Our nine to three-thirty, teacher and classroom, institutionalised system is inherently mono-cultural. Brave attempts have been made to incorporate the needs of other cultures within our schools but they are inevitably only partially successful. The REAL Party would aim to maintain the quality of education accessible to all while improving the choices of educational styles and structures available so that the needs of cultural groups and individual children not well met by our present structure can be better met.

While there continues to be vast income inequalities, it is important that there is State funded education and that the subjects covered and the funding priorities they are given remain broadly uniform throughout the country. Introduction of flexibility, including bulk funding, at present opens the possibility of schools where parents are wealthier being able to provide things which schools in poorer areas cannot. This undesirable diversity and choice for the wealthy must be avoided. The REAL Party would not encourage schools to adopt bulk funding and would monitor schools carefully to make sure that the quality of education available to the poor does not fall.

The REAL Party would set a limit to the proportion of any schools total expenditure which can be funded from school fees or other contributions from parents, guardians or community sponsors. This limit would be raised as the Natural Dividend rises. Schools already receiving support greater than the limit would be given time to adjust. Parents and community sponsors frustrated in their desire to give their money to schools will be invited to donate to a national fund which would be distributed to all schools in proportion to their State funding.

The REAL Resource Taxes and Natural Dividend will tend to equalise incomes. Every child will be entitled to a full Natural Dividend which will be paid to the primary caregiver. This will ensure that everyone who has a child is in a position to exercise choice. An increase in the proportion of school funding coming from fees will be much more appropriate in this environment. The REAL Party expects funding from fees to increase until they eventually reach a point at which it is no longer appropriate to supplement school funds with moneys raised from a diminishing sector of the population whose labour produces taxable income.

When all caregivers can afford to buy the education of their choice the responsibility for education can be returned to them. They may not spend the money on any conventional school or course. Children may be educated at home or in a community environment such as a marae. The money may be spent on things which expand the horizons of the family without any obvious direct connection to the childrens educational needs or may be paid to the community group. The responsibility of the State is then to protect the rights of the children not by withholding money from the family and dictating institutions or practices which qualify as educational but by monitoring childrens attainment of a number of educational goals which have been identified as being the highest common factor of educational goals agreed by all cultural groups in New Zealand.

Only if the primary caregivers fail to enable their children to reach goals appropriate for their age would the State intervene. The State would investigate to see whether there were any recognised disabilities which were causing failures to reach normal goals. There would probably be additional funding available for children with such disabilities. If no such disabilities were found, advice would be made available to the caregiver on remedial education considered appropriate. If the caregiver failed to take this advice and the child continued to fail to achieve, an educational regime would be imposed and the cost of this withheld from the child's Natural Dividend.