We need to get central bureaucracy out of the way, so that local innovation can thrive. We recommend measures to make the public service more focussed on its core business and more accountable to Ministers and the public.
In education, we would like to see capable principals and expert teachers lead the way in curriculum and teacher education reform. This will not be a quick fix but, if we enable experimentation, measure the results, and replicate success, we will get much more durable reform in the medium term.
In health, we favour local solutions to local needs, with funding for primary and community care. Central agencies should support community-embedded medical programmes rather than trying to run everything from the centre.
In housing, we should abolish much of the current regulation. The Resource Management Act should presume a freedom to build, rather than bogging down urgently needed development. New fiscal tools should be provided to local governments, giving them incentives to build infrastructure.
We should enable employers to grow their businesses by making it easier for them to recruit the best people internationally. That means transforming Immigration New Zealand into a customer-focussed agency, rather than erecting a great wall of red tape that seems designed to keep prospective immigrants out.
Localism, in one form or another, underpins just about all successful innovation. When it comes to solving difficult social, economic and technological problems, central control simply doesn’t work very well. Even when it does, it’s very expensive.
Centrally planned solutions suffer from two related problems.
One is insufficient information. Central planners can’t possibly know enough to design solutions that work in complex and dynamic environments. Local solutions can be much more agile and adaptive.
The other is that, almost by definition, a centrally planned solution assumes that one size fits all. But what works in one place is not necessarily what will work in another.
Localism doesn’t get it right every time – far from it. Any truly innovative process entails trial and error – with plenty of the latter. But, over time, locally developed solutions are more robust.
That is why a big dose of localism is such an important ingredient in our Prescription for Prosperity.
Dr Michael Johnston has held academic positions at Victoria University of Wellington for the past ten years. He holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Melbourne. This article was published HERE
In health, we favour local solutions to local needs, with funding for primary and community care. Central agencies should support community-embedded medical programmes rather than trying to run everything from the centre.
In housing, we should abolish much of the current regulation. The Resource Management Act should presume a freedom to build, rather than bogging down urgently needed development. New fiscal tools should be provided to local governments, giving them incentives to build infrastructure.
We should enable employers to grow their businesses by making it easier for them to recruit the best people internationally. That means transforming Immigration New Zealand into a customer-focussed agency, rather than erecting a great wall of red tape that seems designed to keep prospective immigrants out.
Localism, in one form or another, underpins just about all successful innovation. When it comes to solving difficult social, economic and technological problems, central control simply doesn’t work very well. Even when it does, it’s very expensive.
Centrally planned solutions suffer from two related problems.
One is insufficient information. Central planners can’t possibly know enough to design solutions that work in complex and dynamic environments. Local solutions can be much more agile and adaptive.
The other is that, almost by definition, a centrally planned solution assumes that one size fits all. But what works in one place is not necessarily what will work in another.
Localism doesn’t get it right every time – far from it. Any truly innovative process entails trial and error – with plenty of the latter. But, over time, locally developed solutions are more robust.
That is why a big dose of localism is such an important ingredient in our Prescription for Prosperity.
Dr Michael Johnston has held academic positions at Victoria University of Wellington for the past ten years. He holds a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Melbourne. This article was published HERE
1 comment:
After reading the Brownstone Institute ;'What They have Done to the Children' article yesterday on this site . I felt very deep concern for the future of those children who have been damaged develpomentally and educationally during the covid years. Paricularly so for the low SES.
Adding to the good idea of de-centralizing I think also the whole population needs to be alerted to how our educational crisis will surely worsen unless drastic and novel steps are taken NOW.
One place that has not been mentioned are libraries. Maybe my local library isn't typical but I have found its staff actually quite hostile to phonics. For example they insist they are not an instructional center and even phonic readers are not easily accessed. I was also informed English isn't phonic but Maori is!
Now I naively, thought librairies were concerned about children's reading! Silly me they are, of course still entrenched in whole language. Like the Colleges of Education these people need to be enlightened, surely. They could have phonic games on loan ,as well as phonic spelling books, programmed structured phonic course manuals etc. Their lovely little preschool reading sessions are pathetic compared with what they could do. Reading to children is important but as my mother found teaching 1500 children in a high decile area it most certainly does not guarantee a child will eventually be able to read.
Make libraries up to date reading instructional centers NOW.
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