Agreed. That’s why I don’t like it. Not when Labour does it, and not when National does.

Integrated schools are the taxpayers best friend……..

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/Schools/PropertyToolBox/IntegratedSchools/Fundingdiagram.aspx

So integrated schools are VERY CHEAP for the taxpayer. The taxpayer only has to pay for the teachers.

Now – If all the schools in Chch had been integrated – then it wouldnt be costing the taxpayer one cent to get them all up and going again – as the schools property is not the problem of the taxpayer.

It doesnt matter which way you look at it, integrated schools are a bloody cheap option for the taxpayer.

Actually OTHER schools in the area around whanganui should be closed and that would save the taxpayer a lot of money. Send the kids to Collegiate where the taxpayer doesnt pay for the buildings or their upkeep.

If Wanganui Collegiate closes, then their pupils will all enrol in other schools, which will also cost the taxpayer $3 million.

Doesn’t this depend on whether any of the $3 million goes toward the maintenance/development of capital assets? In other words, if the Government is paying to help keep fixed up (or even improve) Wanganui Collegiate’s buildings, etc while at the same time paying for the capacity to teach 1400-odd students in the area, then it would be cheaper to let Wanganui Collegiate fail.

That’s all in addition to the fact that the assumption if it does fail, all its students will all enroll in other state/integrated schools, of course.

1. Most of the parents are Nat voters – why piss them off
2. With Charter schools in the news – why apparently make a decision against the concept
3. Its in a Maori party electorate – good news to favour that segment.
4. Being now integrated it will be open to all those poor maori in the city and local area.

And the most important reason – Im all in favour of integrated schools. And now that its is – it will have to perform because the demands on an integrated school are much more than a state school.

I’m not a hater of private schools either. Both my kids are in non govt run schools and I’m paying $50k a year for that. I could send them to the neighbourhood school for next to nothing but we have chosen not to. This is the reason why I’m questioning the Collegiate decision: it’s a private school and their customers are voting with their feet (so to speak), not queueing up to enrol.

Why bail out a private school with a downward roll in a downward region, a school where 65% of the students come from elsewhere?

I once posted that all people with kids in private schools should send their kids to their in-zone school on the first day of term to enrol. Just watch the schools and parents have a melt down about the class sizes being massive and insufficient desks etc…

Then remind them about the tax you are paying and tell them to stop being so dim witted when they denigrate people who choose private education.

The more parents who send their children to private schools the less the tax payer has to pay.

Corret, your taxes are paying for capacity you are not using…. But that won’t stop the lefties from denigrating you – they are not smart enough to understand that your taxes are subsidising them while they moan about you spending your money how you choose.

Treasury advised against charter schools:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10855881

http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/informationreleases/education/partnershipschools

As for closing the current school – there would be some savings due to consolidation of overheads and capital cost, but we could easily have a whole lot of land sitting there doing nothing.

And as for advice from the Education Ministry – yea right – theyre in favour of nothing that improves educational outcome – they just want the status quo – so they can keep working on the same old solutions that get no where. What do they say is the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different outcomes.

and re unfilled places in the area. Thats right – take the old US approach to solving racism – bus everyone all over the place. Hasnt solved the anti black sentiment in the US – in fact its made it worse and the people most pissed off are the blacks. Busing kids around to filled places at crap schools will be about as successful as the US solution to solve racism.

“What Ms Parata failed to mention was that the school’s integration flew in the face of sound advice from the Education Ministry and Treasury.

That advice pointed out that there were already more than 1400 unfilled places in secondary schools across the Whanganui-Rangitikei region, a figure that was expected to rise by 50 each year for the next decade.“

Doesn’t seem like there is a need for a new school in that region.

I have never understood the hatred that some on the left have for integrated schools. For decades, the parents of Wanganui Collegiate have subsidised the education of other children by opting out of the taxpayer funded state school system. Before that, Catholic parents likewise subsidised the rest of the system.

With integration, that subsidy is reduced. With the requirement that capital development be funded privately, however, integrated schools still represent a subsidy to State school parents. So what’s the big deal?

What DPF has left out is that if the school closes then the taxpayer – thats presumably you lot (unless you are like that dip-stick Penny Bright in Auckland who refuses to pay her rates) – will have to BUILD A NEW SCHOOL.

Thats the bit that everyone leaves out of the private/integrated school argument. If they all closed no operational money would be saved and there would be hundreds of millions needed to build new state schools to replace them

So really we should all be down on our knees thanking those who support private and integrated schools for saving the taxpayer so much money from having NOT TO BUILD new schools.

Build State Houses on the playing fileds and use the boarding houses for the poor of Wanganui ?

Would there be new boarding facilities in other Wanganui Schools, and would they be available for both sexes, from out of town –

Parents still pay currently for both, part for education, and unsupported boarding facilities, even into the integrated system created last year.

How people hate a first class academic school – look at its current NCEA results.

High academic success rates are meaningless when taken from such a skewed sample. It says more about the school’s implicit selection criteria than how good the teaching is.

On another note, I wonder why they failed financially if they are such a fantastic school. Education is booming elsewhere and there is excess demand for top private schools. Parents moving to Australia perhaps?

How does that make sense?

What does local MP Colin King have to say about this?