Countdown To The Budget - Education

act-new-zealand

Tue May 19 2009 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Countdown To The Budget - Education

Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 12:18 pm
Press Release: ACT New Zealand

Article by Hon Sir Roger Douglas, ACT New Zealand
Tuesday, May 19 2009

Background:
Over the past nine years education spending has increased substantially. Under Labour, education spending increased 43 percent in inflation-adjusted terms – yet what did this massive increase achieve? Looking at Year 5 Maths and Science from 1994 - 2008 achievement decreased while Government spending soared! This is only one example of the many failures in education.

Denying parents choice over the school their child attends ultimately, and predictably, results in poor educational achievement. Parents want their children to succeed but, unfortunately, there is a severe lack of school choice in New Zealand – unless you’re wealthy.
The wealthy have school choice – they can move zones to get their child into the school of their choice, or they can pay twice (through taxation, and again through fees) to have their child educated at a private school. Others are forced to send their child to the local school.
With a captive market, there is little incentive for schools to respond to their customers’ needs. In fact, schools have come to serve what the politicians and bureaucrats in Wellington want, leading to a lack of focus on the core function of education – being able to read, write, and perform arithmetic.

So What Choice Do We Have?
Option A - ACT New Zealand’s Policy:
ACT supports giving every parent an education tax credit to purchase education wherever they want – be it the local school or one far away, be it private or public. Once parents have the capacity to choose where their child is educated, schools will compete for students. Competition will lead schools to focus on their core role, improving educational achievement (as we saw during the 1990s).
Competition between schools will keep the cost of schooling down, ensuring that future increases in the amount of money available for education will result in genuine quality improvements, and is not wasted like Labour’s spending.

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ACT also supports performance-based pay for teachers. This is hardly radical - in every other job (except politicians), people are paid on the basis of their performance. The capacity to get a promotion or move up the pay scale incentivises people to work harder and improve their skills. Is it any wonder that when hard work does not pay we see declining educational achievement?
Option B – The Rest:
Every other Party in Parliament is wedded to the status quo. They still believe that if they appoint the right person as the Minister of Education, they will get more out for the money we put in. Politically powerful organisations, like teachers’ unions, will continue to demand pay increases and better working conditions, even when such changes have been shown to be ineffective at improving educational outcomes.
Special interest groups are never satisfied - any new benefit quickly becomes the expectation, and more and more demands are made. Maintaining the status quo – where teachers and bureaucrats, not parents, control education – will continue to strain the education budget. As expenditure continues to rise, as Finance Minister Bill English has promised, we will see little value for money.
If You Think Option A Is The Best Move Forward [ACT’s Policy]:
By allowing parents to determine where their child is taught, many parents send their child to a school that is more appropriate for their learning needs. By allowing diversity in education, educational outcomes improve. Moreover, as schools respond to the incentives and try to attract new pupils, the education system is seen as more responsive and flexible.
Since teachers are now being paid what they deserve, quality people are attracted to teaching and educational outcomes rise.

If You Think Option B Is The Best Move Forward [All the other’s policy]:
Education spending continues to rise, but educational achievement remains stubbornly stagnant and in some cases reverses. Parents of children who are locked into their local school wish they could afford to send their child elsewhere. Many families sacrifice other necessities just to get their child out of the local school.
As spending continues to increase, so do the demands of the Teachers’ unions. Previous success in wage negotiations breeds a sense of entitlement and privilege, once again emphasising teachers over pupils and parents.

Further Reading:
Markets v Monopolies in Education: A Global Review of the Evidence
(http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa620.pdf)
School Accountability, Autonomy, Choice, and the Level of Student Achievement: International Evidence from PISA 2003 ( http://www.olis.oecd.org/olis/2007doc.nsf/LinkTo/NT00008A32/$FILE/JT03255304.PDF)
The Role of Government in Education
(http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/friedmans/writings/1955.jsp)
What’s Wrong With Our Schools?
(http://www.friedmanfoundation.org/friedmans/writings/1979.jsp)

ENDS

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