ACT Education spokesman Donna Awatere Huata today said that the South Island township of Timaru was an excellent blueprint for school choice.

"South Canterbury schools are free from the racist and elitist restrictions of zoning. The result is a healthy competition between schools.

"In Timaru especially, we see parents and students empowered to determine their own education requirements.

"There are five high schools in Timaru, and principals report that most parents attend Open Days at all five before making a decision.

"Competition clearly leads to improved service to students - each school must position itself to offer clearly distinct opportunities. In a sense, these are state-funded character schools.

"Timaru demonstrates everything that is good about zone-free schooling," Donna Awatere Huata said.

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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>>