Posted by: PPTAweb
on 22, May, 2013
Tagged in:
Teachers Council ,
Teacher registration ,
student achievement ,
public education ,
privatisation ,
New Zealand model of charter schools ,
National Party Education Policy ,
minister of education ,
John Banks ,
education politics ,
education amendment bill ,
ACT Party
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.)
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 27, Mar, 2013
Tagged in:
stupidity ,
public education ,
privatisation ,
power ,
education politics ,
contracting ,
confusion ,
computing ,
charters ,
charter schools;school failure ,
charter schools ,
Charter school working group ,
change ,
ACT Party ,
ACT
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.
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 17, Jul, 2012
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.
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 01, Jul, 2012
The Charter School Working Group before it turns on itself? (aka King Ghidora, the three headed monster. http://www.giantbomb.com/king-ghidorah/94-4763/)
The charter school initiative has thrown together an unlikely and uneasy alliance. Three distinct ideologies can be discerned amongst the members of the charter school working group, and how these interact will have a major bearing on the final model that is decided on, or whether or not they can decide on one at all.
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 18, May, 2012
Tagged in:
Tomorrow's Schools ,
school choice ,
public education ,
privatisation ,
John Banks ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
charters ,
charter schools ,
Charter school working group ,
Catherine Isaac ,
ACT Party ,
ACT
The New Zealand Charter School Working Group tell us they are looking for a New Zealand model of charter schooling.
They tell us they need to do this because what charter schooling 'is' differs around the world.
The 'charter school' model does differ in the US, the UK, and Sweden, BUT in one fundamental aspect charter schools are the same - they privatise public education and privatise public tax dollars.
