A WIN FOR DEMOCRACY!
A sneaky move to amend the Education and Training (System Reform) Amendment Bill without appropriate democratic consultation has been scrapped today, Friend! 🥳
The sudden and unexpected change to the Bill would have armed education officials with a sweeping set of powers highly detrimental to homeschooling families around the country. What made this move even more egregious is that the problematic clauses in question were added after the Select Committee stage and without advance notice to the public!
PILLAR was proud to stand alongside the many voices warning that these amendments risked imposing significant new regulatory barriers on homeschooling in New Zealand, while further expanding state power into Kiwi homes.
But, Friend…we raised our concerns earlier this week and democracy prevailed! 🥳
I worked as a high school teacher for seven years before becoming involved in civil liberties work, and now with my wife (who is also a trained teacher) we homeschool our two daughters. My wife and I were educated in public and private schools, but we also each received homeschooling for varying periods during our own youth. Like our kids, we’ve experienced education from various angles and can speak in detail to the pros and cons. So, when Erica Stanford suggested that the Gloriavale cult was her justification for this latest undemocratic move, well, you can imagine how reasonable, caring and hardworking homeschooling parents around the country were bristling at the implied narrative.
One media outlet even suggested that the Tom Philipps case - where a father in a custody dispute took his three young children on the run for years in the NZ bush - was somehow relevant to the question of this reform!
These shameless attempts to push dangerous stereotypes seemingly designed to reinforce moral panic are tactics we’ve seen before from Wellington.
If the proposed expansion of powers were granted to education officials, they could have:
ignored the diverse learning and assessment challenges faced by many homeschooling families where a child’s learning difficulties could not be met by the state system
imposed unspecified reporting and assessment requirements on parents (in addition to those already required of parents under existing legislation and in the various curriculum programs most families already use)
allowed unelected officials the ability to exercise, change, and increase their proposed powers in the future as they see fit
offered no process for questioning or appealing officials’ decisions
Impose certain values-based compliance containing political, philosophical and social biases
But no longer! After much public pressure, these proposals have now been totally scrapped.
Friend, this is why PILLAR exists!
With our over 13,000 supporters across New Zealand, we are able to bring these issues to the public, and when needed, pressure the Government to respect democracy!
Thank you for being a part of this work. You make democracy possible. The Government have shown a willingness to listen those most affected by their ill-conceived and undemocratically actioned policies.
Friend, today, democracy WON and you made it possible! 🥳
