I'm concerned that a decision by Tony Ryall that should worry anyone with a stake in special-needs education has gone almost unreported. Ryall canned two pay equity investigations, including one that had revealed that the overwhelmingly female workforce that provides special needs support in schools is critically underpaid.
But I'm not surprised, either by the fact that these people are paid so poorly, or by the fact that Ryall's sudden decision was ignored. It's just not as sexy as having heads on plates, is it?
Hilary Stace posted to Humans her letter to Allan Peachey, the chair of the Education select committee, over the Education Act changes shoved through under urgency before Christmas. As she notes, she never got a chance to make a submission on the amendment bill, so writing a letter is about all she's got.
She notes all the concerns that parents of special-needs children -- and especially those on the autism spectrum -- might have about the amendments, from the clobbering stick on truancy to the demonstrated failure of the New Child Left Behind policy of frequent testing in the US. She also commends to Peachey's attention to the New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline, which last year made recommendations National's amendments just roll right over.
This all seems news to Peachey. Ten days after Hilary sent her letter, she received a reply containing this anodyne passage:
Thank you for your recent letter relating to the Education National Standards Amendment Act 2008.
I have not yet had time to study your letter in detail but will do that in the next few days and bring to the attention of the Minister for Education concerns that I have in relation to how our autistic children are treated in schools.
I have raised with the Honorable [sic] Chris Carter Deputy Chairperson of the Education Select Committee the thought that the committee might do some work on the schooling for autistic children.
I cannot guarantee that this will happen but it is something I am quite keen to do.
Of course, the the "work" has been done, as Peachey would know if he'd found the time to "study" Hilary's letter, or even, say, read it. It's hard to say who is less impressive; Peachey or the minister, Anne Tolley, but nothing this government has done should encourage parents with special-needs kids.
On a more impressive note: Obama's speech to the join houses of Congress seems to have been highly impressive, if occasionally a little wayward (that bit about "find[ing] a cure for cancer" was like parody).
The Republican response, from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, is widely agreed to have been a disaster. It's going to take him a long time to live down the Kenneth the Page from 30 Rock meme. But it still might be better than that kooky exorcist thing.
Meanwhile, the Republicans seem intent on killing off any actual sane people representing the party. As Craig R will always point out, Olympia Snowe looks a lot more like the solution for the GOP than the problem. But what would I know?
And finally, Rebecca Priestley has a thing about cicadas. Or, rather, a nice blog post about how we know what we know about the sound of summer, on Pundit.