Stanford and the 'Illusion of Choice' with Inclusive Education in our Country
Inclusive Education
Yesterday, I watched as Stanford stand alongside Willis in what was a marque announcment, to mark the building of two new Specialist Schools, the first build in 50 years, the Minister told the select group of attendees.
Watching the speeches from both Stanford and Willis several things stood out, Stanford emphasised the concept of Choice multiple times. She directly connected it to the idea that parents of disabled children must have the choice of where to send their children, be it to a public school or a specialist school, it is as the minister says, the parents choice.
But is that Choice a Real one?
Parental Choice?
Parental Choice, is a very seductive and powerful argument,
I will come back to the thinking around Parental Choice by this Minister, but, first a bit of context around the use of Parental Choice in Education by the Minister, and the government as a whole.
Parental and School choice has been a major policy battleground from the 1990s onward, with charter schools, vouchers, and open enrollment policies. Proponents argued choice would empower families (especially disadvantaged ones) and improve schools through competition.
We have seen the introduction of Charter Schools by the Coalition Government, with 2 applications particularly focused on schools for neurodivergent children, which were supported by AutismNZ.
Critics, countered that it fragmented public education and often benefited already-advantaged families with resources to navigate choices.
In meetings on Inclusive Education the current Minister stressed ‘Parental choice’ as being the most important thing to her personally. Discussions based around upholding CRPD Art 24 and UN General Comment 4 The Right to Inclusive Education have not been supported by this Minister.
It is fair to point out that our Ministry of Education has no Inclusive Education policy so the criticism that this Minister doesn’t uphold these Rights based instruments isn’t isolated to just this Minister.
Why investing in Specialist Classrooms doesn’t provide True Choice?
When parent’s are presented with the ‘Choice’ of taking their disabled child to the local school that, maybe their non disabled sister or brother already goes to, and is well settled into, they are faced many times with the reality that the school just is not set up from a funding and teacher training perspective to recieve that child, meaning that parents must look for other options, and that is heartbreaking and Just Wrong!!
The evidence shows that our public School model is at breaking point!!
Here is what research from 2025 says is really going on on our public school who are delivering inclusive education:
“… Many participants noted that even when funding is technically available, recruiting and retaining qualified staff remains difficult. Schools, particularly in rural and isolated communities, are struggling to hire teacher aides for the limited hours they can afford. This challenge is exacerbated by the casualised nature of support roles, with many aides employed on short-term contracts tied to individual students or time-bound funding…
… You lose good teacher aides because their contracts are short-term and tied to one child There’s no security or career pathway for them.
… We had one very challenging child who needed significant support. By the time we got funding and staffing in place they’d withdrawn. They just couldn’t manage emotionally or academically.”
If we are really serious about giving our parents the Dignity of Choice that Stanford says she cares so deeply about then what Stanford and Willis would have come out and announced yesterday, is that they both are going to invest seriously into Learning Support in Budget 2026 to make our Public Schools an actual choice for every parent of a disabled child.
Now I can already hear, ringing in my ears, Min. Stanford saying that she invested $750m, a record investment into Learning Support, more than any other govern…
But what goes unnoticed is that the funding was into Learning Support Coordinators, which are a management role who oversea the specialist staff who actually do the work in the classrooms.
In Budget 2025 Ministry of Education funded Learning Support staff who actually do work in the classroom.1
Despite this funding, many schools report significant barriers to accessing vital specialist services—such as educational psychologists, speech-language therapists (SLTs), occupational therapists (OTs),and behavioural experts.
These professionals are essential for both learning and wellbeing needs, yet many schools either lack access altogether or receive input so minimal and delayed that it fails to have meaningful impact.
The Budget 2025 Education funding was no where near enough to meet the demand from disabled children in mainstream schools.
This Choice, that the Minister talks about, is being seriously eroded by one thing, a massive lack of investment in our mainstream schooling by this government!!
And parents are left with something that they believe, and hope is the answer, Specialist Schools, which were sold to them and to the public by both Ministers as beautiful schools built specifically for their children.
A bitter swipe at Advocates
In a disturbing turn of events, Stanford then made the claim that the actual reason those parents had to wait 50 years to get a school for their children was because Adults couldn’t agree in the argument between mainstream vs specialist schooling.
It was a sad day to have to witness this, and I must take a right of reply to these comments, which are offensive.
I will finish by quoting someone who was a great friend of mine, and a great New Zealander, Sir Robert Martin, who attended a specialist school himself, when he asked:
“… Why they existed when there was no special society as a whole…
… If society isn't segregated, why should schools be?”
Sir Robert makes an excellent point, highlighting the fundamental contradiction within segregated education. Sir Robert always had such a wonderful way of breaking things down to their very essence.
Let us continue to honour his memory, and if this Minister, and this government are so focused on providing Parents with Choice, then make that a Real Choice, by funding our mainstream education system to deliver the inclusion that parents, teachers and our disabled children actually want, and stop this ‘Illusion of Choice’ that is actually continuing to fund segregation.
The Minister says there’s been a 50 year debate over mainstream vs specialist schooling.
What has actually been going on Minister has been an argument about Inclusion vs Segregation.
And this announcment moves us further away from Inclusion,
So, plan for and fund Inclusion and let our Children go to School in non segregated environments, Why is that so easy to say but so hard to achieve?
As Sir Robert said: Society isn’t segregated so our Schools shouldn’t be either!!
$41.5 million operating + $1.4 million capital for 78.5 FTE speech-language therapists and 6.2 FTE psychologists (for the Behaviour and Communications Service)
4.2 million to employ 25 intern educational psychologists annually Ministry of Education
$7.3 million for 45 additional places in Te Kahu Tōī Intensive Wraparound Service , which includes psychologist support
$266 million for Early Intervention Services expansion, funding over 560 additional FTE specialists including educational psychologists, speech-language therapists, and occupational therapists