Charter Schools: an Information Free Zone

Charter Schools: an Information Free Zone

Associate Professor Peter O'Connor from The University of Auckland says that the secrecy surrounding the deal to establish charter schools, the confusion that has been the single defining feature of them since they were announced, is now compounded by legislation which allows them to operate in secret.

Although the introduction of charter schools was initially presented as a small-scale trial, the Education Amendment Bill establishing charter schools makes it clear that this is a fundamentalshift in schooling in New Zealand. A new category of school will be created, with a completely different set of rules to any body else. And what they do in those schools, they can do in secret.

The power given to sponsors in the Bill to set their own rules, employ unregistered teachers, teach anything from creationism to yogic transcendentalism is compounded by the protection frompublic oversight given to them through exemption from the Official Information Act or auditing by the Ombudsman. Charter schools will not need to disclosetheir profit margins, answer official information requests about their suspension and expulsion rates. Although taxpayer funded, there is no taxpayer oversight in how they are operated.

The Bill confirms many of the fears that opponents of charter schools have, that this is an ideologically driven agenda to de-professionalise and de-unionise the teaching workforce, started in secret and now to be continued in secret.

Associate Professor Peter O'Connor
Director, Critical Research Unit in Applied Theatre
University of Auckland

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