QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION COALITION
13 July 2012
Media Release:
School Boards of Trustees should politely ignore Education Minister’s warning
on “politics” in school newsletters
QPEC encourages school Boards of Trustees to ignore the Education Minister’s insistence that they should keep “politics”
out of school newsletters.
Hekia Parata issued the warning while speaking to the AGM of the School Trustees Association this morning.
The Minister is upset that many schools have openly opposed government policies such as the budget decision to increase
class sizes.
“The Minister would prefer school boards to keep parents in the dark but it would have been remiss of them to have
stayed silent.”
“We applaud school boards for keeping parents well informed with frank and accurate information about the impact of the
policy on their school and its effect on the quality of education for children.
In a democracy it is the government’s role to run education policy but it is the role of principals, teachers and boards
to point out the impact of those policies.
This is especially so since the policy to increase class sizes was not presented to the electorate at the last election.
The Minister has now overstepped the mark and her advice is a thinly-veiled attempt to bully BOTs into silence and
submission.
“Avoiding embarrassing an Education Minister is not as important as giving parents good feedback on the impact of
government policies. School boards should continue to do so.”
John Minto
National Chairperson