More in the build up to Friday’s climate change protests that have already been effective at raising attention.
@BenThomasNZ:
If anyone is still interested in “should kids go on the the climate strike” takes, this one by a teacher I know is probably the best
If it’s a one-off or occasional thing I have no problem with children (teenagers) taking a bit of time off school to take part in an organised protest. It is likely to inspire them a lot more than just another day at school.
Posted by Pete George on March 12, 2019
https://yournz.org/2019/03/12/climate-change-protests-versus-school/
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) is being used to promote wider use of the language, and calling for compulsory te reo Māori in schools.
There has been some teaching of te reo Māori in schools for years, like days of the week, counting in Māori and other basics alongside cultural awareness and more. Schools in Dunedin with very small numbers of Māori pupils have popular kapa haka groups.
So I think the question is how much te reo Māori (and Māori culture and history) should be taught in schools.
I’m happy for a continuation of what is being done with te Reo Māori in primary schools now, and perhaps an increase, alongside all the other specific and general topics on the curriculum. Fundamentals like reading, writing and arithmetic are essential, as well as art, music and physical education. Māori history, Aotearoa history and new Zealand history are important for kids to know something about.
All of these subjects are compulsory at Primary level now, so there’s no reason to change that. One question is whether to increase how much is taught.
And probably the biggest question is whether conversational Māori should be taught. I’d be happy if it was, to an extent. It should at least be promoted as a positive thing to learn.
But when it comes to Secondary level I don’t think Māori should be compulsory. Most subjects at this level should be choices for pupils.
Is English still compulsory? I expect so, and I think there’s a good case for this, especially to say Form 5 (now year 11). Everyone benefits from a good working knowledge of English in this country, and it is useful in many places around the world.
But I think that Māori, and French and Japanese and Chinese and any other languages, should be optional rather than compulsory at Secondary school.
Posted by Pete George on September 11, 2018
https://yournz.org/2018/09/11/compulsory-te-reo-maori-in-schools/
Labour’s candidate in the Northcote by-election, Shanan Halbert, tried to capitalise on a school rebuild announcement in his campaigning.
Minister of Education Chris Hipkins clarified – albeit a day later – that the rebuild had nothing to do with campaign promises, it would have happened anyway.
Posted by Pete George on May 26, 2018
https://yournz.org/2018/05/26/hipkins-clarifies-northcote-school-rebuild-not-by-election-related/
Mass shootings in the US seem to be about as common as violence in the Middle East, and are far more common and more dangerous than terrorism.
Paltry prayers have been offered, demands have been made again that something must be done, but President Trump is now up to a flip flop flip on doing something about rampant gun violence.
Reuters: Texas Shooting Suspect Had Message for Classmates: ‘You Will Pay,’ Witnesses Say
A 17-year-old student confessed to opening fire at his Texas high school on Friday, killing 10 people, and told investigators that he had spared certain students “so he could have his story told,” the authorities said.
A Galveston County Sheriff’s Office investigator wrote in an affidavit that Dimitrios Pagourtzis had waived his right to remain silent and had given “a statement admitting to shooting multiple people” at Santa Fe High School. The investigator, identified only as J. Roy, also wrote that Mr. Pagourtzis had said that “he did not shoot students he did like so he could have his story told.”
Mr. Pagourtzis’s apparently well-planned assault in this rural community of about 13,000 people was the deadliest school shooting since February, when 17 people were killed in Parkland, Fla. But investigators said that Mr. Pagourtzis had given no overt indications that he was planning a mass shooting.
“Unlike Parkland, unlike Sutherland Springs, there were not those types of warning signs,” Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said, referring to the Florida school attack and a siege at a church last November.
Mass shootings are awful, but not unfortunately not unusual in The United States of America.
The Gun Violence Archive statistics for the year so far, including the Santa Fe shooting.
Horrific, and horrible that the US seems powerless to do anything substantial about the problem.
This compares to an estimated 512 terrorist attacks world wide with 2,692 deaths – see Terrorist Attacks.
President Trump has responded saying mass shootings have been ‘going on too long in our country’, but not long ago promised a National Rifleman’s Association rally that he would protect gun rights.
Politico: Trump says mass shootings have been ‘going on too long in our country’
The president says he is ‘determined’ to protect students after the latest school shooting leaves at least 10 dead.
President Donald Trump on Friday said mass shootings have been “going on too long in our country” and promised action after a Texas community was rocked by a school shooting that left at least 10 dead.
“My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others,” Trump said, speaking at a White House event on Friday. “Everyone must work together at every level of government to keep our children safe.”
He indicated he would do something after the Parkland shooting in February.
Trump, who briefly alarmed gun-rights activists by suggesting aggressive measures after the February shooting in Parkland, Fla., did not specify what sort of actions his administration might take.
The usual thoughts and prayers:
At a prison reform event at the White House, Pence and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner voiced sympathies for the victims.
“We’ll continue to monitor the situation and we will make all federal resources available to first responders and school officials in the wake of this incident,” Pence said.
“I just want to send our thoughts and prayers to the people of Santa Fe,” Kushner added.
Trump, in remarks near the end of the prison reform event, offered a somber tone as he told those affected by the latest shooting that “we’re with you in this tragic hour, and we will be with you forever.”
But he recently pandered to the NRA:
However, Trump returned to more strident language during the National Rifle Association’s annual convention earlier this month, telling attendees that their Second Amendment rights “will never, ever be under siege as long as I am your president.”
As lethal sieges at schools and other public places continue unabated in the US.
Posted by Pete George on May 20, 2018
https://yournz.org/2018/05/20/another-mass-shooting-more-prayers-trump-flips/
President Donald trump has a proposal to combat shootings in schools – let teachers carry concealed handguns. In a country with far too many firearms and far too many killings, he has proposed more firearms.
He said this in front of people who went to the White House to implore him to do something to prevent more shootings.
In the shooting in Las Vegas last October where 58 people were killed and 851 injured, concealed handguns were no use.
Chicago Tribune: Trump’s solution for school shootings: arm teachers, post veterans with guns
Seated between teenage survivors of the Florida school shooting, President Donald Trump said during an Oval Office listening session Wednesday that arming teachers and posting gun-toting veterans in schools could deter or stop school shooters.
His comments came during an emotional meeting that included Vice President Mike Pence, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and school-shooting survivors and families who had lost children to gun violence, including a father who buried his daughter just last week. They poured out grief and anger over the lack of efforts to stem school shootings.
Trump talked about strengthening background checks and increasing mental health resources. But his most pointed and specific remarks came when he spoke about adding security to schools by arming teachers and posting gun-equipped veterans.
Trump posited that if Aaron Feis, a popular football coach, has been armed, he could have stopped the gunman who killed Feis and 16 others last week at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“If the coach had a firearm in his locker when he ran at this guy – that coach was very brave, saved a lot of lives, I suspect – but if he had a firearm he would not have had to run. He would have shot and that would be the end of it,” Trump said.
He then proposed to arm 20 percent of schoolteachers and to hire veterans as armed school guards.
“A teacher would have a concealed gun on them. They’d go for special training and they would be there and you would no longer be a gun-free zone,” Trump said. He suggested that an armed teacher on campus could reach a school shooter faster than responding police officers. “You’d have a lot of people that would be armed, that’d be ready.”
His proposal to make 20 percent of public schoolteachers ready to fire back at a school shooter would mean training and arming about 640,000 people nationwide.
I’m not sure how much ongoing training the 640,000 armed teachers would require. There’s also likely to be a reluctance by many teachers and schools to become armed fortresses.
The idea got a warm reception among some parents, but was met with swift backlash from teachers’ groups nationwide.
“Bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence. Our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms,” said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union. The group represents 3 million educators in K-12 schools and on college campuses. “We need solutions that will keep guns out of the hands of those who want to use them to massacre innocent children and educators. Arming teachers does nothing to prevent that.”
“This is bar none, the worst theory of action I’ve ever heard,” said Shanna Peeples, a former educator who worked in Texas when she won the 2015 National Teacher of the Year award. She shared her thoughts on Twitter. “Texas law allows schools to arm their teachers. That’s not a good thing. None of us are trained to respond to threats in the way law enforcement is.”
Strictly limiting the number of high capacity assault weapons that can be bought and owned would be a more sensible approach.
Posted by Pete George on February 22, 2018
https://yournz.org/2018/02/22/trump-proposes-more-guns-to-combat-too-many-guns/
Another horrific mass shooting in the US, this time at a school in Florida.
Reuters: FBI was warned about alleged Florida gunman, could not locate
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was warned last year about an ominous online comment by the 19-year-old man accused of killing 17 people in his former high school but was unable to locate him, an agent said on Thursday.
Authorities said the ex-student, identified as Nikolas Cruz, walked into the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, near Miami, on Wednesday and opened fire with an AR-15-style assault rifle in the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in U.S. history.
Cruz may have left warning signs on social media. A person with his name wrote a comment last year under a YouTube video that read “I‘m going to be a professional school shooter.” The man who posted the video, Ben Bennight, a Mississippi bail bondsman, was alarmed and contacted the FBI, according to a video he posted online late Wednesday.
Wednesday’s shooting was the 18th in a U.S. school this year, according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. It stirred the long-simmering U.S. debate on the right to bear arms, which are protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
President Donald Trump addressed the shooting in a White House speech that emphasized school safety and mental health while avoiding any mention of gun policy.
“It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference,” Trump said at the White House. “We must actually make that difference.”
The big question is, given the number of guns and the lax gun laws in the US – how? There is no obvious answer that the NRA lobby and politicians they fund are likely to accept.
Posted by Pete George on February 16, 2018
https://yournz.org/2018/02/16/florida-school-shooting/
Education Minister Nikki Kaye announced today that the Government will replace the school decile based funding system with a ‘Risk Index’. They say that no school will get less funding, but some will get more.
I hope it doesn’t just replace one system of bureaucracy with another.
Time will tell whether this planned change will survive past the election if a new Government comes into power.
Education Minister Nikki Kaye today confirmed the Government will replace the decile system for schools with targeted funding to better support those students most at risk of not achieving.
“For too long schools have been stigmatised and wrongly judged by their decile number,” says Ms Kaye.
“Children and young people deserve to take pride in their school and we need to better target funding to where the need is greatest to support all children to achieve.
“Today I’m announcing that the Cabinet has agreed to replace the decile system with a Risk Index that allows us to better target funding to schools with children and young people most at risk of not achieving due to disadvantage.
“We will also be replacing the equity index used to allocate disadvantage funding in early childhood education with the Risk Index.”
Decile funding currently accounts for less than 3% of a school’s resources.
“Rather than allocating this funding on the basis of neighbourhood characteristics as the current decile system does, the Risk Index will instead provide fairer funding that better reflects the needs of children in our schools and services.
This will mean extra resources are better targeted to support schools to lift achievement.”
The specific factors to be used in the index are subject to further analysis before being finalised. But, they will be the indicators which evidence tells us have the greatest influence on student achievement.
“However, I’m pleased to be able to confirm that no school, early learning service or ngā kōhanga reo will see a reduction in their funding as a direct result of this change,” says Ms Kaye.
“In fact, we expect some will gain significantly.
“This is the first major change to be announced as part of the Funding Review, and I would like to acknowledge the incredible work by my predecessor Honourable Hekia Parata who initiated this important piece of work.
“As part of the Review the Government has been working with education leaders, such as those in the Ministerial Advisory Group for the Funding Review and a Technical Reference Group, which have advocated for change and further funding for disadvantage.
“With any system, whether it’s with decile or the Risk Index it’s very important that children and young people’s privacy is protected at all times. The way the system is being designed it will not be possible to identify which children generate the additional funding.”
There will be further engagement before any changes are implemented, although it’s likely the new model of funding will take effect from 2019 or 2020.
“Stripping out decile will change how schools are judged,” says Ms Kaye.
“We are working on a number of initiatives to make it easier for parents to find and assess information about the quality of schools.
“This includes a project with ERO that improves their reports and key information as well as making it more accessible to parents. This will involve some investment in greater online tools.”
Further work on other aspects of education funding is also ongoing. The Ministry of Education is due to report back later this year on the other parts of the Funding Review.
1 News: Teachers union wants schools ‘underfunding’ dealt with as decile system scrapped
The primary teachers union says it’s big concern is underfunding for schools following the Government’s announcement that the controversial decile system will be replaced with a new rating system for funding.
The unions are largely welcoming the idea, but worry about the funding.
“Our big concern is obviously the underfunding that we have currently in the system. And that’s what we really want to see addressed,” said Lynda Stuart, NZEI president.
Posted by Pete George on July 31, 2017
https://yournz.org/2017/07/31/school-decile-system-to-be-replaced/
Violence in New Zealand used to be a normal part of New Zealand society. Many of the effects of this continue, as does much violence.
Today it’s hard to imagine nuns being violent but there have been many claims of violence in religious institutions and schools.
Kiri Te Kanawa claims to have been beaten by nuns at school.
NZ Herald reports Dame Kiri Te Kanawa: ‘I was beaten by the nuns as a child’
“I’m tough … I’m tough because I have had to be. I was beaten by the nuns as a child.”
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s revelation stunned an audience of several hundred in Whanganui.
The celebrated singer, in the city to teach at the two-week New Zealand Opera School at Wanganui Collegiate, was speaking candidly in a public conversation with fellow international opera performer and Baptist Church minister, Rodney McCann.
“I am as tough as I am today because from age 12, when I was at a convent school in Auckland, I was beaten by the nuns,” Dame Kiri told the audience at the Collegiate auditorium.
Some aspects of our society have changed markedly for the better in my lifetime. It would be unthinkable to hear of nuns beating children now.
Unfortunately some in our society continue perpetuating the violence they learnt as normal behaviour as children, and pass that on to their own children.
We have a long way to go before we can become relatively non-violent society.
Posted by Pete George on January 18, 2016
https://yournz.org/2016/01/18/kiri-te-kanawa-beaten-by-nuns/
The failure of the police to charge offenders who deliberately got young girls drunk, took compromising photos and posted them online is very disappointing.
NZ Herald reports: Warnings for Roast Busters II
“The boys had a competition where they would get young girls drunk and they would dangle their genitalia over their faces and take photos,” he said.
“The competition was how many girls you could get into those compromising photos.”
“The police were involved. The boys involved received a warning and weren’t prosecuted.”
It may be that the schoolboys involved have been thought to have been dealt with adequately outside of the courts, but this sends a terrible message.
And if one of my daughters or grand daughters was abused like this and it appeared that the offenders were let off lightly I’d be very annoyed.
If the police ever do decide to send a message and prosecute appalling behaviour like this the offenders may be unlucky to have been chosen to be example setters.
But it’s far worse for past and future victims if this sort of behaviour is swept under society’s carpet.
New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Association executive member Patrick Walsh, chairman of a high-powered Government group to counter cyber-bullying among school students, is dismayed no one was prosecuted.
Walsh, who declined to reveal the school involved, was told of the incident by the principal of the teens’ school.
I think the school was revealed in initial media reports when this story broke.
“What they are doing is criminal and totally unacceptable. In my view they do need to be charged, convicted and a message [sent] to teenagers across the country that this is totally unacceptable.”
I agree.
Police would not comment on the case but said: “We take all allegations of sexual misconduct and assault very seriously and investigate them appropriately.”
That’s not how it looks here.
Walsh said the the cases backed disturbing findings from an earlier survey that showed the Roast Busters case was not an isolated incident.
He said the time had come to stop a destructive teen culture, adding there was a hardcore group of schoolboys who thought they were entitled to harass, bully and intimidate others using technology.
“I don’t think they should go to prison. [Instead] fines, community work and compulsory attendance at programmes to address their attitude should be part of the penalty.”
Parents and schools have a responsibility to make it clear to children and pupils that abusive behaviour like this is totally unacceptable.
Auckland University law lecturer Dr Bill Hodge said there was scope under the new Harmful Digital Communications Act to put the statute to the test in incidents like those.
“This seems worse than bullying but it would seem to fit into that and would be something worth exploring,” said Hodge.
But it needs the police to actually act appropriately and deal to behaviour like this.
Posted by Pete George on November 8, 2015
https://yournz.org/2015/11/08/police-fail-to-act-against-abuse-of-drunk-girls/
There was a continuation of a running battle between Metiria Turei and John Key in Question Time today.
Later after a “feed the kids bill in her name (that she took over from as Hone Harawira) was defeated in Parliament by 59 votes to 61 at its first reading, @metiria tweeted:
John Key today turned his back on hungry kids.
A second bill on feeding kids at school is also being voted on. NZ Herald:
Meanwhile another food in schools bill in the name of Labour MP David Shearer is set to be defeated tonight at its first reading as well.
The bill allowed for free food in all primary and intermediate decile one to three schools that wanted.
However during his research on the bill, Mr Shearer came across several schools that changed his thinking including Yendarra School in Otara, and Owairaka District School, which took a community approach to food in schools.
“I have become convinced that free food solves nothing,” he has said.
“I now believe that each school community should be resourced to find and deliver its own long-term food solutions.”
He still wanted the bill sent to a select committee so it could be reworked.
It failed 60-60 despite Peter Dunne supporting it: Vote on that Members Bill (David Shearer’s Feed The Kids) was tied 60-60. Under Standing Order 153, a tied vote is lost.
This is not an issue of feeding hungry kids or not, it’s a matter of how much and how kids should be given food in schools. The Question Time exchange illustrates this.
[Sitting date: 18 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:5. Text is subject to correction.]
4. METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime Minister : Does he stand by his statement that the principals of decile 1 to 4 schools he has visited have told him “the number of children in those schools who actually require lunch is the odd one or two”?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes , because that is what principals have told me.
Metiria Turei : How can it be correct that only the odd one or two kids in low-decile schools require lunch when KidsCan says that, on average, 23 percent of the children in the schools it works with are in need of lunch every day?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Well, I believe it to be true, and one of the issues I raised with the Minister of Education today was to ask her whether she, in her travels as the Minister of Education in the last 3½ years, had had the issue of lunch in schools raised with her. She told me that it has either never been raised or has been raised extremely infrequently.
Metiria Turei : Is the Prime Minister telling the House that the low-decile schools that he has visited do not have the same needs as other low-decile schools that KidsCan works with?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY : What I am telling the member is that, firstly, the Government has been working with a number of private sector organisations to provide breakfast in schools, and about 800—791, I think—schools out of 2,500, approximately, have taken that up. Secondly, I think there will be some children who go to school without lunch, but I think that number is actually relatively small. In some cases it will be one or two; in some cases it will be a few more, but I do not think it is as widespread as the member is purporting it to be.
Metiria Turei : I seek leave to table a document from KidsCan showing that it is now feeding 15,000 students a week across 448 schools, an average of 33 children in each—
Mr SPEAKER : Order! The document is now being described. The date of the document would be useful.
Metiria Turei : The date of the document is 3 March 2015.
Mr SPEAKER : March 2015—is there any objection to that information being tabled? There is none. It can be tabled.
Metiria Turei : I seek leave to table a document prepared by my office on the schools that John Key visited from 2013 to 2014, showing that of the decile 1 schools and decile—
Mr SPEAKER : Order! No, I—[Interruption] Order! The member will resume her seat. This is an effective way of making a political statement. It does not have the purpose of informing the House. It will not be tabled.
Metiria Turei : Which of the decile 1 and 2 schools that John Key visited—Māngere Central, Waimate Main, Flaxmere, Huntly, Huntly College, Manaia View, Pt England—told him that only one or two of their kids needed feeding every day, when each of those schools have a lunch programme provided by either KidsCan or some other charity in their community?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Well, by definition, I suppose, if they already have lunch provided, then actually they would not raise the fact that they need lunch, so that is rather self-defeating. Secondly, it may be lost on the member, but I have been the Prime Minister since the end of 2008. The question the member asked was for the 1 year from 2013. But in the interests of trying to get to the bottom of this debate, at 1.41 this afternoon I took the liberty of ringing the Minister of Education. I said: “Please ring for me three schools that are decile 1 or 2 and ask them how many kids have not come to school today with lunch.” That was done completely randomly and with no information. Here are the facts. Phillip Heeney of Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Waiu o Ngati Porou , Ruatōria, a decile 1 school—people are free to ring the school—
Metiria Turei : I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER : Order! [Interruption ] Order! Every member has a right to raise a point of order. It will be heard in silence—[Interruption ] Order! The member will resume her seat. I repeat, because I was interrupted, that every member has a right to raise a point of order. This one will be heard in silence, but I sincerely hope that it is a valid point of order.
Metiria Turei : That was not an answer to the question that I asked. I asked—
Mr SPEAKER : Order! The member will resume her seat. It is very much an answer to the question the member asked. She can shake her head, but it is me who has got to adjudicate on this. It was a very full answer; it was quite a lengthy question. The House will later on today devote a considerable amount of time to this issue, and I feel it is in the interests of the House that the Prime Minister be allowed to complete his answer.
Rt Hon JOHN KEY : As I said, at 1.41 p.m., with absolutely no knowledge, these are the facts. At Te Waiu o Ngati Porou school, Ruatoria, decile 1, how many children came to school today without lunch—answer, zero. Barbara Ala’Alatoa, Sylvia Park School, decile 2—one to two kids, maybe. Iain Taylor, Manurewa Intermediate—decile 1 school, roll of 711—maybe 12. Yes, there is an issue where some children come to school without lunch. That number of children is relatively low.
Metiria Turei : So why, then, did the Prime Minister refuse my invitation to visit Windley School this morning, where we fed with peanut butter and jam sandwiches, some 50 kids at lunchtime; where Windley School says it feeds some 50 every day, Kelvin Road School some 50 every day; Cosgrove Primary up to 40 kids every day; Hay Park around 12 kids lunch every day; and Kelston Girls’, which was recently on Campbell Live showing just how serious the problem is—why will he not come with me to visit those schools that do have a problem so that he can see it for himself?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY : As I said to the member last week when she was trying to tell this House that 90 percent of children went to school without lunch, and had to then come back and apologise for being wrong, I am happy to go to a school of my choosing. Secondly, I note that the member, when she tweeted the picture, did so with an apron for the KickStart Breakfast programme that the Government is running. This is a Government that has provided 3.4 million breakfasts. This is a Government that is working with the private sector to help deliver that, from Fonterra through to Sanitarium. They are the same breakfast programmes where principals tell me—
Mr SPEAKER : Order! The answer now is long enough.
Metiria Turei : I seek leave to table a document from the Parliamentary Library showing that the GST on $1.29 is 19c not 2c.
Mr SPEAKER : Again, the purpose of tabling documents is to inform the proceedings of the House. Members know current GST rates. I am not about to put that leave.
Metiria Turei : Why does the Prime Minister continue to mock and downplay the seriousness of the problem, maintaining yet again that only the odd one or two kids need lunch at school when schools know he is wrong, KidsCan knows he is wrong, and more important, the kids who come to school hungry know he is wrong?
Rt Hon JOHN KEY : The Government has been very focused on this issue for a long period of time. It is actually proud of its record. It has extended Fruit in Schools for a huge number of children. It provides breakfasts in schools alongside the private sector. This is an issue that, as I said to the member and I repeat again, I raise with pretty much every school I go to, and the same response is what I always get—about 15 percent of kids want to take up the breakfast programme, a very small number need lunch, and when they come to school without lunch the school provides them with lunch. It does so out of its breakfast programme for the odd lunch it provides. At the end of the day I think the member actually does a disservice to the fantastic parents and caregivers out there, the overwhelming bulk of whom actually do provide their kids with breakfast and lunch. They do a damn good job, and the member should stop telling them that they do not.
Metiria Turei : Given that the Prime Minister missed the opportunity this morning to talk with parents, charity workers, and the kids over a lunch programme, will he commit to visiting Windley School—and if not Windley School then to any school that KidsCan suggests he goes to visit—and making the peanut butter and jam sandwiches for the kids—
Mr SPEAKER : Order! [Interruption ] Order! The question is too long. The Prime Minister can answer the essence of the question.
Rt Hon JOHN KEY : I have been to numerous schools where KidsCan has been in operation. I have been to those schools with Julie on numerous occasions. This is actually the Government that gave KidsCan $500,000 more for raincoats, and $900,000 more to deal with headlice. We are providing extensive support. But I will say this. I went to one of the schools where every child was given a raincoat, and, yes, we fully supported that. The argument around that is that children do not have raincoats. So I actually asked about 20 of the kids: “Do you own a raincoat?” Every single child told me: “Yes.” So it is great they have got another one, and we support KidsCan and we are giving them money, and we think they are a great charity, and they are doing good work, but just because you give kids a raincoat does not mean they did not own one beforehand.
Posted by Pete George on March 18, 2015
https://yournz.org/2015/03/18/turei-versus-key-on-feeding-kids-in-schools/
