Private school privilege

Why is it, people might be wondering, that New Zealand's private schools received a $35 million 'boost' from the National Government, soon after they took office? Why is it, they might continue to wonder, that private schools were not included in National's national standards reforms and don't have to test and report the way state schools do?
Why is it, do you think, that private schools are able to continue to advertise the educational advantages of lower class sizes, while State schools are told that class size makes no difference and that they will have to have larger classes now, thanks to the latest Budget?
It's very odd.
Someone has pointed out that the children of National Party MPs generally attend private schools, recipients of National's largess, schools that are exempt from the austerity measures of the Budget and exempt from the authoritarian national standards regime.
Those making the suggestions that the National Party MPs putting these measures in place might be doing so because they and their children will not be affected by the cuts and extra pressures, are being accused by the commentators of the Right, of being 'envious'.
I suppose they might be a little. Watching one section of society being treated in a privileged way can be irritating, to say the least.
Hekia Parata's Budget stuff-up, where she's gutted the Intermediate schools in one arrogant stroke of her blue pen, shows how haughtily out of touch National ministers have become and how damaging to New Zealand society their self-serving decisions are.
Back to school, all of them. A State school, that is.

Bill on privatisation

Bill

17 May 2012 at 10:17 am

Take an institution….welfare, education, prison service or any number of public services. Reduce…maybe ‘reduce’ is the wrong word…reconfigure their functions to accommodate formulae that are ‘business friendly’. (Y’know, formulas that lend themselves to being viewed in terms of simplistic ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ so that costs and potential profits can be discerned.) Then privatise.

*Up-date: Bill adds this to the debate:



"Bill

17 May 2012 at 12:07 pm

Increasing the class sizes is a primer for privatisation. Once privatised, some schools would be in a financial position to decrease class sizes again. (Note, that it’s an economic decision and not an educational one.)

Those that failed to achieve a financial position that would allow them to cut class sizes would , in conjunction with other contributory factors coming into play, find themselves constituting the second tier of a two tier eductation system.

Of course, there is every reason to believe that those schools who would fail to achieve a high enough economic performance would be spotted by would be private concerns, avoided and remain as state schools. deliberately underfunded and second rate in a (data collected, numbers crunched and scores allocated) comparison to private ones.