Today National and Act passed a law to reduce the effectiveness of student unions.
Earlier this year they passed a law that took student reps off polytechnic councils.
Seems they dont want students to have a strong voice when it comes to tertiary education. I wonder what they have in store for them?
This week I had the privilege of announcing Labour’s plan to lift achievement in primary schools – or more accurately, years 1-8. We called it “Reaching for the Stars – Whakamaua Nga Whetu” and it spells out the way forward from the debacle that is National’s national standards.
Our policy ensures that parents get plain language information they require on their child’s achievement, progress and next learning steps without schools having the flawed national standards imposed on them. Labour will require schools to use recognised assessment tools and teacher judgement to assess children against the celebrated NZ Curriculum. Simple really – no major drama.
Meanwhile, the Government has resorted to having the Ministry write national standard targets for the non-compliant schools. So much for self-managing schools! As we speak, those school boards are now being threatened with the sack if they return those charters to the Ministry with the words “under duress” on them. This Government seems determined to go to war with the education sector, rather than work with them to get good outcomes. As Labour’s policy shows, its all so unnecessary.
It is telling that Mrs Tolley hasnt been able to work out how to attack our policy. She started off with ” the policy is written by the unions,” but then changed tack later on to say it was a “watered down version of national standards.” Of course, neither is true – but the contradiction in her statements demonstrates how Crosby Textor are struggling to find the attack line on our policy. Which all adds up to it being just more great policy from Labour.
I prefer for our educators and school boards to be focused on providing excellent education for our children, than going to war with the Ministry of Education. Labour’s policy lets them get on with the job, while making sure parents are kept in the loop too. After all, we know that our kids’ education thrives when parents and teachers work in partnership.
Poor Alasdair Thompson – he got the “hospital pass.”
He had to go on National Radio for the Employers’ and Manufacturer’s Association and defend its position against legislation that would help to identify where women were getting paid less for doing the same work as men.
He was given the job of defending the indefensible and he came up with, well, the inplausible. But what else could he do?
There was no logical way he could mount the EMA’s opposition to a Bill proposed by Catherine Delahunty MP that simply gives employees transparency about pay rates so they can see if equal pay laws are being adhered to.
So, in the absence of logic he chose prejudice. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened and it won’t be the last.
Now that the EMA have distanced themselves from the statements made by their spokesperson, will they now drop their ridiculous opposition to equal pay?
That’s the real test of what they stand for.
Last week the early childhood education taskforce appointed by Minister Anne Tolley proposed a funding model that unravels Labour’s 20 hours free ECE.
Today in Parliament, Anne Tolley said her Government did not have a policy for 20 hours free ECE – despite promising to keep the policy, its fee controls and subsidies at the last election.
Joining the dots, it doesn’t look to good for access to affordable, quality ECE.
The ECE Taskforce maintains its not ditching 20 hours ECE, but that is just semantics. The fundamental planks of that policy are that it pays for the delivery of the ECE curriculum, Te Wharirki, for 20 hours; it is universally available to all families and providers can only charge optional fees for those 20 hours for extras like lunch, sun-screen etc.
The taskforce recommend that it only part-fund the curriculum for 20 hours, is funded at lower rates to most families and that the fee controls be removed. That is not the 20 hours ECE policy, whatever name they give to it.
Taskforce Chair Michael Mintrom has researched and written extensively on the subject of how to make unpalatable policies acceptable in the field of education and so the taskforce report says all the right things about ECE, but then proposes a funding model that doesnt deliver to that vision.
In defence of the taskforce members, its not their fault. I think they have done the best job they could with bad instructions from the Minister. The terms of reference were basically this – tell the Government how to add more children to the early childhood education sector, without increasing the cost.
One of the Taskforce members, Emeritus Professor Anne Smith, issued a minority report opposing the proposed funding model on the grounds that “it is likely that the level of subsidy would decline markedly for parents currently receiving 20 hours of subsidy a week.”
This Government’s refusal to reverse its unaffordable tax cuts in order to increase investment in ECE put the ECE Taskforce in an untenable situation.
However, that pales in comparison with the untenable situation National will put families in if fees go up even more than they already have for early childhood education.
In this Government’s constant attempts to paint a crisis in our world-class education system they only ever want to talk about under-achievement.
Gifted Awareness Week (June 13-19) gives us a chance to reflect on the huge diversity of students in our education system.
Gifted students are not always the ones doing fabulously well. They may be the student with behavioural problems, the student who has trouble relating to their peers or the student who is disrupting the class.
Last week I visited the Correspondence School and was told that many gifted students use that service because the school environment doesn’t meet their needs.
It caused me to think about National’s national standards and how much harm the “one size fits all” approach does, not only to those students who are labelled failures but also those who need different challenges than most of their peers.
If a school’s worth is to be judged on how many students they get “over the bar” then not only will the under-achievers lose out, but so will those capable of very high-achievement.
Under that scenario it would be “human nature” for schools to direct their biggest effort into those who are just failing to reach the standard to get them “over the bar” and this could come at the expense of the others.
I would appreciate some feedback from those who have some experience with gifted children – either as family or in a professional capacity. What do you think?
Yesterday on Waatea AM, John Key criticised Kawerau Intermediate pupils for coming to Parliament to protest against their school be closed down by his Government.
“Personally,” he said. “I slightly prefer it when the argument is held at an adult level. I feel queasy when young people are dragged into a political debate..”
Huh? Who was it who took young Aroha to Waitangi as a media stunt in 2008?
The very same, John Key.
Today in question time John Key showed how out of touch he is with the cost increases that he has imposed on NZ families with his early childhood education funding cuts.
Have a look and see what you think: Sue Moroney to the Prime Minister
As we focus as a nation on the tragedy that continues in Christchurch, Labour has made a conscious decision not to comment on other issues of the day.
Its a sound and wise decision made in the interests of New Zealand. It honours those who lost their lives in the earthquake and the suffering of those left behind.
In contrast, The Government has used the situation to sneak out at least one controversial announcement – allowing much larger numbers of pre-schoolers to attend individual early childhood education centres.
The decision allows for up to 75 under two-year-olds in a centre. Sounds like the battery hen scenario for children.
Apparently, the decision was supposed to go to the Ministry’s early childhood advisory committee for consultation but that meeting was called off because off the earthquake.
So the Ministry just went ahead anyway.
Ironically, it flies in the face of findings by the Children’s Commissioner who’s launch of the report on care of infants and babies has been delayed because of the earthquake.
This is very bad form from the Government.
The Nats and their friends are looking more and more ridiculous on early childhood education – their spin just makes them look dodgy and out of touch.
Their insistence that there have not been funding cuts to the sector bears no resemblance to the reality and last night their poor Botany Candidate had been advised to trot the line out in front of an audience who largely worked in ECE or had children going to ECE.
I say largely, because Jason Ede from the PMs office and right wing muck-raker Cameron Slater didnt quite fit the mould and neither did the dozen young nats who turned up with a great flourish of bravado.
That bravado evaporated quickly when they had to listen to excellent speeches from teachers, parents and academics on the effect of the funding cuts their party told them didnt exist.
I hope they found it educational.
Even the Act candidate pledged her total opposition to the ECE funding cuts, despite her party voting for them.
Unfortunately, the Nat candidate blundered on to deny the cuts were happening, despite all the evidence laid out in front of him.
To be fair, he’s only following the lead of Prime Minister John Key who is also denying the cuts are happening and that fees are rising as a result. The PM is not telling the truth – just like the ministerial cars.
But what’s Rahui Katene’s excuse? She had a speech delivered in her absence to new ECE students this week saying she valued qualified staff in the sector, when her party also voted for the budget cuts to ECE.
Instead of apologising for not being there in person, she should have been apologising for voting to cut funding for qualified staff.
And for the record, Labour’s Botany Candidate Michael Wood gave an outstanding performance at last night’s debate on ECE. Expected nothing less.
Tonight on TV3 news, John Key said fees aren’t going up at ECE centres.
What planet is he on? More to the point, why is he being so badly briefed by his Minister of Education?
His claim flies in the face of reality as One News reported tonight, where they visited a centre where the fees are going up $50 per child per week because of Keys cuts to ECE.
Parents all over NZ know their fees are increasing and some are having to make tough decisions because they cant afford the increases
Maybe John Key thinks he is so bullet proof that he can tell outright fibs on TV – never mind those thousands of families who are having to stump up more money because of his cuts.
For the record, the funding cuts affect around 2300 ECE centres throughout NZ where more than 100,000 children are enrolled. Ninety percent of those centres report they are increasing fees, as well as cutting staff, field trips for the kids, reducing building maintenance and a whole range of other measures.
Its not a good look for the PM to misrepresent the reality. They are in trouble on this one.
…How last year, John Key had the media believing National was doing a good job of pulling NZ out of recession and suddenly yesterday he has decided we are in the cart big time (he said we have the same debt profile as Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) and we need to sell off the family silver to survive. What happened over Xmas?
…That the mythical mum and dad investors are going to buy up the family silver so we are not gobbled up by foreigners. Now John, would they be the Mum and Dad investors who lost their lifesavings to financial institutions in 2008 or are they the ones who have saved up a big nest egg over the past two years while wages have stagnated and prices keep going up? Surely, your not going to try and sell the line that it will be the KiwiSaver accounts that you gutted to make them as meaningless as possible?
…That National’s solutions to the nations problem now, look exactly the same as in the past – tax cuts that favour the wealthy, cuts to health and education and asset sales to privatise the nations wealth.
Play it again John. Didnt work then, wont work now.
While making the annual visit to Ratana today to celebrate the Prophet, I was reflecting on visits I have made since becoming an MP in 2005.
I vividly remember John Key’s first speech there as Prime Minister in 2009. As usual, he had nothing of any real substance to say, but he did make a big issue about how much of a high priority early childhood education would be for his Government.
As the newly-appointed opposition spokesperson for this role, I took particular note of what he said.
And then he went and cut $400m of funding from ECE in 2010.
I guess he had to fund his tax cuts from somewhere, but he should have come clean with the followers of Ratana. If he was being honest, he would have told them that tax cuts for the rich was his Government’s priority and kids would just have to go without.
Mind you, he also said he didnt expect his funding cuts in ECE to be passed onto parents – that’s turned out to be another betrayal as fees for ECE go up all over the country on February 1st.
Neil and I with half of the group painting the fence while the other half were inside doing different work.
On Tuesday night a van adorned with Labour stickers pulled up in Hamilton full of Young Labourites on their Clarion Tour. As Trevor and Grant said, they’re heading throughout the country (Orewa to Queenstown) doing community service. Some are on leave from work and others are on their Summer break from uni.
Point is, they’re doing good deeds and helping out the community groups that give so much to their local areas. These groups deserve the break and to know that we notice their efforts.
After a night of Sing Star (they let the local Labour MP win – good politics) we were at the Western Community Centre in Nawton. They painted fences, removed tagging and got items ready for the community noticeboard.
The Western Community Centre is an important fixture in Nawton. It’s a low socio-economic neighbourhood where families are struggling with extra GST costs, raised doctors fees and unaffordable increases in early childhood education fees.
I’ll have similar energy to Young Labour’s to win back Hamilton West because they need an MP and a Labour Government to stand up for them.
Thanks, Young Labour. I hear they were on the ferry to South Island this afternoon. You can follow them on facebook, twitter and at www.clariontour.co.nz.
John Key promised to close the gaps between New Zealand and Australia, but ever since he got elected, those gaps have kept widening in Australia’s favour.
In just two days time a new gap will emerge, as Australian families become entitled to 18 weeks paid parental leave on January 1.
In New Zealand, we have 14 weeks PPL which was brought in under Labour – National voted against it.
Under Labour, we led the Aussie’s on PPL entitlements. They currently have no legislative entitlement to PPL – that all changes on Saturday.
The Australian Government is smart. It knows that investing in parents spending more time with their children when they are babies reaps benefits – and saves money – later on.
That Government has also had an economic plan that has its economy going from strength to strength, even in the current global financial environment.
Meanwhile….NZ keeps drifting further and further behind with a Government that has no plan and is so short-sighted that it can’t think beyond the next photo op for the smiling assasin (as John Key was known when he worked for Merrill Lynch).
…and things keep getting tougher for Kiwi families. But hey, Happy New Year anyway.
Yes- I know its unparliamentary language, but John Key’s assertion today in Parliament that the answer to reducing the growing child poverty rate is education can be described no other way. He has cut funding to early childhood education – $400m in fact. His funding cuts will mean increased fees for parents and some low-income families won’t be able to afford to have their chidren in ECE next year.
I’m a Matamata girl, well I was born and raised in Walton to be precise, about 10 kms north of Matamata.
The whole Hobbit thing has been great for my home town and I too am an advocate of it continuing to be filmed there. But there are other small people who are endangered in Matamata and I expect they will be asking for tax-payer hand-out to keep their multi-million industry and its associated jobs going.
I’m talking about the racing industry ( although it is of course true that those who work in the industry are not all small).
Thanks to this Government’s economic mismanagement, the racing industry is really struggling. And to make matters worse, the additional funding put in by Labour when Winston Peters was Minister of Racing was stripped away by National this racing season because the country couldn’t afford it.
What a slap in the face to that industry to see that suddenly, the country could afford it when Warner Bros rolled into town.
How come an American corporate entity deserves tax-payer subsidy, but a home-grown industry employing thousands year after year doesn’t?
And are there more deserving cases who could have done with the $33m without selling our independance as a country down the tubes, demanding changes to domestic law without seeking the opinions of New Zealanders via a select committee process?
So says the front page of Saturday’s Waikato Times, after they polled 180 readers on the subject.
only 12% felt they were any better off, 38% worse off and 33% unchanged. Some readers said John Key has lost their vote over the GST increase.
And just to show how out of touch those on big incomes are with reality, a partner of Deloitte Hamilton says people just had to “reprioritise.”
“You can choose whether or not to spend money and therefore pay tax,” he said.
Really? Choose not to buy groceries, pay the power bill, pay for petrol, pay the rent? This man has no idea that low and middle-income families spend all they earn on just getting by.
His out-of-touch comments reflect arrogant National Party thinking. Guess he must be in the 12% laughing at the expense of the other 88%.
What is it about National’s Tertiary Education Ministers and Helicopters?
First off, we had Anne Tolley taking the tertiary sector literally when they suggested she should take a “helicopter view” of the sector -she had them stump up for a costly ride in a chopper over Auckland.
Now, we have Steven Joyce telling the country that he would prefer fund helicopter trips for commuters between Hamilton and Auckland than to subsidise a passenger train service between the two cities.
He seemed to have borrowed Simon Power’s strategy of heavily inflating the cost to the taxpayer, so he could justify his idealogical postition against trains and for more and more roads. Joyce claimed the train would cost $15-16,000 per trip which is complete rubbish.
Power used this tactic to try to justify the closing down of Hamilton’s successful trial youth justice facility, Te Hurihanga.
Maybe they just think people can’t do maths in Hamilton. Sonething of a miscalculation, if you excuse the pun.
Some of you will know that I’m a betting woman and I’m willing to wage a bet that the long-awaited new North East Hamilton secondary school will be on the list of school properties being prepared for a Private Public Partnership.
When in Government, Labour was prepared to go down the PPP path, where it could be demonstrated that it made good economic and social sense. But it never did. And it still doesn’t.
The private sector wants its hands on this school building ownership so it can make a buck out of the taxpayer.
And while they make a buck out of it, education will lose out. Not to mention the loss of control by the school and lack of access to school properties by the community.
Its another bad plan from a Government that has already run out of ideas. It is now reduced to following failed models from other countries – a bit like national standards really.
It has been a disaster in the UK and it will be here too.
Not content with increasing GST for low and middle income families, the Nats added another $23-31 a week per child onto families’ early childhood education costs.
They have reduced the 20 hours free ECE subsidy for those centres that have 80-100% qualified staff – that’s a broken election promise and its an attack on quality education and families all in one hit.
Meanwhile, the wealthy get wealthier with whopping tax cuts.
Isn’t it strange how a National Government does the same things in “tough times” as it does any other time – the rich get richer and everyone else has to pay for it. This time, its our kids and their futures.
