Erica Stanford’s Education Power Grab Explained
Erica Stanford’s education reforms are being described by critics as one of the biggest centralisations of ministerial power over schools, curriculum and teachers in modern New Zealand history.
Bevan Holloway has just posted an article about dictator Stanford’s last minute move to take control of all aspects of New Zealand primary and secondary education.
I must have offended the ME/CFS gods when I wrote my article about this cursed affliction as I’ve been down with the worst ME/CFS crash I’ve had in years. Therefore I don’t have the brain or energy to comment on Bevan’s article, so I’m reposting the whole article. The original is available here.
What just happened to the curriculum and the Teaching Council
This morning, 19 May 2026, the Minister of Education tabled Amendment Paper 583 to the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill. Committee of the whole House sits today.
There are two crucial things (among many) you need to know.
One minister now controls what children learn
The Minister now writes the curriculum
- The Secretary must review curriculum every five years and report to the Minister.
- The Minister may make curriculum changes which ignore that report if they decide the change is “minor or technical”.
- “Minor or technical” is not defined. The Minister decides.
- The Minister, personally, can make and amend national curriculum statements regardless of whether the Secretary has or not.
- The only transparency requirement: public notice after the fact.
- I can find no reference to Te Tiriti as part of the review or decision framework.
- Comes into force 6 July 2026.
- One person decides what children learn, and what evidence is consulted.
The Teaching Council loses independence
The Teaching Council becomes a ministerial appointment
- The Amendment Paper, tabled this morning (which means this option was never consulted on), removes all elected representation.
- Every member appointed by the Minister.
- The Minister may remove any member “at any time and entirely at the Minister’s discretion”.
- Professional standards, registration criteria, and the code of conduct move from the Council to the Ministry.
- None of this was in the Bill the public submitted on. The Bill consulted on kept three elected members from ECE, primary and secondary.
- The Teaching Council is no longer independent.
What it means
- What you teach, how you teach it, what counts as good teaching, and who is fit to teach — all now sit under ministerial control.
- The body that regulates the profession reports to the Minister (who has the power to write the curriculum).
- The check on ministerial curriculum-making is the Minister’s own judgement.
The Bill will pass.
Want to see what this looks like in practice? The psychology curriculum is an example.
Claxton’s warning is about to be made the legislative standard.
Guy Claxton this week called the proposed psychology curriculum “politically motivated intellectual malpractice.”
The Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill — second reading passed 14 May — scales across the system the risk Claxton identifies. Clauses 9 and 10 let the Minister issue curriculum statements, with or without the Secretary’s review — that’s curriculum by ministerial preference, not professional process.
The psychology curriculum is a preview of what that means, practically: politically appropriate curriculum, approved by the Minister’s office, delivered straight to your child’s brain.
The women in this mad CoC govt. are certainly a deadly lot of power-crazy vipers.
Stanford looks as harmless as a Barby doll and Cluxon just lets her get on with it,
I think. He doesn’t know what she’s up to.
He’d be afraid to tell any of those frightful females to pull their heads in Patrize.
They’d bite his off for him.
He is always conveniently otherwise engaged, isn’t he?
Teachers, you have my permission to strike. I will volunteer to look after my grandchildren and teach them myself.
More ugly, vile ‘sleight of hand’ tricks from Stanford. How do these people sleep at night? So now the Treaty of Waitangi, s127(1)(d) has gone! It can be put back by a more mature, fair-minded party. What a collosal waste of time when there is so much wrong out there that need fixing. Another despotic control freak with nothing better to do, who is not there for her party or our country, but clearly for herself! There appears to be no end to these CoC miscreants, all led by the lazy, vain and narcissistic apology for a PM!
These actions by Stanford are more sinister than they first looked. She is a total “control freak” and has hi-jacked our education system to feed her ego! How do we stop a ‘runaway train’ when the driver has fallen from it? She should be sacked for her bullying, insufferable behaviour! Claxon has correctly called her proposed psychology curriculum, “politically motivated intellectual MALPRACTICE! Where is lily-livered Luxon while this is taking place – at another photo-shoot, hiding overseas, or at one of his beach houses? All Headmasters / Teachers should be protesting vehemently until this nonsense is returned to its status quo and given time for discussion in a mature and professional manner by all concerned. The lunatics are clearly in charge of the asylum. This tyrant needs to be stopped now and told to pull her enormous head back in!