Dialogue: Education policy ignores reality of everyday life in a large city

The National Party's plan to abolish school zoning lacks any credibility, writes CHRISTINE FLETCHER.

Every New Zealand mum and dad wants the highest standard of education for their children. So the concept of parents and children having the right to choose the school that is right for their individual needs sounds reasonable and progressive.

But on closer inspection - along with any too-good-to-be-true promise, be it free lunches, anti-ageing face cream or no taxes - it pays to know who is making the offer, who is going to benefit and what the real social costs are. Is the National Party's policy credible? I think not.

Real educational choice for school-aged children and their parents also includes the entitlement to attend the neighbourhood or community school. Providing that right has proved to be very difficult in Auckland.

In 1991, when National was in government, school zoning was abolished, as was the power to co-ordinate enrolments. National chose to ignore all the evidence of dramatic population growth in Auckland.

The party neglected the growth in the number of school-aged children in the inner-city, resulting in many primary and secondary schools (not just Auckland Grammar School) putting up "no vacancy" signs and being portrayed unfairly as community villains.

After enormous community pressure, new primary schools and resources were provided, but National did not follow through with the necessary new secondary schools.

In 1998, acknowledging that a mistake had been made, National reintroduced zoning in situations where school overcrowding was a factor, correctly giving preference to local children.

For nearly a decade, National had been prepared to accept spurious reports from Ministry of Education officials who, to justify their own previous inaction, constantly disputed population figures with Auckland City and regional officials.

Ministry officials and National ministers declined offers to secure land sites for the planning and construction of schools. This was extremely important in a city such as Auckland, where vacant land is at a premium. Sadly, many of these sites are no longer available.

Education officials found numerous excuses for their failure to plan or fund new secondary schools, even at one stage suggesting that extra secondary schools were unnecessary in the inner-city because parents of school-aged children would not live in apartments or town houses.

The emotional trauma for children, parents and communities when some children are accepted for the local school while their neighbours are rejected is not a legacy of which National would be proud.

If anyone would care to challenge me on this, they had better be prepared to pore over the boxes of records, enrolments, population statistics and other documents that I collected as an MP and Auckland Mayor over a 12-year period.

Where National remains silent, probably because it feels a little guilty (as it ought to), is on the need for more secondary schools in Auckland. Only then can we have real choice and not just feel-good soundbites.

The trouble for any Government is that everybody wants more, yet few are willing to meet the cost. It takes a courageous Government to tackle long-term infrastructural issues in a way that is fair across the generations and across the country.

The provision of schooling and the education of our children should be the most basic and fundamental area of government responsibility. We do not need political parties in election year playing games with this matter.

When you read the fine print in National's policy, there are no new rights being assigned to families. I quote: "National accepts that some schools will be unable to grow to meet parental demand because of site constraints." That is why the policy is described as "maximising choice". In fact genuine choice is not being offered.

What comfort will this bring the anxious parents unable to enrol their child in their neighbourhood school? The only ones to benefit will be lawyers and bureaucrats as they debate the grey area of the law over enrolment rights.

National's record on this issue is not good. If there were a genuine attempt to provide real choice, the education policy on zoning would have been accompanied by an acknowledgment that new schools need new funds and a readiness to take on the tax implications.

National has not announced a work programme in Auckland that details spending and the construction of new secondary schools. Instead, it has announced a policy that will put even more pressure on Auckland's peak travel time congestion as already stressed parents fight the traffic crossing town to have their children educated.

We do not need more dogma from the right or left of the political spectrum. What we need is common sense. Just as Helen Clark is genuinely endeavouring to find credible solutions for an integrated transport policy for Auckland, using both public transport and roads, so, too, she is playing fair in supporting an education strategy that will work over time, given the right resourcing.

There is no quick fix and the solutions will be costly, but I do not want to see the next generation being short-changed by the short-term political expediency of this generation of politicians.

Isn't it time for a small country such as New Zealand to show some maturity by expecting the major political parties to find common ground on complex but fundamental social issues such as education and health?

That is what we expected from MMP - fewer upheavals as the election pendulum swung from side to side every three years, and fewer unreasonable promises being made during election campaigns.

Helen Clark seems to be trying to find the middle ground, which many of us appreciate. Having known Bill English for the past decade, I believe he is a genuine person and certainly, as the father of young children, I would hope that he is interested in education issues.

But on this one he needs to think again. This is not Southland, it is Auckland and there is a lot at stake here. The people may have been misled once by big political promises and bravado but they will not be duped again.

National does not have a credible track record on this. Bill, come and spend time with real people in Auckland, not just big business and the roading lobby.