You’d never know that there is an election imminent.
Two months ago Health Minister Cunliffe slagged off striking doctors for being “unrealistic“, backed up by CTU President Helen Kelly, of all people. Now Education Minister Chris Carter has told a group of North Shore secondary school principals protesting against inadequate funding to “stop moaning and start teaching“. Primary school principals are considering joining the protest.
Brilliant.
Carter points out that the Government has spent $5 billion on education since 1999. This year’s amount represents 4.4% of GDP and compares with 3.5% in Australia. He’s right. But it appears that he’s the only person in the country who isn’t aware of the problems schools have experienced with their funding for maintenance, amongst other things.
One thing’s for sure, dissing the hard-working people who struggle to keep our schools and hospitals functioning is not a sure-fire fix for sagging poll ratings.
[Update: The PPTA weighs in, telling Minister Carter that the concerns of the North Shore principals are “shared right across the secondary school sector.” Will he listen now? The answer appears to be, not.]
Tags: 2008 NZ election, Labour Party
Jafapete's Weblog 
June 15, 2008 at 4:14 pm |
JP – Mrs Inventory had occasion to meet with Carter recently as part of a professional organisation she belongs to. She was unimpressed, describing him as arrogant, unprepared and disinterested. She said that the meeting would have been a waste of time had he not left it for a few minutes to take a phone call (something Maharey never did) – which gave her group the opportunity to talk with the Private Secretary and with the Min of Ed officials, and actually progress the issues that they wanted to discuss with the Minister.
June 15, 2008 at 5:33 pm |
Yes, the funding of our schools is quite an issue, never mind the pathetic salaries paid to teachers who – the politicians of all colours tell us – are doing such vital work. Like nurses.
Go into almost any secondary school and you’ll see just how short of cash it is. Schools operating budgets have been stretched beyond their limits for years, hence the time spent on fundraising and appealing to foreign full fee paying students (sound familiar?).
June 15, 2008 at 8:41 pm |
I’m always amazed at how little we pay our teachers.
And yes, this government seems determined to alienate everyone this year.
June 17, 2008 at 8:28 pm |
Helengrand is about to be swept aside.
All Ministers of Crown are irrelevant.
[Perhaps, but there’s still a couple more months where there is the potential to make decisions and pass legislation.]
July 9, 2008 at 4:24 pm |
[…] not the case, and hasn’t been for years. Tell a group of school heads who complain to “stop moaning and start teaching”. Keep this up until TVNZ — according to the kiwiblog right, another Labour propaganda organ […]
August 25, 2008 at 9:57 am |
[…] finance sector regulation (”Liane Dalziel seems to have dropped the ball”), school funding (”…it appears that [Carter’s] the only person in the country who isn’t […]