JUNE 25, 2012 (MSN NZ) — Auckland secondary schools are breaking the law if they're manipulating their school zones to keep out children from poor neighbourhoods, Prime Minister John Key says. Fulbright scholar and Associate Professor in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership Chris Lubienski has carried out research on New Zealand's school zones, and last year found that 36 of the 49 secondary school zones in Auckland did not match their immediate area.

In most of those 36 cases, zones were drawn to include affluent neighbourhoods and exclude poor ones, Prof Lubienski told Radio New Zealand.