Today I've been distracted by Astroturfing - beautifully defined by urbandictionary.com

"Creating the impression of public support by paying people in the public to pretend to be supportive.
The false support can take the form of letters to the editor, postings on message boards in response to criticism, and writing to politicians in support of the cause.
Astroturfing is the opposite of "grassroots", genuine public support of an issue."

Why?

I've been wondering about the connection between astroturfing and selling collective principles for individual gain.

Why?

Because I have been wondering about John Banks touting his authority to set up charter schools as being for and of Māori - thanks to the "Iwi Education Authority, which represents some Māori immersion schools" and the Māori Party.

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Campbell Live ran a story last week "Who wants to run charter schools?"

The hopefuls included:

Nga kakano - they want state money, they haven't been able to get state funding, and they want to get bigger.

C Me mentoring - want more state money .... they want to get bigger.

Mt Hobson and Alwyn Poole - want state money - want to get bigger.

So these are existing programmes, they're not new, they are working within the existing system, they don't need the charter school model.

EXCEPT they want money from the state ... and they won't have to answer to the protections in the existing system for any of it.

New Zealand state schools would like more money too ... for buildings that don't leak,

for working heating systems,

for computers,

for sports equipment,

for libraries,

for teacher/teacher aide support for struggling students,

for enough teachers for more personalised learning,

for more counsellors,

for school nurses,

for music rooms,

for classrooms that are bright, warm, friendly and well equipped,

for schools that can safely welcome the school community with resources that can cater to the education needs of all, ....

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Associate Minister of Education John Banks World Class Business Opportunity got a step closer last week, with the second reading of the Education Amendment Bill - the legislation that sets up charter (aka partnership) schools

John Banks "World Class Business Opportunity" got a step closer last week, with the second reading of the Education Amendment Bill - the legislation that sets up charter (aka partnership) schools.

Turn the captions on if you watch his speech - in fact the captions are probably a pretty close match to our Associate Minister of Education, John Banks, understanding of the education environment in New Zealand. Although I do suspect the devil might have turned some of his words into "america" and "cash".

John says that charter school 'teachers' will have to be "trained and qualified in their field".

But teaching doesn't seem to be one of the "fields" he is referring to.

"Unregistered does not mean untrained" said John Banks.

He goes on that in "certain limited circumstances" these 'teachers' may be "teachers who are not registered with the teachers' union". (Now you know why there is a review of the Teachers Council. John Banks, can't recall who does what (or why) in education.)

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So the billionaire worshippers at Forbes Magazine * have got their eyes on the massive opportunities for profit promised by the privatisation of public education.

Naveen Jain’s article is so full of absurd assertions, greed- masquerading as idealism and fundamental misunderstandings that it is hard to know where to begin.

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Diane Ravitch has recently written about how to ‘fix’ charter schools. She’s taken a list of points from Albert Shanker, and suggested that these should be criteria by which charter school proposals are assessed.

Of course they are in a different context in the US, with public schools generally having far less freedom than here, charters being well entrenched, and some teacher unions backing a few charter school models. However, I think that these are worth exploring as a basis for discussion with the charter school working group.

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