Twits Still Rule, Not Okay

“Our education sector certainly does need a lot greater competition if any improvements are going to be made, but to achieve any substantial changes and improvements New Zealand must adopt a much more freedom-orientated attitude towards education,” said Peter Osborne, Libertarianz Associate Spokesman for Education Deregulation today, responding to comments made by Joy Quigley, Executive Director of Independent Schools of New Zealand.

Ms Quigley was drawing attention to the Swedish education model whereby state run schools are showing improvements due to government policy which ‘allows’ greater competition from the private sector. Studies are showing a marked public increase in demand for private schools since law changes were made. She also commented that perhaps our government should investigate how the Swedish system operates.

Osborne responds forcefully to Quigley’s comments: “The Swedish system is crap.” He says that the private sector still receives subsidies from the government (via the taxpayer): “This gives the government the power to dictate the terms to private schools – he who dispenses the gold still makes the rules. This is not much different to our woeful system.” New Zealand does not need to follow the Swedish system in order to improve education, he says, it needs to get government out of education all together.

“TOTAL freedom in education is the only answer. Unless New Zealanders accept this undeniable truth education standards will deteriorate further.” Mr Osborne says, “Literacy and numeracy levels are at an all time low and are worsening. Teacher shortages are worse than ever. Teacher morale is worse than ever ever. The standard of newly qualified teachers is a joke, with race meaning more than aptitude. Our qualification standards are in total disarray. To make things worse, successive governments have wasted billions of taxpayer’s dollars on a system that is a complete disaster.”

An angry Osborne continues, “No one is immune from this injustice. Every taxpayer must pay for it, whether they like it or not and whether they use it or not. Every teacher and school, including those in the private sector, must follow a curriculum laid down by law. Every parent must, by law, send their child to a school. Even home-schoolers must meet government criteria. The only qualifications allowed are those laid down by the state. Where the Government holds back on the use of force it blackmails by way of withholding tax-paid funding should a school depart from the ‘one chosen way’.”

Osborne concludes, “This appalling state of affairs must be stopped. Parents must be left to decide for their child’s education. Schools must be free to operate in the private sector without the handicap of government regulation. Curriculum and qualifications must be left to the professionals who will in turn be directly answerable to the consumers. These changes must be made now before yet another generation of twits are sent out into the big wide world.”

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