Let me start by putting my education cards on the table. I think public money should fund public schools. If you want to have a private school that’s fine but do it with private money.
I also think that our current model of funding schools that came out of the Tomorrow’s Schools neoliberal “reforms” has resulted in rich public schools and poor public school and that’s just wrong.
OK – now to the decision announced by Associate Finance Minister and Green Party Leader James Shaw that a privately run Green School will get over $11 million out of the $ 3 Billion set aside for infrastructure in the Covid-19 recovery fund.
Politically this is an own goal.
If you go to the Greens Education Policy page you will read:
• State schools should be funded so they are not reliant on donations, fees, or fundraising.
• Public funding for private schools should be phased out and transferred to public schools.
• Public-private partnerships should not be used for building or running schools.
(see https://www.greens.org.nz/education_policy )
To argue that the money for the Green School is not coming out of the Education Budget but the Covid- 19 Recovery Programme fools no one.
It’s clearly a betrayal of policy and raises the issue of trust. Can we trust what else is written on their website is ACTUALLY their policy ?
I note that National’s Nicola Willis has been quick to label it hypocrisy and I can’t say she is wrong. However Willis is also guilty of hypocrisy on this issue because you can’t be pro public funding of private schools and cry foul when it happens.
Chris Hipkins washing his Pontius Pilot hands in public with his nothing to- do- with -me statement , simply reveals Labour’s neoliberal heart is still beating.Did Finance Minister Grant Robertson also disapprove of this funding of a private school.If so why did it see the light of day?
Should we have green sustainable learning in our education system ?
Hell yes!
But in the curriculum for EVERY school. Many schools around the country have got their shovel’s ready to create school gardens for example. $11 million would go a long way to creating them.
As I see it the Greens have been effective on the Climate Change and on Poverty fronts, but they have also made decisions that have left me genuinely puzzled eg. giving up their Question Time slots in Parliament to National, shrugging their shoulders over the Water Bottling issue and now financially supporting a private school.
One sure way to lose and election is to keep scoring own goals and this was a classic.
Bryan Bruce is one of NZs most respected documentary makers and public intellectuals who has tirelessly exposed NZs neoliberal economic settings as the main cause for social issues.
100% correct Bryan well sated there with backup from the Greens education policy it was clear that the Greens ignored there own principals.
Bryan posted greens education policy and here is a copy;
If you go to the Greens Education Policy page you will read:
• State schools should be funded so they are not reliant on donations, fees, or fundraising.
• Public funding for private schools should be phased out and transferred to public schools.
• Public-private partnerships should not be used for building or running schools.
(see https://www.greens.org.nz/education_policy )
My take ; That evidence clearly shows a of a change of Green Party Policy was made by James Shaw.
I doubt he really knows what Green PARTY policy is frankly.
HYPOCRISY Masterclass, by James Shaw – book now and use my code #fundpublicschools to get 10% off, on all major MMS and hypocrisy streaming platforms #labour #national #NZFirst #all of nz’s politicians #corruptaf #wedontknowthehalfofit #we’refucked
Pathetic. The Greens keep hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons, every fucken week, precisely because the question of how to become successful never comes up in the public education system so you just have to go outside the public education system to learn how to become successful.
The problem with Bryan Bruce is he’s always giving you the debilitating message which is the opposite of the principal requirement of a successful 4th industrial revolution with Green Party flavours. The worst thing Shaw did was fucken apologies and pander to these needy and conflicted idiots in terms of there own objectives who don’t get what freedom and success are because it simply isn’t apart of there educational background.
“However Willis is also guilty of hypocrisy on this issue because you can’t be pro public funding of private schools and cry foul when it happens.”
Nonsense. She’s not complaining about the partial public funding of private schools she’s pointing out the stupidity and hypocrisy of the Greens and the omnishambles of the COL. That’s her job.
This is where the hypocrisy lies…
Wikipedia
“Following the 2011 general election, the National Party, in return for confidence and supply, announced it would pick up an ACT party policy of setting up charter schools in southern Auckland and eastern Christchurch within three years. This followed the appointment of Lesley Longstone as the new Secretary of Education, who had experience in England with charter schools, although Longstone resigned in November 2012 after falling out with Education Minister Hekia Parata over the error-ridden Novopay payroll system. The National-ACT alliance intended to set up charter schools as alternatives to state schools. Schools would be operated by private businesses or organisations and would be directly accountable for performance to the organizations running them. The schools would receive state funding and private donations, but have the same freedoms as private schools in matters such as in setting the curriculum, length of the school year and teachers’ pay.
“THE SCHOOLS WOULD RECEIVE STATE FUNDING”
The issue for the Greens and Shaw is that they/he campaigned against this.
However…
“in late October 2017, the newly-formed Labour-led coalition government announced that it would be abolishing charter schools.[6] This announcement triggered mixed responses with teaching unions supporting the Government while charter schools and the opposition National and ACT parties opposing the announcement.[7][8][9] In response to protests, Prime Minister Ardern and the Māori Labour MPs Education Minister Kelvin Davis and Willie Jackson have suggested that charter schools could convert to “special character” schools.[10][11] By September 2018, all twelve remaining charter schools had successfully transitioned to become state integrated schools.[12]
So how is this possibly a private school, I thought there were none?
Sorry bert I don’t understand your point. Further explanation required.
The thing is with Shaws actions, is although it’s a political beltway issue, it seems to really matter to hard core Greens who matter. And that it’s dire for the Greens.
Is he simply an outright bozo, beyond rational thought, or does he actually have a brain and therefore in a calculated way, like giving question time to National weakening his own side and now, funding a private school thereby going against Green Party policy and philosophy, trying to end the Green Party in parliament?
He really shouldn’t be near parliament, for the Green Party anyway.
Yup. The Gweens need time out, and a term or two on Wharepaku duty will refocus them? Or not, but all in all, this lot will not be a great loss because they’re fuck’n useless.
And a few others like supporting the waka jumping bill which they then sort of tried to say they had to, they did not it was not part of their agreement with the government, they did it not to piss Winston off – Rod & Jeanette will be rolling in their graves over that and the numerous other things. The agreement they made around financial fiscal responsibility, something they suggested.
I think this could be the demise of the party which absolutely scares the shit out of me.
I never ever want Labour to govern alone, too many neolibs in there.
And dear leader
You got into politics because of child poverty
You became the prime minister
You said you would halve child poverty in 10 years.
How appalling, child poverty could be removed tomorrow if you had the balls!
Clearly dear leader it won’t be your child.
Please please read The Spirit Level!
Michal, it sounds like we may still need Winston! Not that I’m a fan, far from it, but I agree with you, Labour on their own…oh boy, picture the size of the bureaucracy in Wellington by the end of the next 3 years!!! They’ll take 12 floors just to accommodate the clipboard warriors that measure the depth of cow hoof imprints on farms. Plus another building just for Jacinda’s spin team that will get her out of the child poverty failures.
But of course there are many many many people, even reading here, that count govt bureaucracy as meaningful and productive employment – I don’t…it’s false productivity.
In any case, should Labour win the election, it will be their last term. Their lack of management skills will piss of too many citizens come the election thereafter.
“”Greens have been effective on the Climate Change and on Poverty fronts””” ….????
What country are you living in, Bryan???
Housing waiting lists have increased under COL and the houses are worse, aka motel rooms and apartments replacing 3 bedroom stand alone former state housing with gardens. Poverty for the working poor seems to be increasing at catastrophic levels, food parcels have increased, wages seem to be decreasing in real terms…..
Climate change 2050, is not a goal that is worthy of a modern Green Party.
Not sure that ‘more taxes’ can work, when you don’t seem to have to pay them in NZ with the amount of cash labour and untaxed imports like cigarettes around…. Panama paper stye tax evasion doesn’t seem on the radar and the courts seem to think that money laundering of drugs money and crimes is not even worthy of a conviction let alone jail time… Compassion is important for criminals but not for victims in NZ.
The only high points of the current Greens I can think of, is that they did not vote for the TPPA and they banned the single use bag.
I’m still in a dilemma (and kinda leaning towards not voting Green) about whether this is enough to vote for them with their other clangers like more free water to private Chinese interests.
It is actually more disappointing to be a voter when you used to have more certainty about a parties policies and respect for them but now let down by self serving, self righteous, Green MP kidadults, launching off on major tangents and red herrings of identity politics and bizarre policy (1% wealth tax that hits half of Auckland, when people increasingly don’t have a job that earns enough to pay for it), no doubt helped by the dirty right to destroy the party.
Doesn’t matter what colour, age, sex or gender you, are or how rich you are, if you get stuck in a bush fire, drought or get Covid, you could die. But we no longer have a political party on top of environmental best practise as their number one goal.
It’s a bit of an irony isn’t it !
It seems like a perfectly good idea for the government to offer financial assistance to get new businesses started to help the economy recover from the sudden cancellation of what has been regarded as our main revenue earning industry aside from dairy farming. With no way of knowing if or when it might be able to recover. So there are no exclusions to the kind of industry that might emerge as long as they are legal. On the face of it an enterprise an education centre focusing on the care of the environment would seem to be as attractive a candidate as you could dream up in this day and age But because there is already a state run education system this idea comes into competition with it so it must be condemned.
Are we all sure that we are looking at this holistically? What other startup enterprises do we all think would be so much more appropriate . Does this cut out any social service enterprise like health or age care from being eligible for this assistance if it is in an area where the government has already identified a social need that it has taken some responsibility for.
I can see how James might have thought it was quite a nice idea.
D J S
I can now think of some hard hitting riposte to my girlfriend’s, purple haired, ring in the nose 15 year old daughter suburban little eco warrior princess next time she acuses me of being privileged white albeit of proletariat, hard working blue collar stock whose parents struggled to pay my footy club subscriptions each year let alone 43G tuition fees at some private school for sneering quinoa scoffing bourgeois twerps where you learn what full stops and sentences are all about and she’s a nice girl really and we do get on most of the time.
Thank you James “Airpoints”Shaw.
The trouble with the Greens is they are so disorganised and so befuddled they don’t know what their own policies are, and most of the policies are anti-environmental anyway.
‘It’s clearly a betrayal of policy and raises the issue of trust. Can we trust what else is written on their website is ACTUALLY their policy ?’
The trouble with the Greens is they are so disorganised and so befuddled they don’t know whether what is listed on their website as policy is current policy or last year’s policy awaiting update/revision.
‘As I see it the Greens have been effective on the Climate Change and on Poverty fronts’
Please explain, Bryan, because I have seen zilch that could be termed effective on either ‘Climate Change’ (planetary meltdown) or poverty.
NZ’s emissions were rapidly increasing prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, and if it were not for the dismal state of the world economy (collapse of trade and personal movement), would be increasing still further.
I guess that’s what comes from having someone with a commercial leaning hut no commercial expertise at the top of the pyramid.
Well-meaning fuckwits would be putting it kindly.
More than one own goal – and they’ve just lost the cup final.
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