Voters say no to unregistered teachers - PPTA survey

14 May 2013

Voters say no to unregistered teachers and private profiteering – PPTA survey

An overwhelming number of respondents to a new survey on charter schools do not want unregistered teachers and private profiteering in taxpayer-funded schools.

PPTA commissioned a survey this week – conducted by MMReasearch – of 600 New Zealand voters and the results released today give a clear picture of public concerns, president Angela Roberts said.

82% of respondents said they did not think charter schools should be allowed to employ untrained and unregistered teachers, while 71% did not want private owners making a profit from taxpayer-funded education.

“This clearly shows the charter schools experiment is against the wishes of the New Zealand public. It is nothing but a sop to the Banks/Isaac 1% party” she said.

With 2100 of the 2193 submissions to the Education and Science Select Committee opposed to the creation of charter schools it appears the government is quite prepared to steamroll the democratic process, Roberts says.

“With the voice of the public so blatantly ignored it is vital to assure protections are put in place.”

There are amendments to the charter school bill before parliament that the National and Maori parties could vote for to make responsible changes to the legislation and Roberts hoped the survey results would help guide them in this.

Supplementary order papers call for charter school teachers to be registered and for the school operators not to be able to make a profit.

“These changes could help mitigate some of the worst aspects of this educational disaster – but what John Key really needs to do is reject this Act Part blackmail and listen to the people of New Zealand,” she said
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Survey results: Results_PPTA_Charter_Schools_Public_Survey.pdf

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