Mallard hints at stay of execution for schools

By HELEN TUNNAH, deputy political editor

Education Minister Trevor Mallard has hinted at a last-minute reprieve for schools facing the axe.

And mayors throughout New Zealand are planning a legal challenge to block any more closures.

Mr Mallard told the Herald yesterday he would look "extra carefully" at the futures of those schools already earmarked to be shut or merged when the Government this week abruptly stopped any more restructuring for five years.

His rethink came as constitutional lawyer Mai Chen said Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt might win a legal challenge against proposed closures in his city.

Mr Shadbolt yesterday started a national campaign to get mayors from Northland to Southland to fight up to 71 school closures announced before the moratorium was declared on Monday.

He told the Herald last night that anger among parents and teachers in his city had intensified after Mr Mallard called a halt to any more school reviews because of public unrest.

"If the Labour Government really thought that this was going to take the pressure off them and we'd all love Labour, they're sadly mistaken.

"It's made people more angry, because previously we were all in the same boat - all of New Zealand was going to face pain.

"The minister assured us over and over again we were not being picked on."

Mr Mallard said this week that a five-year moratorium on reviewing the future of schools would not apply to those already listed for closure or merger.

Final decisions are to be made by the Government in April.

Mai Chen said the Education Minister had the power to close schools, but "no power is unfettered".

She said he would have to argue his actions were "reasonable" and the moratorium - imposed because of public opposition - might now cast doubt on the reasonableness of going ahead with closures.

The moratorium announcement did nothing yesterday to ease the anger of parents and students who marched on Parliament to protest at the planned closure of their schools.

Parents from Taranaki, the Hutt Valley and the West Coast appealed to Mr Mallard for a "stay of execution" for their schools.

After meeting a delegation of parents, Mr Mallard told the Herald it would be "inappropriate" to stop the process because of stress already experienced and because the process was near completion.

But he would look "extra carefully" at schools' submissions before making final decisions in April.

"Clearly there will be a slightly different tint in my glasses as I read the submissions."

He and Prime Minister Helen Clark have said they believe the review process - which Cabinet papers show would have affected 1000 schools over 10 years - had been done in the best interests of children and schools.

Helen Clark said the moratorium had been imposed because of community opposition, which was distracting for schools and the minister.

She also conceded that the decision had been motivated in part by a need to ease Mr Mallard's workload, because of his new Cabinet role as Race Relations Minister.

The National Party's education spokesman, Bill English, who will be visiting schools targeted for closure in Invercargill today, said the problem for Mr Mallard and the Government now was that parents no longer believed he had the credibility to shut down schools.

Going ahead with closing schools would be seen as "vindictive", Mr English said.

"What about a fair go for the thousands of families who are facing the closure of their schools?"