PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tertiary Education

Libertarianz Condemns Universal Student Bribery

“The Libertarianz Party utterly condemns the attempt by the Labour Government to buy their way into power yet again,” Libertarianz Education Spokesman Phil Howison declared today in response to the Prime Minister’s announcement that, if re-elected, her party would introduce a universal student allowance. “The kindest words I can find to describe this policy are ‘irresponsible,’ ‘corrupt’ and ‘despicable’.”

“With the government facing a full decade of deficits, any responsible party should be finding ways to cut spending and wean people off state dependency. But Labour are prepared to whip out the chequebook and write a blank cheque for potential students. What a breathtakingly audacious bribe!”

“Labour’s cost estimates of $210 million per year are obviously inadequate. How many dole-bludging beneficiaries will enrol at university to avoid the pressure to find a job? How much of this allowance will go to middle-class students who really don’t need the cash, but who will waste it all drinking and partying? The Labour Party doesn’t know or care.”

“Just as Labour announced interest-free student loans three years ago, this is a blatant attempt to buy votes. It is bribery. It is corrupt. It is also part of Labour’s agenda to make every New Zealander dependent on the state - just as Welfare for Families put middle-class families on benefits, even the richest students will be given their Universal Student Bribe. Welfare dependency destroys motivation, independence and self-reliance. We should be getting people off welfare, not putting our best and brightest on it and simultaneously removing the incentive for them to ever leave university,” Howison explains.

“Libertarianz believes that education primarily benefits the recipient by increasing his earning capacity. It does not directly benefit ’society’. Each student should pay his own way or find someone willing to pay, voluntarily, on his behalf - perhaps through scholarships. So-called ‘free education’ distorts the proper incentives which discourage people from wasting their money, and time, at university.”

“None of these election bribes come for free - all are wrested forcibly from the pockets of tax victims. But that’s what the Nanny State parties are good at - using your money to try to buy your vote.”

“It’s enough to make you vote Libertarianz!”

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Phil Howison
Libertarianz Spokesman for the Deregulation of Education
Phone: 027 437 0308
Email: [email protected]

Libertarianz: More Freedom - Less Government
www.libertarianz.org.nz

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Youth

Libertarianz education spokesman Phil Howison today slammed Helen Clark and John Key’s mirror-image plans to nationalise New Zealand teenagers.

“Forcing students to stay at school until they are 18 will cause unruly classrooms, bored students, stressed teachers and an increased burden for taxpayers” says Libertarianz education spokesman Phil Howison. “It is essentially an admission of defeat for state education. If eleven years in state schools leaves most students unemployable, what difference can adding two years make?” Howison asks. “Clark and Key have come up with plans combining the worst excesses of Nanny State. Add to it the plans to screen toddlers for ‘anti-social behaviour’, schools such as Westlake Boys High School which hold back even academically gifted students for a year if they have a ‘bad attitude’, and the threat of boot camp for students who refuse to comply, and you have the blueprints for unprecedented state control of New Zealand youth.”In her attempt to cram reluctant learners back in the classroom, Clark also condemns those who actually want to be there to disruptive and unruly classrooms. “Students who are hostile towards their compulsory schooling usually end up being disruptive and lowering the quality of the learning environment,” Howison says, pointing to Hutt Valley High School as a particularly grim example. He also laments the unnecessary stress that will burden teachers as they struggle with
classroom discipline, becoming babysitters rather than educators. “Forget about Key’s boot camps - schools these days seem to be just as rife with violence, bullying and substance abuse as the prisons. But all teenagers, not just youth offenders, are forced to attend!”

The extra $150 million of taxpayer loot that Clark is prepared to spend on turning schools into prisons will hit the taxpayer where it hurts again. “Clark’s scheme will take many young people out of the workforce where they are learning to be self-sufficient and productive, leaving them with no choice but to accept government handouts” says Howison. “And Key’s plan is no better. By supplying government funding to even more tertiary courses, he would extend government control of higher education, leaving a mere facade of private ownership while leaving the door open for waste and abuse.”

“The first step of the Libertarianz transitional education policy will be to lower the compulsory school leaving age to zero. In a free society, all interactions including the decision to stay at school must be voluntary. To help young people gain meaningful employment and encourage private apprenticeships, Libertarianz will remove minimum wage laws and make the first $10,000 of income tax free,” Howison says. “Libertarianz believe in the separation of school and state, allowing new methods, subjects and ideas to evolve in a free market system.”

“It’s enough to make you vote Libertarianz!”

ENDS

For more information, please contact:

Phil Howison
Libertarianz Spokesman for the Deregulation of Education
Phone: 027 437 0308
Email: [email protected].nz

Libertarianz: More Freedom - Less Government
www.libertarianz.org.nz

I recently came across the website of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. I’m impressed by their project, and have added them to the blogroll.

Here is an excerpt from their recent press release denouncing a chilling program at University of Delaware residence halls:

NEWARK, Del., October 30, 2007—The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a “treatment” for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delaware’s residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students’ rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech.

[. . . ]

According to the program’s materials, the goal of the residence life education program is for students in the university’s residence halls to achieve certain “competencies” that the university has decreed its students must develop in order to achieve the overall educational goal of “citizenship.” These competencies include: “Students will recognize that systemic oppression exists in our society,” “Students will recognize the benefits of dismantling systems of oppression,” and “Students will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality.”

At various points in the program, students are also pressured or even required to take actions that outwardly indicate their agreement with the university’s ideology, regardless of their personal beliefs. Such actions include displaying specific door decorations, committing to reduce their ecological footprint by at least 20%, taking action by advocating for an “oppressed” social group, and taking action by advocating for a “sustainable world.”

I can only hope that the reports are exaggerated. Absolutely sickening! I’m glad such intellectual atrocities are not yet taking place in New Zealand.

Here are the latest Libertarianz press releases on the subject of education:

New Curriculum, New Minister, Same Flawed System
08 November 2007
Libertarianz Party Education Spokesman Phil Howison today welcomed Chris Carter as the new Minister of Education, and offered three suggestions for Carter to improve New Zealand schools. “With a new minister and a new curriculum, this is a great opportunity for change in our dysfunctional education system,” said Mr. Howison.

New Curriculum = More Incompetence and Deception
08 November 2007
“If anyone actually believes that the new curriculum can improve the intellectual standard of New Zealand children then they really have been sucked in,” said Peter Osborne, Libertarianz Associate Education Spokesman today. “This curriculum is mere window dressing for our shoddy, incompetent and deceptive education system, whose victims, as always, are the pupils.”