Schools fight back

The Community Schools Alliance released:

Schools from around New Zealand are joining together to reject a proposal that would sever their accountability to local communities and hand direct control of schools to a new government bureaucracy.

The Community Schools Alliance, a growing group of 43 primary and secondary schools and Kura a iwi, launched a national campaign to raise awareness of the Tomorrow’s Schools Taskforce plan to replace direct parental involvement in schools with “Education Hubs”, and its implications for students. The campaign was kicked off with full -page advertisements in the New Zealand Herald and the Dominion Post, and will be supported by social media and a website for more information.

Under the plan, the “Hubs” appointed by Wellington would take over the responsibilities of individual schools’ boards of trustees elected by parents.

“The Hub plan would strip New Zealand’s world leading, community-led public education system of what makes it unique,” said Glen Denham, Principal of Massey High School in West Auckland.

“The Community Schools Alliance membership represents urban, regional and rural primary and secondary schools, from the whole range of decile areas. We are religious and secular schools, state and state-integrated schools, and kura,” Mr Denham said.

“The range of schools moved to speak up publicly about the Hub plan is so great because it threatens the diversity of the New Zealand education system itself,” said Pat Newman, Principal of Hora Hora Primary School in Whangārei

If I am not mistaken Pat Newman is a former Labour Party candidate. If a former Labour candidate is saying these proposals are really bad, that is significant.