Yes. Sadly I don't think it will happen until we start rewarding those qualities.

To replace it with what though? That campaign started in 1999. Labour blocked it all the way.

Sacha and I were discussing this today. And the funding goes to... those best able to apply for the…

The school that received the most taxpayer support for its students was King's College in Auckland – 24.4 per cent of its 180 students sitting NCEA exams got funding for special help.

Nationwide, about 60 per cent of…

and how well do you reckon that approach has been working for disabled New Zealanders?

On the flip side, let's all be reminded of the difference between equality and equity. Marriage equality has taken so long to conquer…

We have the same in my family where my niece has DS. Two parents who have learnt to be pushy to get things…

Right, but the government pays for all of that. So the net balance is a loss. The government is not going to treat disabled…

Well, I wasn't saying you were stupid. Just that the way you reason is not IMHO the way the majority does.

I'd agree with Gio that if aggregate economic outcomes are used…

It does. Coherent, competent effort.

But I heard one positive story last week about a local secondary school (although not about assessment support) from a parent. They had been at schools in many countries and the local one was the only one where the student had actually been taught by…

One of the primary aspects of my job is to make
alternative exam arrangements for students with disabilities. As a
disability rights advocate, I routinely find myself between a rock and
a hard place.

Having worked in…

Even bastards who think poor people get what they deserve because they're lazy and shiftless have difficulty saying that the children…

I'd rather be realistic and observe that given the current stick and carrot approach – where inclusive schools are beaten with…

Let's be positive and hope that every school will eventually follow the 1989 legal requirement…

There would be a large group of people, including me, who would argue that NZ was fundamentally richer at that time. We still benefited from guaranteed markets for primary produce and had built up a lot of credit…

I was thinking about an aspect of this the other day, when I realised that, as far…

A friend of mine has made the argument that what…

Yeah it's an ugly way of presenting what is a genuine desire to do "what is right".

My personal economic benefit is actually NOT the reason I want inclusive quality education, even if I have to pay more for it. But I also recognise that some folks…

I'm highly sceptical. Even if many people could be persuaded that this…

If you want you can reason it this way. I'm being selfish because I want NZ to have a better economy and social structure – I will benefit from that as much as every one else will benefit.…

Oh, boy...

None taken whatsoever. I'm with you on this one, advocacy in my (limited) experience is still expected more of mothers than of fathers, and has more power (for instance in the media) because…

Um, you described parental advocacy as mothering. Or I wouldn't have noticed and spent so much time discussing it.

I am not suggesting that 'desired' characteristics are gender labelled. Just that there are gender labels and roles now. These should be challenged in all sorts of ways. But that is not to deny the current situation.

Totally with you on that.

To change it also requires an increase of status of 'disability' itself. At the moment when you look at the hierarchy of…

Equity is not equality, so I doubt we will see similar numbers of men and women performing all roles any time…

I would love for it not to be. But until we have gender equality in the care industry, in disability education (eg teacher aides) and throughout the disability support sector, in single parenting of disabled…

By all means recognise the load currently falls way…

Can you outline what you are distinguishing as 'fathering'?

My research conclusions that love and luck are the intangibles that make a positive difference in outcomes for autistic or other disabled children has been reinforced for me over many years. I now believe there is also a…

That should be pretty easy to arrange.

It doesn't. I was making a comment about Bart, and somewhat flippantly. It's a digression so I don't really want to talk to any points raised against it.

Totally – which requires smarter thinking and collaborative action than has been common. Those with…

I don’t actually think that kind of reasoning is “like most kiwis”. Voting after one’s back pocket is really common.

I actually think they both happen at the same time. People have strong altruistic…

Why does this have to be an either/or thing? We can't care about our own interests AND looking after those with special needs?

I perhaps go further than most in that I'd vote for any party (yes even the greens with their stupid GE policy) if they…

My kids are fine, though, that's the thing – to echo what others have said. If we write on this board chances are we're the lucky ones.

To put it as simply as I can, it involves a very robust framework for establishing and protecting the rights of mentally ill individuals, alongside very stringent duty-of-care requirements for the…

I'm happy to pay more tax to educate Gio's children!

Yes

They're not even doing that. Inclusion is now one of the three strategic focus areas of the Ministry of Education – alongside…

We might just pay an extra cent in the dollar in tax, so that all people might enjoy a fundamental right.

There's an irony here, in that New Zealand is…

The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German Pastor and Nazi opponent who died…

this

I. am. not. disagreeing. with. you.

Seriously what I was boggling at was the idea that people who are inclined to cheat and lie for gain (which appears to be the assumption of the ministry) are more likely to be involved in some actual, ya…

He consistently meets the national standard in aliveness.

I get that. Like I said your argument is correct. But I don't believe it is an argument that can result in a change in policy. Neither Nat nor Lab have shown any signs…

I get that. Like I said your argument is correct. But I don't believe it is an argument that can result in a change in policy. Neither Nat nor Lab have shown any signs of doing what's right just 'cos. Instead they both respond to…

I don't like this argument. If for no other reason that it justifies not…

While I really do think you are right I also think this is the wrong answer to the question.

The reason is…

Sacha I love you but this sentence right here? It makes no sense. The fact that all needs are not currently being met is the crisis that should make us rethink how we distribute resources. And to…

But the ONLY reason for wanting your child to have a teacher aide is to allow your child to perform better. Isn't that we want our parents to do? What possible personal gain is…

Because resources are not unlimited and all needs are not currently being met.

I am not talking about prioritising between access needs, but after those have all been met. Otherwise getting political support for this basic change from current practice…

This won't happen. Most people assume other people will behave they would in any given situation. Hence the people making the rules assume everyone would rort the system for as much as possible.

I still don't know why you want to prioritise anything. We teach our children literacy and maths. Strategic goals very within that, but we don't prioritise literacy over maths, or teaching maths to some children over teaching maths to others. Why should…

And any system that relies on quality of individual or family advocacy tends to be captured by the better-off, as some have noted. Achieving genuine equity demands a more systemic response -…

And fewer private school bailouts.

if you can show me how the right to education of one child is greater than the right to education of another child, then we'll prioritise between them. Otherwise, our priority may just have to be to build fewer…

Neither should ministry of education accountants, or NZQA bureaucrats.

Because disability is so cool. I know. Statistics NZ have kept a straight face while claiming that heaps of people who aren't actually disabled said they were in the 2001…

Not working here because local coordinators have been directed to first load the person's family and…

Certainly a huge amount of money is…

I'm not even sure you save pennies. I have the strongest suspicion that if we were to reverse the philosophy of our disability services – from the withdrawal of resources to the provision of resources – we'd waste a lot less money and…

I had the displeasure of having a…

No-one's disputing that, are they? But surely both are subject to arbitrary obstacles, cuts, and hierarchies of "need".

On the sunny side, our whole school is…

Giovanni, that blog post of yours is remarkable. I'm sorry you had occasion to write it, but glad you put it out there so eloquently and forcefully.

We need to regard people as worthwhile. Which is even less likely to happen on its own.

At its root, we need to regard disabled people as worthwhile. Which won't happen on its own.

Try going to one…

Yeah, I know, it's thorny. Put it this way: schools have to be. So you can access the building. Not necessarily access education however.

They're called waiting lists – and private medical insurance. Most of the public are just not aware how much the…

Always found that sad. Highlights the constant tension Hilary mentions between a state-sanctioned theory about capability but an actual system that insists on amping up weakness to qualify for resources and opportunities. Utterly perverse, inhuman and wasteful.

If the resources used to maintain a system that asumes…

Yeah, as I noted, her teacher was on to it enough to ensure that our…

We don't set a limit of how many broken bones people can have – the hospital system will set them all – or on the number of cancers people can have.

They're called waiting lists – and private…

That fragmentation prevents people achieving any critical mass in influencing change. Other disadvantaged parts of society seem to have heeded that lesson.

Yes, call their bluff, the feckers.

(Ah, saw later replies. As you were.)

While I confess to having little or no understanding of how your daughter's disability affects her cognitively,…

So we have social model theory but the narrowest of medical model operational…

After the requirement was brought in, teachers of the Deaf battled hard and eventually successfully for students to be allowed to fulfill it in NZSL, but only if that was their first language. So it is, thankfully,…

No. Not Maori. English and NZSL, however, yes. Explicitly so. Multiple times.

Word. I was extremely fortunate with my son, in that…

There is plenty of understanding, which actually makes things worse. Nothing like the awareness that the people you are dealing with know exactly how much they are hurting you. The perversion is the capping of the resources. We don't set a limit…

Lucy was being sarcastic.

What she describes is very reminiscent of our experience of trying (eventually unsuccessfully) to retain our daughter's itinerant hours when she was at primary school. We would get together with her teachers and her facilitator and make her…

The classic doublespeak logic of disability services. It's like the ORS scheme: we'll take all children who fit our wonderfully inclusive criteria of need, but not above 7000. How will we…

Seriously? That's insane.

The system completely failed our younger son, but his brother was fortunate enough to get ORRS funding (on written appeal from his highly-literate…

If I recall correctly, my high-functioning autistic brother-in-law had to take a test showing an IQ below 90 to qualify for a teacher aide. Because all…