Mallard Makes Beggars Of Schools

Monday 26 Apr 2004

Deborah Coddington - Education

Education Minister Trevor Mallard is forcing schools to write to parents asking for hundreds of dollars to pay for new classrooms, library books, computers, musical instruments and first aid equipment, ACT New Zealand Education Spokesman Deborah Coddington revealed today.

"The Government's poor spending priorities are forcing schools to hit parents up for more and more cash," Miss Coddington said.

"This month, a school wrote to parents requesting $370 under the guise of school fees and levies. This comes on top of any extra fees for field trips, workbooks and craft materials.

"Labour's financial mismanagement of schools has been highlighted by a recent report showing that more than 1,000 schools ran operating deficits in 2002.

"The way forward is to break the State monopoly and fund the students, not the schools. Until that happens, the gap between the `haves' and `have-nots' will continue to grow," Miss Coddington said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

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>>