So National will continue their rorts by giving ministries to their tame poodles, Rimmer and the Hair. Despite each making the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party look like it has a serious electoral mandate. I guess it makes it look like National has friends, and Act and UF appreciate the extra cash.
But Seymour will probably get Associate Education, which means National will continue to have cover for more Charter Schools. Which had at least 1 in 5 schools failing completely, despite being given 5 times as much cash per pupil as normal schools.
Once again Act works to provide National right-wing policies they don’t want to own.
We could go over again how Charter Schools (from plenty of overseas evidence) enhance rather than solve inequality, despite Seymour’s claim, but I think the education unions have well and truly won the intellectual argument. But that won’t stop more Charter Schools.
Because according to John Key in the campaign, your local primary school teacher, as a member of the NZEI, isn’t there to do their best by your child, but to further Labour party policies for their own outrageous ends.
This despite the NZEI being in no way affiliated to Labour (neither is the PPTA, PSA, even the CTU isn’t, despite what some media think). Indeed the fact that Labour’s policy might be near NZEI’s targets is because Labour listens to teachers as educational professionals, instead of demonising them.
Listening isn’t what Anne Tolley does, despite her claims. NCEA or similar for 13 and 14 year olds are her latest idea, and according to her are backed by the sector. Except no-one in the sector can be found who’s heard of the idea, let alone backs it.
So we’ll continue to have cuckoo ideas hatched in our schools. Education professionals who cite evidence that ideas like National Standards aren’t best practice will continue to be denigrated and sidelined. It’s this government’s Dirty Politics way against all those who seek to add evidence to the debate – drive them out, so only National’s plan gets heard.
And while National continues their anti-teacher campaigns and implementing ideological ideas against evidence, problems like the decile divide worsen, and Auckland doesn’t have enough schools and instead has huge rolls and overcrowding.
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Do read Science and Democracy on Public Address – a good recap of how this government sidelines evidence-based debate.
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