ACT Education Spokesman Donna Awatere Huata said today that only the wealthy had benefited from zoning since it was implemented last year.

“In 1999, before zoning, the country’s top Maori student lived in South Auckland and attended Auckland Grammar. Today if he wanted to attend that school, then his name would go into a ballot with others: the future of a great scholar the subject of a lotto draw.

“Why would anyone be surprised that parents have exploited loopholes to get their children into popular schools?

“There are cases of parents renting property for just a few days or weeks, to get their child into a school of their choice.

“Some parents have also resorted to saying their child is staying with a friend or relative when they are not.

“Students whose parents can really afford to buy or rent in the zone are the lucky ones. No tricks or lies for them.

“Then again, no special talents are required either. That is what sticks in my throat about zoning.

“Students with ability and gifts of their own can’t use them to break free of the circumstances of their birth.

“Any fool could have predicted all the things that have happened. Now the Minister plans to close the loopholes parents have exploited for their children.

“What the Minister should have done was think through his legislation before he brought it into the house.

“As a result of his flawed legislation, popular schools will continue to become the preserve of the wealthy. Because of zoning, these schools are set to become more and more elitist and racially segregated,” Mrs Huata said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>