Updated: 21/10/2004; 11:13:43 a.m..
Small Schools New Zealand
Here in Upper Hutt, New Zealand, the Labour government planned to 'consolidate' our schools. This at a time when most of the research would seem to indicate that small schools are far better for pupils! These were my writings about this issue.
        

Thursday, 27 November 2003

Humpty Dumpty

I heard Murray Smith of United Future state that if schools are the fence at the top of a cliff, and CYFS the ambulance at the bottom, then for every dollar saved on the fence, two dollars will have to be spent on the ambulance.

This is explained really well in the report Dollars & Sense. It is an article summarising research on the education and social benefits of small schools, and the negative effects of large schools, as well as the diseconomies of scale inherent in large schools.

It shows that all the ambulances and rehabilitation centres at the bottom of the cliff (CYFS, Welfare and Corrections) will need to be upgraded to cope with the fallout of larger schools. Investing tax dollars in small schools does indeed make sense.

This all reminds me of a nursery rhyme my daughters sing. I hope that unlike the nursery rhyme we can pick up the pieces before it is too late.

 


10:10:04 PM    comments? []

© Copyright 2004 Martin Paulo.
 
November 2003
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30            
Oct   Dec



Categories


Links:


NZ Blogs I sometimes read



Click here to visit the Radio UserLand website.

Subscribe to "Small Schools New Zealand" in Radio UserLand.

Click to see the XML version of this web page.

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.