The yearly cost of government ownership is around $800 per adult New Zealander or to put it another way, more than $100,000 in retirement capital.

This is simply the difference in the return the assets would earn in the private sector as opposed to what they earn today in the public sector.

The reasons are clear and include:

• When property is owned by the government, the incentive to take good care of it is much weaker (e.g. government owned housing).
• The government has less incentive to develop its assets as compared to the private sector (e.g. land that lies idle in the public sector would be developed by the private sector).
• Government has less incentive to use the assets they own in a way that is beneficial to others whereas people in the private sector gain by working out how to make their assets and services more beneficial to others.
• Government has less interest in the wise development and conservation of their assets for the future than the private sector does.

Private sector owners pay more attention to future expected gains, which leads to better conservation via property rights (trees).

Every child regardless of family income will have the right to a quality education. No child should be left behind just because of:

• where he or she lives or
• because of his or her parents' financial position

Education is first, last and always about children, it is not about government or bureaucrats.

We need to increase the role of parents and decrease the role of Wellington. Parents have the right to send their children to the school of their choice. After all, it is their money, their children and their future.

Children have the right to a violence free, drug free environment. Children who are afraid will not learn.

• We need to support those educational approaches that work and either fix or end those that fail.
• It is more important how and where we spend our educational dollar than how much we spend each year.
• We need to put more money into the classroom and not the bloated bureaucracy in Wellington.
• We need an educational system that teaches children how to think and how to succeed now and into the future.
• We need an educational system that teaches our children right from wrong, one that teaches them respect, honour and decency.
• Finally, more government and more bureaucrats are not the answer for better education. The answer lies in more parental involvement. We must search for every reform proposal that does this.

• An opportunity scholarship equivalent to what the government currently spends on children's education will be provided (available to all families with dependent children).
• Parents will be able to spend the scholarship at any approved school they wish.
• If they have any part of their yearly scholarship left, that scholarship would be held in a special account. The amount in the account can then be spent at any time on the child including university education.
• Scholarships will be inflation proofed.
• Schools will be licenced by the government.
• Schools can be of any size e.g. a sole teacher school or a chain of secondary schools.
• Schools, like any business, will be responsible for managing their own affairs within the laws of New Zealand including any special educational regulations
• Ministry of education will establish guidelines of expected standards to be reached at various age levels.
• All schools will be assessed based on results for schools in the same area.
• Objective - Raise standards dramatically over 5-10 years.