David Seymour’s charter school dream gains momentum
Tuesday, 14 May 2024
ACT Party leader and Associate Education Minister David Seymour is reintroducing charter schools - a system of schooling which a teacher’s union is bitterly opposed to.
Some of the schools had serious financial mismanagement issues, as well as poor student achievement, before the Labour government abolished them in 2017.
Education Minister Erica Stanford has promised reform in the sector, and has set a target to get 80% of students up to curriculum level by the time they reach high school.
The government will on Tuesday morning reveal the budget for charter schools, which could open as early as next year as David Seymour looks to unleash market-based reform on the education sector.
Seymour, the associate minister for education and ACT Party leader, is due to outline how much money the National-led coalition government will put in to charter schools, and how many new schools - and public conversions - it expects.
But the announcement is likely to exacerbate the ideological rift between Seymour and the Post-Primary Teachers Association, a union which represents secondary schools.
It believes the money put into charter schools will take desperately-needed resources from the state system, could force some state schools to close or lose specialist teachers, leaving parents and pupils with fewer choices.
What are charter schools?
Charter schools are publicly financed but privately operated by non-profits or businesses.
Seymour last month appointed members to the Charter School | Kura Hourua Establishment Board, and said the schools could be in operation by 2025.
They were first introduced under ACT’s coalition deal with National in 2011 and catered primarily to “priority learners”. This included many Māori and Pasifika students, and those with additional learning needs.
The Ministry of Education estimated about $89.3 million went to sponsors to establish and operate the partnership schools. This process was overseen by the Partnerships Schools Authorisation Board.
The schools had greater freedoms, could set their own curriculum and utilise the funding as they saw fit, because they operated outside the public education system.
Most partnership schools were based in Auckland or Northland, where there was a greater concentration of high-risk students. At its peak, the country had about 23.
However, serious concerns about a lack of accountability and financial mismanagement arose at some schools, and a lack of student achievement at others.
Te Pūmanawa o te Wairua in Whangaruru, a school in Northland, was closed when only one of 46 pupils gained a formal qualification through NCEA. The government had invested $4.8m into the school over the two years it was running.
By late October 2017, the newly formed Labour-led coalition government announced it would be abolishing charter schools.
Why doesn’t the PPTA think it’s a good idea?
Chris Abercrombie, the union’s president has a “shopping list” of concerns with charter schools.
Charter schools will be competing with public schools for teachers and pupils, which will in turn leave the state system worse-off, he said.
“School staffing is based on roll so if your roll decreases, teachers lose jobs,” he explained.
“The minister talks about choice, but if the school closes and the only option is charter school, there is no choice.”
There is a shortage of secondary teachers, especially those in regions and with subject skills such as science, technology, and mathematics.
He also pointed to overseas examples where partnership schools expelled students at a much higher rate than state schools, in order to keep their education results at a high level.
This wasn’t fair, he said, and also significantly disrupted a young person’s experience in the education system - which would have life-long effects.
“We want every young person to be maximised to their full potential and, to be frank, we need that as a society. We can’t have winners and losers, and that is what the charter school system is designed to do,” he said.
He also pointed out that the charter school approach is at-odds with Education Minister Erica Stanford’s push for a standard curriculum around the country.
“That is a really werid juxtaposition,” he said.
While there were success stories from the charter school system, Abercrombie said this was often because the schools were over-funded and often had smaller classes that in the state sector.