Government funding for state and state-integrated primary and secondary schools decreased last year by nearly $150 per student, according to new figures from the Ministry of Education.
The records show the average spend per student in 2014 was $7,194.71, which fell to $7,046.11 last year.
The per student amount includes funding for property, operations and salaries, and is averaged out over all years of schooling from years 1-13.
Property funding is the main reason for the drop and with it excluded, the per-head funding actually increases by around $50, or $20 in real, inflation-adjusted terms.
Education Minister Hekia Parata vehemently rejects there's been a decrease, pointing out that cash has been pumped into her portfolio every year since National took office.
"All schools are funded by the Government. All of them, except for private schools, have had increases.
"If you're asking if funding for education has gone down, the answer in no. It's gone up every year since we've been in Government," says Ms Parata.
Labour's Chris Hipkins isn't buying Ms Parata's explanation, saying parents are having the shortfall passed on to them through higher fees and demands for bigger school donations.
"We've seen costs that parents face increase at 10 times the rate of inflation over the past couple of years.
"The simple reality is schooling is no longer free for kids in New Zealand. This is something Bill English decried when in opposition and since he's been in Government, he's made the problem worse," Mr Hipkins says.
A spokesperson from Ms Parata's office says the decrease in property funding was due to a drop off in demand and not as many schools needing work done as the previous year, pointing to new schools being built in Christchurch.
Mr Hipkins rejects that explanation, saying hundreds of schools across the country require property expenditure and doubts any of them would turn down funding.
We all face different obstacles when applying for new roles but for those in their 50s, those obstacles can increase.
Careers expert Laurel McLay says those over the age of 50 can face discrimination in many forms, such as their perceived lack of energy, the thought they may be too experienced and thus expensive for a position, the fact they haven't grown up with social media and the fear they may be too stuck in their old ways to adapt to new systems.
She joined Paul Henry this morning to discuss more obstacles jobseekers in their 50s might face and ways to overcome them.
A Christian organization called Priests for Life sued the Obama administration, saying its mandate that insurance providers cover birth control violates the organization’s religious and free-speech rights.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., Priests for Life also objected to the requirement that employers provide coverage for sterilization and related education, and to the penalties for not complying. They said the mandate violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The group wants the court to prohibit enforcement of the rules under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010.
The mandate “violates the freedom of all people of faith, and even those of no faith, who have a conscientious objection to contraception, sterilization or abortion,” the Staten Island, N.Y.-based group said in its complaint.
Last week, Obama offered a compromise that would force health insurers, and not religious-affiliated charities, to pay for contraceptives for employees of those institutions. Republican lawmakers have vowed to push for a measure in Congress to repeal the policy, a vote that could come as early as this week.
Erin Shields, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, declined to comment on the litigation.
The case is Priests for Life v. Sebelius, 12-cv-753, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
WASHINGTON — The petite woman in regal purple edged her way behind a raucous mob of reporters awaiting the next speaker of the House, a brutal midterm election behind her and an unclear future ahead.
She'll still be House speaker — second in line to the presidency — and a remnant of the Democrat-driven 2006 and 2008 elections. But she's not yet the agreed-upon leader of her party in the next Congress, burdened by the successful GOP campaign that made her the face of unpopular government programs and soaring unemployment.
Post-election polling suggests that getting a nod to lead the Democrats for the next two years would be easy compared to the job that lies ahead: winning back the electorate's confidence and favor in time for the 2012 elections with the same leadership lineup and a more liberal caucus. And doing it all in an atmosphere in which 54 percent of Democratic-leaning adults say they want the party to move in a more moderate direction, according to a poll taken Nov. 4-7 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.
Pelosi views the opposition as the normal course of leadership elections — there's always a protest vote — and maintains that she has the support to win. Indeed, nobody viable has surfaced to challenge her.
"We didn't lose the election because of me," she said in an interview on National Public Radio. "They asked me to run. I'm running."
Pelosi didn't specify who asked her to run — her allies called House Democrats in the days after the rout to ask obliquely how they'd like the leadership lineup to look next year. Some responded by asking her to lead the caucus, according to Democratic officials who have knowledge of the calls and requested anonymity in order to comment on private conversations.
The White House has publicly stayed out of the matter, though no one argues with the notion that Pelosi has been effective pushing difficult elements of President Barack Obama's agenda through a more diverse caucus than the one controlled by liberals taking office next year.
She is one of the party's top fundraisers. And Obama might even consider her useful in a good cop-bad cop routine during legislative fights leading into the 2012 elections.
Asked half a world away on Friday whether he's interested in new faces leading the Democrats in Congress, Obama gave Pelosi an endorsement.
Back in Washington later in the day, 31 women in the Democratic caucus sent a letter to colleagues urging them to vote for Pelosi, the nation's first female speaker.
"Nancy Pelosi has borne the brunt of unfair criticism and attacks, but her record of accomplishment speaks for itself — particularly to women," they wrote. "At a time when the incoming majority is expected to threaten the progress we have made for women and families, we need Nancy Pelosi as Democratic leader to help us stay unified and fight back."
"You know, sometimes in this business it's difficult to know when to move on," said Rep. Albio Sires, D-N.J.
"I suspect by now she's probably reached everyone in the caucus," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a close Pelosi ally, said Friday.
WASHINGTON The petite woman in regal purple edged her way behind a raucous mob of reporters awaiting the next speaker of the House, a brutal midterm election behind her and an unclear future ahead.Attuned for four years to the comings and goings of House Speaker Nancy...
A Ukrainian soldier stands guard as residents walk through a checkpoint on the contact line between pro-Moscow rebels and Ukrainian troops in the settlement of Stanytsia Luhanska in the Luhansk region of Ukraine on October 9. Nolan Peterson reports that Ukrainians worry that their Western allies will put Russian cooperation in Syria ahead of the Ukraine conflict. Valentyn Ogirenko/reuters
The shaky cease-fire in eastern Ukraine has reached a “tipping point,” a high-level Ukrainian government official says.
The official’s comments underscore how geopolitical events—from the war in Syria to the rise of nationalist parties across Europe—have tested international resolve to maintain sanctions on Russia.
“There is no alternative” to the current cease-fire, the official said during a closed-door meeting on October 5 in Kiev with a small group of foreign journalists, including one for The Daily Signal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to diplomatic concerns.
“The conflict in the Donbas could be resolved very easily,” the official said, referring to Ukraine’s embattled southeastern region on the border with Russia. “It’s up to Russia…but you can’t be so naive to think that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will relinquish control of the Donbas. He wants to show that Ukraine is a failed state.”
The conflict in Ukraine is moderated in its intensity by a cease-fire named Minsk II, struck in February 2015 by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany, as well as representatives from the two breakaway separatist territories in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has been a party to the cease-fire’s inception and implementation, even though the Kremlin insists Russian troops are not involved in combat operations in Ukraine.
Ukrainian diplomats and lawmakers increasingly are worried that European and American allies will prioritize Russian cooperation in Syria over resolving the conflict in Ukraine.
Kiev also is concerned about the future of U.S. policy toward Ukraine and NATO after the presidential election, as well as the rise of nationalist parties across Europe—often funded by Moscow and having pro-Russian leanings.
“We are concerned that there is no unity inside the EU,” the Ukrainian official said of the European Union, adding that Ukraine’s partners need to show “patience and persistence” to deter Russia.
“The American side is trying to get a deal done with Russia before [President Barack] Obama leaves office,” the Ukrainian official said. “And next year there could be a completely new Europe. It’s a key issue for us to maintain the sanctions policy. Sanctions are bringing results. An aggressor country must feel the price for the brutal violation of international law.”
The prospects for Ukraine aren’t good, based on past moves by the Obama administration beginning with the U.S. policy “reset” with Russia in 2009, one expert says.
“Ukraine will be sold out in the same way Poland and the Czech Republic were sold out to Russia regarding missile defense ahead of the reset, and in the same way Gulf states were sold out ahead of the Iran [nuclear] deal,” Luke Coffey, director of the Heritage Foundation’s foreign policy center, told The Daily Signal.
The French presidency will be up for grabs in an election next year, as will Germany’s chancellorship. In both countries, far-right parties with pro-Russian leanings have gained ground.
Kiev is worried that inconsistent messages from EU countries have dissuaded the Kremlin from negotiating over Ukraine.
In 2014, German Chancellor Angela Merkel united EU leaders to put sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea. The German leader has remained a staunch advocate of maintaining economic pressure on the Kremlin.
In June, however, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier advocated phasing out the EU sanctions.
On July 28, a delegation of 11 French lawmakers and senators visited Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in March 2014, to take part in Russian Navy Day celebrations in Sevastopol.
Marcel Van Herpen, director of the Cicero Foundation, a Dutch think tank, said Russia is using the Ukrainian cease-fire as “a diplomatic tool to further its own revisionist goals.”
“If it’s no longer considered useful, Moscow will quit the negotiating table,” Van Herpen told The Daily Signal. “Moscow has all the trump cards in its hands, and Kiev can only try to convince the Western powers of Moscow’s bad faith.”
U.S., Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and Australia are among other countries that also put sanctions on Russia after its military actions in Ukraine.
Russia is the EU’s third-largest trading partner, representing 8.4 percent of total trade before the sanctions went into effect in 2014. The EU is Russia’s No. 1 trading partner.
France took a hard hit when it had to cancel the sale of two Mistral warships to Russia in 2014, losing more than 1 billion euros. France ultimately sold the ships to Egypt.
Overall, the EU suffered a 0.4 percent drop in gross domestic product in 2015 (about 50 billion euros) under the Russian sanctions, according to the European Commission. Analysts anticipate a long-term GDP drop of 0.8 percent if sanctions remain in place.
Europe’s agricultural sector was among the hardest hit by the sanctions. The European Parliament estimates the European agricultural industry will lose about $6.7 billion and 130,000 jobs.
Overall, the EU stands to lose about 1 million jobs in the short term, and about 2.2 million jobs if sanctions remain in place for several more years.
As far-right parties, including France’s Moscow-financed National Front, gain popularity, EU leaders are under mounting populist pressure to improve relations with Moscow.
The resolve of some EU member states to maintain a hard line against Moscow was bolstered by a recent international investigation that concluded the surface-to-air missile that downed a Malaysia Airlines jumbo jet over eastern Ukraine in 2014 was Russian and was manned by a Russian military crew.
“Although Hungary, Greece, Italy and German Social Democrats are pressing for an end of the sanctions, there are countervailing tendencies also,” Van Herpen said.
“One of these is the recent Dutch-led JIT [Joint Investigation Team] report on the downing of the MH17,” he said, referring to the Malaysian flight. “This has strengthened the group, which wants to keep the sanctions in place. Not only the Netherlands, but also Belgium, Germany, Poland and the Nordic and Baltic countries.”
The Wall Street Journal reported on October 6 that Merkel was considering fresh EU sanctions on Russia for bombing the Syrian city of Aleppo. The U.S. has said Russia may have committed war crimes by deliberately attacking civilian targets in Aleppo, including hospitals.
EU leaders are in a pickle. They desperately need to resolve the Syrian war to prevent another wave of refugees from flooding into Europe. Yet the tools EU leaders have available to pressure Moscow in Syria are limited by populist pressure across the Continent to walk back the sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.
With limited political capital left with which to punish Moscow, the ultimate question for EU leaders, therefore, is whether the conflict in Ukraine or Syria poses the greatest existential threat to European peace and stability.
“Syria is a local civil war, which certainly has regional consequences—refugees, terrorism—but is a conflict of a completely different kind,” Van Herpen said, adding:
Although this conflict will continue to fester, it will mainly remain local. So Ukraine is the biggest threat for Europe…because of the attempts by the Kremlin to hollow out the European Union and to drive a wedge between Europe and the U.S.
There are several “red lines” on which Ukraine will not back down for the sake of making Minsk II work, officials in Kiev say.
Those red lines include Ukrainian control over its border in the Donbas region, the removal of all foreign troops from Ukrainian sovereign territory and the security of elections in the separatist territories.
Kiev also is demanding the return of all Ukrainian prisoners of war held in separatist territory and of political prisoners held by Russia.
Currently, Ukrainian and Red Cross officials estimate about 250 to 280 Ukrainian soldiers are held as prisoners in the two separatist territories. Ukraine has identified 11 of its citizens held in Russia as political prisoners.
Kiev is concerned about being excluded from some negotiations by EU and U.S. leaders with Russia—such as discussions that occurred on the sidelines of September’s G-20 meeting in China—and being forced to give in on some of its red lines.
Sanctions related to Russia’s annexation of Crimea are separate from sanctions related to the ongoing conflict in the Donbas. The EU conceivably could let up pressure on Moscow over Crimea while maintaining sanctions related to the war in the Donbas.
Some experts say, however, that the collapse of U.S.-Russian negotiations over Syria have left U.S. officials with little confidence in, and appetite for, any grand bargains with Moscow.
“Russia’s breaking of the last cease-fire has depleted the last ounce of trust which still existed in the U.S.,” Van Herpen said. “New negotiations between [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov and [U.S. Secretary of State John] Kerry seem to be senseless.”
Kiev is not under pressure “today or tomorrow” to make unfavorable concessions to Russia to secure peace in the Donbas, the Ukrainian official said. However, international unity to maintain sanctions on Russia appears to be waning.
“Sanctions related to Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea will remain in place until Russia returns the peninsula to Ukraine,” Daniel Baer, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said on September 7.
Baer added: “We join the European Union in recalling that sanctions imposed on Russia for its aggression in eastern Ukraine will also remain in place until Russia fully implements its Minsk commitments.”
First, Kiev is supposed to implement a series of political reforms, including a constitutional amendment to decentralize federal power. Ukraine also is supposed to grant amnesty for separatist fighters and bring the breakaway territories back into the political fold through elections.
Some key points include the withdrawal of all foreign soldiers from Ukrainian territory, re-establishing Ukrainian control over the border with Russia in the Donbas, and the unimpeded access of OSCE monitors to all of the conflict areas.
Rules also require both sides of the conflict to pull back heavy weapons a prescribed distance from the contact line.
Kiev acknowledges it still has work to do on political components of the Minsk deal. Yet Ukrainian officials claim they are making a good-faith effort to implement the required changes.
Ukrainian government officials contrasted their efforts to accomplish the required political reforms against Russia’s continued military support for separatist forces.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials say Russia incited the outbreak of the conflict in early 2014 with subversive espionage and special operations actions.
Russia’s covert campaign exploited years of propaganda in eastern Ukraine, which deftly took advantage of memories of the Nazi invasion in World War II and conspiratorial anxieties about the CIA, which were part and parcel of Soviet propaganda during the Cold War.
When protesters in Kiev overthrew former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was pro-Russian, in February 2014, Russian media quickly painted the revolution as a CIA-sponsored coup that put in place a neo-Nazi government.
Russian media also have portrayed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine as mainly working-class people armed with confiscated Ukrainian military hardware. Yet the prolific use of heavy artillery, armor, drones, signals jamming and surface-to-air missiles suggests the overt presence of the Russian military in the conflict.
According to NATO and Ukraine, combined Russian-separatist forces in the Donbas currently possess about 700 tanks—more than Germany’s armed forces.
Numerous independent news reports and investigations have proved Russian troops have been fighting in the Donbas and that separatist forces are supplied, trained and commanded by Russia.
“Despite efforts by combined Russian-separatist forces to blind the SMM [OSCE Special Monitoring Mission] and disguise the flow of personnel and weapons from Russia into Ukraine, monitors continue to document clear evidence of Russia’s direct role in sustaining the conflict,” Baer said at a September 8 meeting of the OSCE’s Permanent Council in Vienna.
Twenty months after the February 2015 cease-fire went into effect, shelling and small-arms attacks remain daily occurrences along the front lines in eastern Ukraine. So do military and civilian casualties on both sides of the conflict.
About 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have died, along with an unknown number of pro-Russian separatists and Russian regulars.
On October 8, the Ukrainian military said combined Russian-separatist forces had violated the cease-fire 38 times during the past 24 hours, including the use of 120 mm and 82 mm mortars, grenade launchers, machine guns and small arms. Four Ukrainian soldiers were wounded. One Ukrainian soldier died during the weekend after tripping a land mine.
Cease-fire violations typically comprise attacks with weapons banned from the front lines, including large-caliber mortars and artillery, tanks and rockets. Small-arms attacks are also considered to be violations.
The monitors can identify cease-fire violations through direct observation or by hearing the sounds of explosions or small-arms fire. Each shot fired is not a distinct violation. Sometimes a single cease-fire violation comprises dozens of separate attacks.
On August 4, for example, the OSCE logged one violation after hearing 100 undetermined explosions about 4 to 6 kilometers (2.5 to about 4 miles) from the Donetsk central railway station.
On October 8, Ukrainian and separatist forces carried out a symbolic pullback of troops at two places along the front lines.
Speaking in Kiev several days beforehand, the Ukrainian official downplayed the importance of the plan, which created a 2-kilometer-wide (1.25-mile-wide) “disengagement area” between Ukrainian and combined Russian-separatist forces.
The official called the troop pullback a “pilot project” and said it represented “0.05 percent” of what is required for a lasting peace.
Critics say a 2-kilometer buffer is useless. Mortars used in the conflict have ranges of up to about 7.25 kilometers. And other weapons sometimes used in the conflict—such as Grad, Uragan and Smerch rockets—have far greater ranges.
The war also has been a humanitarian disaster, displacing about 1.7 million people who are now refugees inside Ukraine, or “internally displaced persons” in U.N. parlance.
With the war’s third winter approaching, the situation for civilians trapped in the conflict zone is critical.
In rural communities in the Donbas, it is not uncommon for people to grow their own food. Consequently, as winter approaches and gardens go barren, and with normal supply chains cut off due to the conflict, food shortages are a major concern.
Opinions vary widely about Putin’s strategic objectives—whether he is trying to rebuild the Soviet Union, for example, or is pushing back against NATO’s western expansion.
Some claim Putin considers himself to be a historic figure destined to reunite Kievan Rus peoples. Others have a more cynical take on the Russian president, claiming his military adventures are simply domestic propaganda fodder to maintain his grip on power.
Whatever Putin’s ultimate aims, his vision has translated into an interconnected web of military action in Ukraine and Syria.
“Russia connects all of these things—Syria, Ukraine, Georgia—in a way we fail to,” Heritage’s Coffey said. “Russia knows it can build up political capital in one place, like Syria, to spend in another, like Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian official said Moscow’s intent is to maintain “controlled escalation” in the Donbas as part of a larger strategy to destabilize Ukraine and bring the country back into Moscow’s orbit.
“By being successful in economics and with anti-corruption [initiatives], we can deter Russia,” the official said. “We need to be successful in internal reforms. We must rely on ourselves.”
“Walking away from Minsk is no option for Kiev,” Van Herpen said. “So the only solution for Kiev is to wait out the conflict, manage the Western powers, strengthen its defense and hope that a change will take place inside Russia.”
On September 26, 2015 a new law takes effect in the state of Washington, pertaining to publication of intimate images, otherwise known as "revenge porn".
Under the Revised Code of Washing, Chapter 4.24, a person will have a civil cause of action against those who intentionally and without consent, distribute, transmit, or otherwise make available intimate images of another person.
Intimate images are any photo, film/video, or digital image that was taken in a private setting, and depicts sexual activity or intimate body parts.
The legislature has allowed persons who sue under this cause of action to do so confidentially. They may sue for actual damages, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, economic damages, lost earnings, reasonable attorneys' fees, and costs. The court may also, in its discretion, award injunctive relief as it deems necessary.
Given the messy nature of break ups, and the digital age that we are living in, I predict there will be a number of these lawsuits filed against spouses and partners who have disclosed intimate images, taken of previous lovers.
There was also a legislative push to criminalize this behavior as well, that did not pass in this year's legislation, but may at some later time.
Governor David A. Paterson today announced a Syracuse-based company has been selected to run the first Upstate Healthy NY pilot project, which will provide affordable health insurance to small businesses and individuals in Central New York. Benefits Specialists, a subsidiary of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, will administer the program which will offer premiums with discounts as high as 70 percent, and will work to increase enrollment through outreach and education initiatives. In existing programs, Healthy NY offers premiums nearly 38 percent lower than those of average small businesses, and even greater discounts for sole proprietors and individuals.
“We must continue our work to make New York the best place for business, and there has never been more important than during this economic crisis,” said Governor Paterson. “By offering low cost health insurance to small businesses and individuals, Healthy NY helps make New York competitive so that we can attract and retain great employees and employers. I am pleased that Benefits Specialists will take the lead on this pilot project in Central New York.”
While the average small business health insurance premium costs $400 per person per month, Benefits Specialists will offer Healthy NY packages for close to 70 percent less, starting as low as $121.79 per person per month. For individuals, Benefits Specialists will offer premiums that cost as much as $878 less than average individual rates.
Healthy NY is a cost effective program that makes health coverage affordable. For every dollar that New York spends on Healthy NY, four are generated: $3 in premiums from businesses and individuals who would not otherwise have health insurance and $1 in matching federal funds. Healthy NY currently has 155,000 enrollees. New York spent $130 million on the program in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.
New York’s first Healthy NY pilot project began in Brooklyn with HealthWorks under the administration of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. This success inspired the project’s application to a region Upstate. HealthWorks has offered Healthy NY coverage packages since 2005 and now serves 368 small businesses.
Quality yet affordable motel accommodation offering self-contained units in a quiet and child friendly garden setting, only 2 minutes walk from the Thermal Hot Pools and all that Hanmer Springs has to offer.
Located in a quiet spot away from the road yet only 250 meters from the Thermal Hot Pools, Spa Lodge Motel is set in a peaceful garden setting and offers eleven self-contained units ranging from studios to spacious one and two bedroom units.
Free Wifi, 50+ Sky channels including Sky Sport, a children's play area, petanque court and outdoor summer pool plus a guest laundry and undercover parking complete the picture and ensure guests have an enjoyable stay.
Outdoor seating is provided for each unit and enables our guests to enjoy beautiful mountain views. Complimentary towels for the Thermal Pools can be provided on request.