"Vanguard Military School is often held up as an example of what charter schools can achieve," says a letter writer. Photo / File
Schooling MPs on charter schools
I find it ironic that the party championing increased productivity, lower taxes and less regulation is proposing to remove funding of programmes proven to work while introducing a school performance monitoring organisation in parallel with the Education Review Office and spending $153 million to establish schools that are, in everything but name, Special Character Independent Schools.
These changes and expenditure are being planned at the same time that very modest investment in free public transport for students under 12 is being removed.
Vanguard Military School is often held up as an example of what charter schools can achieve. I agree that it is getting great results for its students. This is being achieved within the current structures and therefore prompts the question: “Why is a new system needed?”
One reason given in support of charter schools is that teachers can’t be held accountable in the current system. This is just plain wrong.
Many principals in both state and independent schools hold teachers to account very well. That is one of the key reasons for difference in performance between schools with similar student cohorts. I have personal experience, and there are case studies, of the performance of schools quickly changing with a change of principal.
This week’s report in the Herald on Greenmeadows Intermediate and the 34 schools it works with in South Auckland shows that putting the effort into understanding why schools aren’t performing and fixing the issues gets results. This is much more cost-effective than creating an expensive parallel system that is unlikely to fix the real issues.
Can our Ministers of Education please understand what is working in terms of improving attendance and education outcomes, support those initiatives and enable more schools to undertake similar programmes before implementing expensive strategies like charter schools which can function perfectly well in the current system.
Jon Eriksen, Parnell.
The gift of genius
It was refreshing and illuminating to read the Weekend Herald article about Roy Kerr, New Zealand’s world-renowned mathematician who just turned 90 and comes from a modest, small-town background.
Not for him the modern label “gifted” or special classes for gifted children. He was essentially self-taught as the maths teachers were all away at war.
In some social circles every second person one meets claims to have a gifted child. Curiously, though, little Einstein and little Jane Austen never grow up to find a cure for cancer or write the great New Zealand novel. Even more curious is that they are almost always white and middle-class.
My old intermediate school principal, whose common sense perspective on life may have been due to having fought at Monte Cassino, cheerfully told me that the student with the highest intelligence score he ever taught decided to run a pub in the Australian Outback.
Parents convinced they have a gifted child may want to be careful what they wish for. That rare phenomenon, someone with a true gift, might eschew the status their parents so desperately crave for them.
Raewyn Maybury, Tauranga.
Pesky gallbladders
It was with interest that I read Steve Braunias’ article about the life and death of a gallbladder (Weekend Herald, May 18).
My story is the stuff of nightmares. My husband and I were at the end of our travels around Africa when, on the last night in Johannesburg before our flight back to NZ, I was rushed to hospital by ambulance from our hotel.
After days of tests, scans, X-rays and ultrasound, it was found that my gallbladder was the culprit. I underwent surgery and was lucky enough to have a highly skilled surgeon who removed my gangrenous gallbladder by laparoscopy.
My sepsis levels had risen to 497. A normal level is under 5. I spent two weeks in hospital because of the high infection levels, having blood transfusions and being pumped full of antibiotics.
Much of that time was in ICU, which I can only describe as a hellish experience. But for the skill of the surgeon, I wouldn’t be here today.
Gallbladders are pesky little things and, when things go wrong, it can be a matter of life and death.
It was so wonderful finally getting the fit-to-fly certificate from the surgeon and arriving home last week to beautiful NZ.
Sue White, West Harbour.
Reserve Bank responds
In the Opinion piece by the NZ Initiative chair (NZ Herald, May 23), the author lays the blame for the lack of competition in the New Zealand banking sector at the feet of the Reserve Bank’s capital requirements and credit risk weights for retail banks.
This is tired, misleading and needs to be called out. I am unsure what to be most concerned about: that the retail banks who are members of the NZ Initiative believe this? Or they don’t but are still willing to sponsor this?
The large four Australian-owned retail banks in New Zealand have for years posted the highest risk-adjusted returns on capital among their peers globally. They continue to do so even after the Reserve Bank’s insistence that they hold more capital.
How could this be possible? These banks have consistently maintained or increased net interest margins markedly above their Australian parents’ margins. These banks must have pricing power beyond what would be observed in a competitive market. In large part, their low cost-to-income ratios, relative to their New Zealand competitors, affords them market dominance. Not capital levels or risk weights.
Competition will only be enhanced by enabling and empowering discerning customers through more choice and innovation, for example by “open banking” and improved access to retail banking systems.
The New Zealand Council of Financial Regulators discusses this on its website: Kaunihera Kaiwhakarite Ahumoni – Council of Financial Regulators.
The Reserve Bank also explains these facts in our submission to the Commerce Commission, and our internationally peer-reviewed retail bank capital decisions papers – all available on our website. Yes, the latter includes robust cost-benefit analysis.
Adrian Orr, Reserve Bank governor.
Singing wrong song
Two Weekend Herald items (May 18) caught my eye: the front-page article on gold and Steven Joyce‘s forever sensible observations, particularly his one sentence: “Unlike Australia, we don’t have millions of acres of iron ore to dig up.”
We certainly don’t but, if we want to enjoy the apparent benefits that thousands of skilled New Zealanders are fleeing our shores to enjoy, we must take advantage of the less abundant mineral deposits with which we have been bestowed.
I am certain our regulations will be extremely rigid but, when I note musicians appear to be the biggest anti-mining group at present, I really do wonder what makes this country tick.
We have the Greens pushing to over-regulate or ban virtually every industry that earns tax dollars to fund their plethora of fuzzy social reforms and a Labour Party that did much the same to mining and oil exploration while at the same time bewailing the lack of money for health, education, law and order. And importing coal!
We appear content to import virtually everything we desire, ignoring the fact that the environmental cost of cars, phones, textiles, trucks, trains and in many cases food has been levied on another country where labour is cheap and environmental controls are, at best, minimal.
Quite a lot of gold and the labour it will employ under some of the world’s strictest mining regulations is one very good way to fund much of what we need to retain skilled staff in Aotearoa.
I wonder how many protesters wear gold jewellery, drive iron-based electric or ICE cars and wear overseas-sourced clothing?
Robert Burrow, Taupō.
If we don’t grow it, we must dig it out of the ground. That is the reality of all manufactured goods. Our small nation has limited resources and limited industry. Those musicians and others protesting against a deep gold mine, along with hundreds of well-paying jobs, in the Coromandel (Weekend Herald, May 18) have a duty to offer an alternative method of maintaining and improving this country’s standard of living. How will they pay for the ever-increasing cost of healthcare and education? All they can do is sing Kumbaya around the campfire.
Stewart Hawkins, St Heliers.
Wow! The proposed Wynard Quarter 55,000-seat stadium ticks all the boxes and gets my vote as Auckland’s new multi-purpose sports and entertainment centre. The waterfront location makes it easily accessible for spectators coming via bus, train or ferry. Visually it looks stunning and, in my view, would replicate the Sydney Opera House and become the most iconic structure in Auckland, even exceeding the Sky Tower. Hopefully, this will win the vote between the four proposed stadiums and we can crack on and get it built.
Glen Stanton, Mairangi Bay.
Some rough sleepers prefer to sleep outdoors, as I discovered by talking to one of the Domain people who came into Auckland Hospital to seek a couple of coffees from the machines in the staff cafeteria. I was working as a volunteer BlueCoat on the hospital welcome desks and was surprised when he returned my smile one day and came over. He was quiet, polite and well-spoken and looked tidier than some of the genuine visitors.
Pamela Russell, Ōrākei.
This latest turbulence incident has highlighted one big issue: wearing a seatbelt at all times. When will passengers adhere to this rule? It’s very simple. Your body needs you to do this to stay safe. The only time my seatbelt comes off is for a toilet visit, which I do as quickly as possible and hope there is no turbulence while doing so. Air travel is not comfortable but the least you can do is be sensible and keep that seatbelt on.
Barbara Ingram-Monk, Motueka.
This Government is paying out millions of dollars in redundancy packages, only to re-employ many of these people in the future as consultants on higher pay. How much revenue are they really saving after factoring in the redundancy packages?
Marie Kaire, Whangārei.
There has been a lot of correspondence about speed bumps but, interestingly, I do not recall one letter in their favour. In addition, nobody seems to have commented on how they affect people with chronic pain. Anyone who has had an accident has their trauma multiplied on the way to hospital whenever a speed hump is encountered. The same is true for the return home from hospital after surgery and women in labour must face a similar ordeal. Besides that, the many who suffer from neck, back or hip pain have to navigate these excrescences with extreme caution. Time for them to stop.
Greg Cave, Sunnyvale.
It’s so exciting that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau is getting a group ready to start new “transformational projects”. It is time she got real: Wellington has major problems that need fixing, like water. Dump the wonderful aspirations and fix the problems.
Neville Cameron, Coromandel.
'You don’t want to be doom and gloom your whole life. That's just a miserable way to live'