KEY POINTS:
Sensible Sentencing Trust head Garth McVicar is rapt with Mr Key's proposals, particularly the "boot camp" and lowering the age of criminal responsibility.
"We've become so politically correct. I'm more than happy to call them boot camps. Someone who is a recidivist offender needs to be taught some boundaries, accountability and discipline," Mr McVIcar said.
He said the youth education programmes will hopefully get the young unemployed "off the street".
"We're seeing a big turn around in the mood from the public and the politicians are picking up on that. The average Joe Public has had enough of the crime on the street and the unruly behaviour of a small minority of our youth, so that's been picked up by John Key and congratulations to him on that," Mr McVicar said.
PPTA president Robin Duff said John Key needs "go back to school" when it comes to education programmes.
He said there are already programmes available to young people and Mr Key's proposals could wreck the successful programmes already in place.
"Mr Key's Youth Guarantee completely ignored initiatives such as the secondary schools Gateway Programme, which offers senior secondary students structured workplace learning through educational institutions, more than 50 industries and hundreds of New Zealand businesses," Mr Duff said.
Mr Duff said the Youth Guarantee does not take into account the support and guidance needed by the young people it was targeting.
"As critics of similar policies have rightly pointed out, most of these young people have been struggling with school for 12 years, they need intensive help and support or they will simply slip through the cracks," he said.
Mr Duff said Mr Key's proposed as a solutions were a "triumph of hope over experience".
"International evidence, plus research from the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, along with the evaluation of the very successful New Zealand Gateway programme all confirm that the students are best off if they are based in a secondary school where they are monitored and supervised while undertaking training programmes and work experience," he said.
