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Tom

@tomcpearce.bsky.social
314 followers 254 following 892 posts

Dad, teacher and PhD student based in Te Whanganui a Tara. He/him Education, politics, prison abolition, books and bikes.

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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
It turns out we should just systematically under pay women to fix the budget. Hell, why not cut even more from salaries in traditionally underpaid sectors like teaching and nursing? Think of the savings!
rnz.co.nz
Pay equity legislation could save 'billions' for government - PM
Christopher Luxon said the upcoming Budget was not the motivation for rushing through the legislation.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Popping up to say that the Min of Education have open for consultation the new draft framework for relationships and sex education in schools. They've cut out almost every mention of gender and gender diversity. Inside Out have a great guide to submitting here: insideout.org.nz/make-an-urge...
insideout.org.nz
Make an urgent submission on the draft Relationship and Sexuality Education Framework today – before submissions close 9 May 2025 - InsideOUT |
Changes are coming to Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) in schools and we’re concerned about what has been proposed by the Government. We believe the draft RSE framework as it stands, is dee...
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
People are appointed for three years, so it isn't surprising to see some people opting for re-appointment and others not. Prebble has resigned though, which is different.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Pretty clear that Prebble joining the Waitangi Tribunal was always just a cheap stunt, setting him up to resign dramatically and claim that the Tribunal is corrupt. Fortunately it looks like he's shouting into the wind, the racist historical revisionism of ACT and Hobson's Pledge is losing.
nzherald.co.nz
Richard Prebble: Why I’ve resigned from the Waitangi Tribunal
OPINION: I will not participate in turning the Treaty into a socialist manifesto.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
David Seymour: "Sure, some of the kids have been eating melted plastic. But what about all the kids who haven't been fed melted plastic? Why isn't the media talking about them?" (I'm paraphrasing but barely) www.rnz.co.nz/news/politic...
"You've got to bear in mind there's 143,000 of these meals going out every day. That's a very significant number of meals. It's a couple of million already this year and as a result we've got it right just about every time. In this case it was wrong and we've done something about it."
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Some parents can afford it but are neglectful. Some parents can afford it but aren't out of bed in the morning to make lunch. Some parents can afford it but spend the money on other shit. That's obviously a minority but even if that were the case for all of them, who cares? Their kids still need kai
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Whether parents can afford to make their kids a Marmite sandwich is irrelevant. Lunches were introduced because kids didn't have food, the reason doesn't matter. Do we accept responsibility as a society for making sure our kids have kai? That should be a pretty simple question for us to answer.
Photo of Chris Luxon and Judith Collins in front of microphones with the news headline beneath "Live: 'Go make a sandwich' - Luxon on school lunches".
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Photo of a tino rangatiratanga flag flying in front of the New Zealand parliament
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 04/07/2024
www.tewhakatere.auckland.ac.nz/mandated-tes... ✌️
tewhakatere.auckland.ac.nz
Mandated testing hurts our education system | Te Whakatere au Pāpori - Navigating social currents
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 30/05/2024
Tax cut calculator is here: budget.govt.nz/taxcalculato... You can compare to what they campaigned on here: x.com/coughlthom/s...
budget.govt.nz
Tax Calculator - Budget 2024 - 30 May 2024
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 22/05/2024
"Labour don't have a plan" says the guy who didn't even check the weather forecast. Very frustrating to watch UK Labour sleepwalk into government without any kind of ambition or transformational goals though. Basically just tory-light.
rnz.co.nz
British PM Rishi Sunak calls UK national election for 4 July
Ending months of speculation the British PM stood on Downing Street in pouring rain.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 20/05/2024
This aligns with my anecdotal experience of an attitude shift that happened after the lockdowns. It varies, but the perception that "a few days here and there don't matter", viewing start time as flexible, etc, seem much more widespread now.
rnz.co.nz
The scariest driver of school non-attendance: more parents who just don’t care
Parents in a UK study knew attendance rates had gone down. The problem was, they didn't care. Could the same be true here?
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 16/05/2024
The $153m is just to set up and administer the schools, doesnt include the per-student funding. We know from previous charter schools here that they use this startup funding to provide levels of service (salaries, pastoral care etc) that their business model can't actually sustain. Cooks the books.
rnz.co.nz
Charter schools might increase government costs, deliver marginal benefits - Cabinet papers
Charter schools will likely get higher per-student funding than most state schools, and evidence of their efficacy is mixed.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 16/05/2024
The treaty principles bill is precisely an attempt to change NZ's constitutional law to undermine the Waitangi tribunal. They aren't even being discrete about it.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 16/05/2024
How long can David Seymour keep branding as "activists" all these institutions established to defend people's rights? Surely before it will start to become obvious that the problem is his policy strips people of rights.
rnz.co.nz
'Increasingly activist' Waitangi Tribunal faces its future under renewed attack from senior ministers
David Seymour has renewed attacks on the what he says is an 'increasingly activist' Tribunal as it faces questions about its future.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 16/05/2024
Yeah his online culture wars stuff spilled over and fortunately it went down like a lead balloon
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Reposted by Tom
Sheldon @brokenstarfish.bsky.social · 15/05/2024
All of this and also… a major reason for the importance of school lunches is being missed in discussions… to compensate for any potential nutritional deficiency poor kids might have in their diet at home.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 15/05/2024
This is an EXACT repeat of the situation that cost Clare Curren her job as minister for broadcasting in 2018. Failure to add something to a diary, lying that it was because it was an ad-hoc meeting, and then it being revealed as a pre-arranged meeting. Totally different standards nowadays it seems.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 15/05/2024
It'll be interesting to see how they manage it if it does eventuate! Hopefully they'll just decline to avoid bad press. Huge issues involved in removing requirements for trained/registered teachers, especially when schools will likely have to prioritise spots for disadvantaged/more vulnerable kids.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 15/05/2024
Yeah there didn't used to be much difference other than bulk funding and untrained/unregistered teachers. Now that public schools have all these extra requirements around minimum hours of reading/writing/maths, and structured literacy etc, there's a bigger difference
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 15/05/2024
That's odd, it isn't paywalled for me (and I'm not logged in or anything). How about in The Press? www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3502...
thepress.co.nz
The Press
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 15/05/2024
I wrote about David Seymour's pet charter school project in The Post. Sets out the evidence that charter schools just don't work; any benefits they provide (higher pay, better pastoral care) can and should be delivered through the public system. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3502...
Opinion piece in The Post, headline: "Public schools, not charter schools, need support" by Tom Pearce. Featured image "The children of South Auckland Middle School in a photo from 2017; the school was a partnership (charter) school or kura hourua opened under the previous model. Tom Pearce acknowledges that these offered benefits for some groups, including Māori and Pacific children."
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
Oh right, then yeah for sure, the new wave of fascism is born out of the decay of neoliberal capitalism, and the intentional destruction of public education that Seymour is advancing with charter schools is a big part of that.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
Nah they've been around for ages, they're not part of some sort of NZ version of Hitler youth. Much more likely they're just kinda oldschool authoritative discipline people, and the school has an explicit focus on duty, self-discipline, personal improvement/responsibility and shit.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
I don't think they're cookers or anything, but yeah I don't know the specifics of their curriculum/approach.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
Yeah Vanguard Military School, they call their students "recruits" and get them to do "physical training" and stuff
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
It's not just that. Seymour says schools need this freedom to innovate and improve, while Stanford says we need every teacher using the exact same approach in literacy and numeracy for every child. It's ridiculous stuff.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
I know, between this and the standardised testing it's like we're right back in 2011. I've got a piece that Stuff have agreed to run somewhere (dont know where yet) about them. It's going to be a harder fight this time but hopefully we can keep opposition alive.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 14/05/2024
Charter schools want to have their cake and eat it too. Things like bulk funding and ability to employ unregistered teachers only offer benefits because the rest of the sector holds the line on funding, pay, standards etc. It's just privatisation, not even by stealth.
rnz.co.nz
Doubts about value, results from charter schools - education figures
Reintroduced charter schools will be tightly monitored, but a lack of transparency in reporting was a key criticism they faced last time around.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
The party of small government!
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Reposted by Tom
Smut Clyde, X-Ray Haruspex @smutclyde.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
ACT voters: It's their own fault that the poors have health problems. They waste their money eating junk food instead of a healthy diet. Also ACT voters: Why are we wasting money on giving poor kids the sort of healthy diet that affluent people eat? Junk food is good enough for them!
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
alas, my search for a nice vegan replacement for cheese continues.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Looks delicious, sadly this will soon be banned from schools because it's too woke (Also is that cheese melted on the pepper, or a vegan replacement of some sort? I've never managed to find one that I liked)
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Not anymore, because of woke. Only non-woke foods allowed.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Here's a Ka Ora Ka Ako provider in Auckland with sushi on their menu ($3.50/12, so if you drop the serving size down it'd even meet Seymour's $3/child limit)
appresso.co.nz
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
I'm not really sure why you're so hung up on this but here you go: "Each day we will provide pieces of fruit and vegetable sticks, yogurt or a hummus dip, and a main such as:- Club sandwich- Wrap- Filled roll- Pasta salad- Sushi tray- Vegetarian pizza"
shirleyprimary.school.nz
Shirley Primary School
Shirley Primary School is a fantastic, multi-cultural school where we encourage all of our S*T*A*R learners to reach for the stars, whāia te iti...
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
I guess? No more so than some of the other stuff on the menu. Obviously stuff that you can make in big batches is easier, but there's still plenty of sandwiches and stuff. Here are some more example menus:
kaorakaako.education.govt.nz
Ka Ora, Ka Ako - Healthy School Lunches Programme
Browse the Nutrition standards to help you design a nutritious and balanced menu for ākonga. Find information here for Ka Ora, Ka Ako menus, including food groups, the Traffic light system, and minimu...
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Yes, probably? I don't know for sure? Sushi is popular with kids
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Yeah that thought had occurred to me
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
nah there are, the school lunch programs have really great, diverse menus. Here's an example week (via @drbex.bsky.social a while back), and it doesn't have sushi but can anyone look at this and say they would rather their kids just had a sandwich vs being offered this every day?
diverse lunch menu via the Ka Ora Ka Ako school lunches program
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Yeah it's ironic isn't it, that they'd opt out of a more market based approach, in favour of having a bureaucrat decide what all these kids get for lunch?
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
ACT is nothing but consistent. Ideology over evidence, every time
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
kids love sushi. One of the most broadly appealing foods in my 10+ years in education.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Have they ever claimed to be an "evidence based" party?
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
ACT has decided that sushi is woke now folks.
Tweet from ACT New Zealand (@actparty)

We just saved you $107 million on school lunches. 

Despite the shrieking from the left, we're not cancelling the programme. 

We'll be doing more with less money to feed kids the fruit and sandwiches their parents would, not woke food like quinoa and sushi. 

Bon appétit.

11:57 AM May 8, 2024
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
Oh yeah the dog whistle is deafening
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Reposted by Tom
Sacha @sachadylan.bsky.social · 07/05/2024
"Schools that offered hot lunches as opposed to cold lunches also saw little to no leftover meals. Sandwiches and cold lunches were frequently mentioned as being wasted."
1news.co.nz
When it comes to free school lunches, how much waste can we live with?
Analysis: Schools say it’s impossible not to have some wastage within the school lunches programme. So how much is acceptable for the NZ taxpayer? Indira Stewart examines the waste equation.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 08/05/2024
One of the huge benefits of school lunches (per the review) was that kids were eating healthier. Seymour is looking to take that away, and replace it with cheaper, processed food. The reason many parents just pack sandwiches (as he says) is because they're time-poor and sandwiches are convenient.
rnz.co.nz
Free school lunches: Year 7 students and above to shift to alternative model
A new interim delivery model will kick in next year to allow time for a full redesign of the scheme before any more money is dedicated.
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 07/05/2024
that's your school though presumably, not at a national level?
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Tom @tomcpearce.bsky.social · 07/05/2024
This will lead to reporting of "% of kids at school" data, which is good imo. But be alert for sleight of hand: they can easily say "Under Labour only 53.6% of students were attending school regularly. Now on average we have 84% of kids at school each day" without any actual change in attendance.
newshub.co.nz
Government releases online tool where public can see how many kids are in school | Newshub
"There is a serious need for more accurate, complete, and timely information."
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