Of schools and high horses
Labour’s decision that there will be no more school closures is a very good one. The Greens were staunchly opposed to Labour’s school closures (go here to see the fourteen press releases we put out in early 2004 about the issue).
However, I find Bill English’s triumphalism on the issue rather disingenuous. He was on the radio this morning claiming victory over Mallard. Well, Mallard is right to point out that English is the last person who should be acting all superior about school closures.
English was part of the Bolger and Shipley National Governments (for which he was an MP from 1990 and a Minister from 1996) which closed a great many schools. 224 schools have been closed in New Zealand since 1990 - the majority (118, or 53%) - were closed by National. So, Mr English, please get off your high horse.
September 29th, 2005 at 11:01 am
too blithe fwwog, everyone know that yous first action in education is straight from NAT policy,
September 29th, 2005 at 11:10 am
PQ - last time I looked dead ducks were not associated with Green policy…
respectfully BJ
September 29th, 2005 at 12:56 pm
Er surely it is a little disengenuous to compare closures under Labour with closures under National since 1990, without taking into account that Labour have been in power for not even 6 six years and National were in power for 9. Using those 53% to 47% figures you provide that actually means that Labour have been closing schools at a faster rate.
Also schools have to open and close to respond to changing demographics, it would be more instructive to compare how many contenious closures there had been under each government.
September 29th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
I think the point is that they are very close so Bill should stop calling the kettle black
September 29th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
You’re right to point out the hypocrisy, Frog.
I wonder if this will save Orauta School, near Moerewa, where parents have been resisting the closure in court, where they are faced with conviction for ‘truancy’ of their children for sending them to an ‘unregistered school’?
September 30th, 2005 at 9:06 am
National has been campaigning against school closures. Labour has flip-flopped and announced there will be no more school closures. Bill English recognised that enough closures had taken place and the job should be finished, Trevor didn’t. Bill won - end of story!
September 30th, 2005 at 6:00 pm
There is a point where a school becomes too small to provide an adequate, diverse education - for older kids a school really needs several hundred to ensure enough specialist teachers. If an area is becoming depopulated there is no choice but to close some schools.
September 30th, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Also a victory for Deborah Coddington who campaigned hard on this issue a while back.