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🙋🏽‍♀️There is no need to choose between funding Maori language training or maths training for teachers 🤬- a fairly constructed tax system & a sensible govt debt approach would mean we could have BOTH, not to mention funding critical infrastructure like the Dunedin hospital & others, a rail-enabled Inter Island ferry (surely the design could still be used & the contract re-instated thereby minimising the loss via cancellation fees? & get multi-party sign-off ...) All of these costly & stupid decisions are like a suicide pact 🤷🏾‍♀️

As for See-less & his truancy tirade - the nuanced data shows he either doesn't read it, or chooses to misrepresent it. It would seem schools would be better off BRUSHING UP ON THEIR TE REO instead of harassing parents & students ... just sayin'

🌻Also: Please go to the Parliament website & sign the petition AGAINST re-instating offshore oil & gas mining - if you DO oppose it of course! 😜 For some reason (!) there were only 5 days allowed, and now only 4 days left for submissions including the weekend - a suggested quick submission from Mountain Tui = "I ask that this bill NOT be passed.   If it IS passed, I ask that the next government repeal it immediately and revoke all permits issued with NO compensation to permit holders." In the comments segment I mentioned moving away from fossil fuels to renewables, & prioritising climate change mitigation instead. Apparently submissions can be used by future govts, even if this one is bound & determined to do whatever their minority members want, regardless of any science, economics, or public opinion 🤷🏾‍♀️

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It’s always disturbing when a decidedly non-parent makes policies for truancy and other things that only parents can truly understand. Even Nicola Willis would do a better job, maybe it’s time for them to swap places, as I feel David Seymour’s maths is a whole lot better and he might actually develop financially sound polices that add up. Rather than picking on the lower socio economic group all the time. As this article says, there’s usually a bigger reason why kids don’t attend school. In my brother’s case it was because he had Mensa level intelligence and he was bored at school. I can only hope my son doesn’t experience this as he starts school next year, he is also showing signs of high intelligence and aptitude for learning. I tell him something once and he knows it, he’s ahead of all the other children in his daycare in maths and language, he spelt his first word aged 2. In some families it’s because the family are spending 70% of their minimum wage income lining their landlord’s pockets and so they need to reluctantly send their children out to work to supplement the family income. In some families it’s because they’re always sick, or afraid of getting sick, if the children or parents have immune issues they need to be kept from school in waves of illness.

The policy is deliberately vague, and we don’t really know how it’s going to work for illness. It seems like there’s not a lot of room for staying off school for a week say, with a serious illness like influenza or Covid. Or taking 3 days off for bereavement, longer maybe if it was a close relative like a grandparent, parent or sibling.

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