Government School Mandarins Hate Competition

Nipped In the Bud

If there is one thing the lock-step collective Mind hates it is someone thinking and acting outside its little box--at least when it comes to the education of the nation's children.  For the socialists, compulsory Government Schooling is essential if one is to develop the kind of enlightened mind that all Socialists are deemed to have.

Social psychologists call this collective mind "Groupthink".  Others, not so kind, call it the Hive, created and controlled by the Borg.  Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the recently elected, minority Labour Government is moving at rapid pace to dismember and dismantle the half-a-dozen charter schools started by the previous government.

Charter schools in New Zealand represented a tepid, toe-in-the-water attempt to provide alternative education, particularly to students otherwise failing at the Groupthink schools.  But the former government was extremely cautious.  Getting approval to start and operate a charter school was like having to run a 100 kilometer race in the Arizona desert.  Nevertheless, all of the dozen or so charter schools (apart from one) have succeeded beyond expectations, some spectacularly so.

Despite two terms of government, the National Party could only conjure up only a dozen charter schools.  Some were rejected because they were too Christian in ethos and nature.  But apart from the Christian animus amongst the authorities,  because the criteria and application processes were so restrictive and Byzantine, it is remarkable that even one began.  On the other hand, maybe there was method in the madness.  If one could last out the process and negotiate the bureaucratic pushback one was more than ready to take on the ups and downs of turning around the lives of failing students.

The unions controlling the Borg Groupthink government schools have complained bitterly and opposed charter schools from the beginning.  When charter schools have succeeded, their standard rejoinder was, "Well, if we had all the flexibility of those horrible charter schools, our government run schools would succeed too."  But this rejoinder was close to heresy.  It was never going to happen.  Borg-like schools cannot change and remain Socialist.

So, charter schools are going the way of the dodo in New Zealand--at least for the present.  It is unclear whether the National Party, now in Opposition, will make re-launching charter schools a central part of its policy going forward.  Its history is not covered with glory in such matters.  We suspect that Government Schools have a way to run before the people rise up and vent their spleen.

The international ranking of New Zealand's Groupthink schools is at present falling rapidly.  Maybe that will create an appetite for radical change.  We will see?  In the meantime, the callowness of the former government's commitment to charter schools can be seen in a clause in the charter school contract: the Ministry of Education was to have the power to terminate the contract of a charter school immediately for no reason.  It is called the "termination for convenience" clause, and allows the Government to shut charter schools down for no reason.

Guess what clause the present Labour Government is invoking summarily to close down the few existing charter schools.  That land mind was embedded in the contract drawn up by the timorous former National-led Government.  They were contractually constructed to fail--for no good reason.