principals, professionals in school, parents — we all have that responsibility.”

Mr Dunkley blasted a section of the Opposition’s Reply that read: “The OBA always seems to find the money for its pet projects and no-bid contracts for friends and family, but it is content to short-change our children.”

The Premier raised the Port Royal project executed under the PLP “when they [the PLP] brought in foreign workers and had them living in the club house, and they say, ‘we love Bermudians’. I was born at night but not last night.”

He then brought up the Grand Atlantic housing project, initiated by the Opposition, which he described as “ghost housing”.

“Only one person lives up there — the ghosts must have loved it! Don’t talk to me about pet projects,” he said.

Mr Dunkley also said the Opposition had been complaining about the OBA building a new airport when the PLP had spent $3 million on plans to build a new, visionary airport. The Premier added that it reminded him of his days fishing as a boy: “Flip and flop.”

Mark Bean, the Leader of the Opposition, came down hard on the Premier for his “across the board” tax hikes, including on payroll, saying it was “the surest way of destroying prospects for economic growth”.

“When the former Minister of Finance [Paula Cox] rose payroll by 2 per cent it was described as a catalyst for exodus in international business,” he said.

“If that is bad, how much worse is it when we have a Minister of Finance not only mimicking the same policy, but taking a step further and raising taxes across the board. These tax hikes are a major policy error.”

Mr Bean also said that if his party returned to power he would launch a Commission of Inquiry into “the OBA’s egregious actions”.

Patricia Gordon-Pamplin, Minister of Community, Culture and Sport, took particular issue with the “civil disobedience” exhibited by protesters during a meeting two weeks ago about immigration reform chaired by Michael Fahy, the Minister of Home Affairs, and Trevor Moniz, the Attorney-General.

The meeting, intended to inform the public of the proposed policy to grant permanent residency and Bermudian status to long-term residents, ended after the demonstrators began chanting “no, no, no” and “no to OBA immigration reform”.

Ms Gordon-Pamplin said she believed the action was instigated by PLP MP Walton Brown, and she described it as “the most reprehensible act of all my years in government”.

Michael Scott, the Shadow Attorney-General, became irate at the suggestion the protest was initiated by the Opposition, telling her: “You take such liberties! There is no evidence we have whipped that up.”

Ms Gordon-Pamplin responded by saying that Mr Brown was on the record on social media as having called for “civil disobedience”, and that the MP had even told her of his intentions.

“It is very obvious on Facebook with one specific intent,” she said.

Speaking about the public meeting, Ms Gordon-Pamplin said: “You don’t shout down everyone. Listen to the discourse and then if you want to, disagree with it.”

PLP MP Rolfe Commissiong questioned why permanent residents should want full Bermudian status.

He said it could only come down to the right to vote, which he did not agree with.

Mr Moniz questioned whether Mr Commissiong would feel the same way if he had no voting rights.