Another Government backdown – thank goodness

The Herald reports:

School boards look set to keep their powers when the Government finally unveils its decisions on the way schools are run tomorrow(.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins is believed to have abandoned proposals by a taskforce last year to transfer all the legal powers of school boards to about 20 new regional “hubs”.

Hipkins is not backing down because he is against the proposal. The taskforce was chaired by a Labour Party insider.

Hipkins is backing down because he knows he’ll lost the next election if he tries to replace every board of trustees in the country with regional hub boards all appointed by him personally.

However Waikato University education professor Martin Thrupp said the Government might still seek to achieve the goal of the proposed reforms – reducing competition between schools and achieving more equal outcomes for students – by pursuing the “substance” of the proposals without the contentious “form” of the hubs.

Yes they will still try to achieve their aim of having no good schools (all schools must be equal) through other means.