Posts by Sacha
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Idiot/Savant has done some more work on NZ's income distribution, which highlights why our decision-makers are so out of touch.
So, the median income is around the decile 5 boundary of $23,000 a year. But the median income for wage and salary earners for that year was $729 a week, or $37,908 a year, putting a median wage earner squarely in decile 7.
MPs BTW earn $131,000 a year plus expenses (and more if they have a select committee chair or a party position), putting them in the top 1.7% of income earners; Cabinet Ministers earn $243,700, placing them in the top 0.4%.
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78% of us don't even pay the middle tax rate, and the top tax rate is utterly irrelevant to 91% of the population.Remember that next time the government or the media talk about "middle-income" tax cuts - they're not talking about you, or most of New Zealand. Instead, they're only talking about themselves.
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Chris, not an area I know much about. Someone previously mentioned the Education Counts stats site.
You could always ask her that question as well, but the main thing from my perspective would be to get her talking about how they propose to use the test data to improve education, not getting tied up in numbers. I don't think most parents have heard a decent answer to the general question let alone the specific one. Good luck getting more than talking points.
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sexy-stentialism counts
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I'd love to see a censor "prove" that
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And here's the New Scientist explaining how it works.
Amazing. I wonder if any women get prostate cancer?
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why not favour granting vouchers
Practical rather than principled on this. I am given to understand that vouchers have not worked any more than these 'standards' have where they have been tried overseas. Again, no refs.
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Geoff is brevier
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So, should I go?
Please do, Chris - I doubt you'll be expected to say much but what you experience can sure help others be better prepared.
I'd ask how these 'standards' achieve the results Tolley claims for them - and quote her published words about that in your question so she can't deny them. In short, how measuring the pig will help us all be fatter and smarter and happier. You know.
Supplementary - so how much new funding are you committing to invest responding to what these tests reveal?
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Yeah, but what do those people think they're saying?
More to the point, if it's only going to have a minor transitory effect then why bother? Tell it to someone who buys food each week forever. Truthiness in the air..
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Orwell never had to contend with double paste error. Bet he'd be a great tweeter, but.