Andrew Little: Ideology Trumps Purpose

act-new-zealand

Sun Nov 06 2016 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Andrew Little: Ideology Trumps Purpose

Sunday, 6 November 2016, 9:49 pm
Press Release: ACT New Zealand

“Andrew Little has allowed ideology to trump the purpose of helping young children gain the skills they need,” says a highly disappointed ACT leader, David Seymour.

“I really hoped Andrew might start a serious policy debate, but the speech was so platitudinous we could hardly find anything worth rebutting except his ignorance of how Partnership Schools work.

Little championed social workers who go to students’ homes and motivate them to work and learn, while vowing to scrap Partnership Schools.

“Little does Andrew know, Partnership Schools | Kura Hourua are innovating to engage kids in exactly the way he described. Several, including Middle School West Auckland and Pacific Advance Senior School have used their flexibility of funding to employ specialist staff who are deeply engaged with students and their families.”

“Partnership Schools are working, even achieving the things Little rightly identified, but he dismissed them for ideological reasons.

“The whole speech boils down to the same theme, more taxes, make work schemes, and government departments overseeing housing when what young New Zealanders need is functional markets in housing and education where they really can achieve the Kiwi dream on their own terms."

ENDS

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