Even Catherine Isaac thinks Parata has no idea
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5:15 pm, October 8th, 2015 - 18 comments
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According to a release from the Labour Party today, even that doyen of Charter Schools, Catherine Isaac, thinks Parata’s decision to not allow a comparison between Charter Schools and State Schools is baffling. So baffling she wrote to Parata urging her to include it. And the Ministry agreed. But Parata did not.
Having commissioned an “independent” report Parata is relying on the report as a PR exercise while holding back that she severely limited its scope
From an article in Stuff it is reported that on
March 18 Parata overruled the ministry and its intentions to supplement the independent report with information about student achievement.
According to the documents viewed by the Labour Party from the Ministry of Education
when the Ministry of Education recommended they compare the achievements of children at charter schools to those of their counterparts at state schools, the documents show Hekia Parata specifically prohibited them from doing so.
“She deliberately excluded such a comparison from the review.
Read the full Labour Party release here
When Catherine Isaac (wife of Roger Kerr of the Round-table and ACT party stalwart) is at odds with Parata, something must be amiss. The irony of Chris Hipkins championing Ms Isaac’s views on education isn’t lost on me.
Since failing to be elected to Parliament under the ACT list in 2011 (and having been a former Party President) Isaac Isaac has been involved in a number of National Government’s initiatives, including the Welfare Working Group, and the Partnership Schools/Kura Hourua Working Group. She is currently Chair of the Kura Hourua Authorisation Board (Wikipedia)
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The Government has done the right thing in moving to ban greyhound racing. ...2 weeks ago
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Perhaps that’s the one virtue of strict ideologues: they are less susceptible to bribery.
That said, a school that couldn’t achieve better returns on 300% funds would have to be run by the National Party.
As for Hekia, I wonder if she has done enough to secure a directorship or two yet.
Of course she is only doing as she is told by John Key. There is no way she would be acting independently.
John Key has enough time to posture and lie and preen and supervise the vegetables? Unlikely.
It’ll be a general instruction to hold back as much information as possible and then leading by example.
Except for SNAFU I expect your analysis has some currency 😉
I think you mean Crosby Textor, not John Key.
I think you mean the Nat party directives from the USA to screw teachers’ unions, not CT
The entire National party has caught Key’s affliction …Key is King Midas but instead of everything he touches turning to gold …it all turns to shit!
Everything National does turns to shit!
Everything they touch does not turn to shit. Shit is useful and can be used as fertilizer or as a fuel. Everything National touches turns to something that is far more worthless than shit, a toxic sludge.
Shit can be easily cleaned up and used.
Toxic sludge on the other hand is not easily cleaned up and needs to be stored away somewhere safe as it is near impossible to eliminate and can stay around for a very long time poisoning the environment.
Catherine Isaac is many things, and “wife of” is one of the least important, particularly in this context.
How about “(past ACT Party President and candidate, member of the Partnership Schools/Kura Hourua Working Group and chair of the Kura Hourua Authorisation Board)”?
Fair comment . The wife of was to show her connection to the most right-wing organisation we had in NZ (now renamed to hide that fact), and I did refer to her as an ACT Party stalwart and “Isaac has been involved in a number of National Government’s initiatives, including the Welfare Working Group, and the Partnership Schools/Kura Hourua Working Group. She is currently Chair of the Kura Hourua Authorisation Board “
Thanks Anita,
I saw that and it bothered me also. Very occasionally such connections are relevant (e.g. Orivida) and very often such connections *should* be disclosed so as to *invite* inspection. But it isn’t relevant in this case. I’ll judge Isaac by her actions (and goodness knows I have sufficient material to form an opinion) just as I judged wassername – previous prime minister, wife of a well known sociologist.
Fair comment, please see my response to Anita
Are you saying that Isaac is *not* a far right wing ideologue then?
Indeed that which National touches turns sour. New Zealand is suffering in so many ways. A lack of transparent democracy being the most obvious. The malaise spreads and infects all manner of quasi government bodies such as community tertiary education providers. New Zealanders are being shown a very dishonest model by National and many are embracing it wholeheartedly.
They are deliberately dismantling the machinery of State and public service so that it can be carved up and transferred to their mates.
From RNZ on 6 October 2015;
“The report by consultancy firm Martin Jenkins was commissioned by the government and considered whether three of the first five schools set up in 2014 were doing anything new.
It said the schools’ governance, management and use of funding was innovative. The schools were governed by people selected for their expertise, rather than because they were parents, and management was split between a chief executive and a principal in charge of education.”
In theory that is not related to them being a Charter School? Or did supporters of Charter Schools and networks of folks such as Isaac and Seymour attract good caliber volunteers to the governance? Or are governors paid an allowance? If yes, then how can that be rolled out to ALL schools? It simply can’t can it?
As for having a CEO (of admittedly small schools) AND a principal, that sounds costly?
Will Parata recommend this model for all State schools, you know, seeing as how it is effective?
Overview of the specialist Board overseeing Charter Schools here