Education Minister Parata backtracks on Budget teacher-student ratio changes tipped to save NZ$170 mln, but 2014/15 surplus track not affected

Well, yes - but if you want a Government that is totally driven by polls, you don't need a Government at all - you just poll public opinion on every issue and make decisions that way. The trouble is, we get fed such a diet of misinformation by the media, including on this issue where we were shown a succession of sad-faced children in technology classes in Intermediate Schools, when all that was actually announced in the Budget was that the previous specialist funding for schools teaching technology subjects was going to be replaced with per-student funding like any other subject. As long as the contributing schools sending their students to the specialist school continued to do that - and pay for it with the extra funding they were getting - nothing would change.

The fact is that the Government doesn't set teacher/pupil ratios at all. Principals and school Boards of Trustees do. Schools are funded by a complicated formula that partly uses teacher/pupil ratios ranging from 1:15 for new entrants to 1:29.5 for some older pupils - but there is no requirement for schools to actually use the money that way, hence the much larger class sizes that teachers often complain about. That just means that the school has chosen to spend its money elsewhere. Similarly with the "management" funding - the only firm requirement is that there is a principal in each school, even though most schools other than the really small ones are funded for more management positions than just the principal.

So what the budget announcement was in reality was a small cut in schools' funding, using the only tool available under the formula, in order to free up some funding for extra professional development, given that the past 30 years of reducing class sizes has been proved to have had little effect on the only area where we perform poorly compared to other OECD countries - the long tail of educational under-achievement. It was then up to schools to decide what to actually cut. But it is the oldest trick in the book for unions to focus on cutting what will get the most public attention. And the public dutifully swallowed it all, hook, line and sinker.

The main damage to this Government from this u-turn is that it has demonstrated once again that it is not a principle-led Government at all, but a populist polls-driven Government. But that only works if the majority view is always the "right" one - and it isn't, quite often. The achilles heel of democracies is the self-interest of the majority. We've seen it in Europe, starkly, and now we have seen it in New Zealand.

When you have been scammed, rorted and plucked, it don't take much education, not to  repeat the formula.

Hope the Seagulls and Seafood....tastes nice....and the other Seagull keeps on repeating.

At least fuel is getting a  little cheaper...the Poll-lies must have used up their quota.

Quantarse is not as busy as it was.

A little economy goes a long way, with a little engine.

Maintaining yer own lifeboat is essential in this day and age.

Maintaining yer sense of humour is getting harder.

The sinking lid policy should start at the top and then maybe we all have a chance at floating our boat.

Key and his royal aspirations as usual, leaving the Titanic in charge of the wrong pilot.

Full steam ahead.....and hang the consequences.

He is investigating QE...........and it ain't Qeen Elizabeth....though she was first on the Agenda.

And as for that other new Rich Dick with a knighthood.....words fail me...ALMOST.

SHEERER AND SHEERER......HYPOCRACY.

HELL-en would be PROUD.

Loves labours...LOST.

MONEY TALKS.......