THE NEW ZEALAND MODEL

In a lecture at (Hillsdale College) on February 11, 2004, Maurice P. McTigue, a former New Zealand cabinet minister, outlined his government’s educational reforms. . . . They have done nothing less than break up the public school monopoly. . . . Where did they start? They did not tinker at the edges of the problem. . . . . They “immediately eliminated all of the boards of education in the country…(and advised) the parents that they had an absolute right to choose where their children would got to school.. . . . (They) converted 4,500 schools to this new system on the same day.”

– Columnist James K. Fitzpatrick, 6/10/04