Charter School support agency takes issue with Hon Andrew Little

In the budget debate on 23 May 2018, The Minister of Justice, Hon Andrew Little, made a speech to the House.

Parts of this speech, as they relate to Charter Schools, have created a false impression.

When Minister Little said ‘You see, our way starts with people—not some people but everyone—and a sense of fairness; a sense of equality of opportunity; and a sense that we are in a country where everyone can do well if we steward the nation's resources, manage our environment, and look after people in the better way that we've been doing’.

E Tipu e Rea Chief Executive Graeme Osborne considered that ’More truthfully, the Government decision to close Charter Schools didn’t start with ‘not some people but everyone’ it started with Minister Hipkins being captured by the teachers unions, not the people that really matter, not people like parents concerned with the educational and social well-being of their students, and not people like students desperate to make the most of their futures’.

Graeme Osborne’s points out that in determining to close 11 successful Charter schools, all of which were established and dedicated to the educational well-being of 1500 at-risk young Maori and Pasifika students, not one parent of a Charter School student was consulted by the Government, not one student of a Charter School was consulted, and not one sponsor of a Charter School was consulted. No one affected person was consulted.

Minister Little went on to say ‘With our incredible education Minister, the Hon Chris Hipkins, we are starting to transform education. We're not lurching into a whole bunch of changes and pulling things out of mid-air, like charter schools, but we're engaging with people—engaging with parents, the communities, the teachers, and the principals—and actually talking about what a modern, 21st century education system looks like, and starting to prepare the way’.

Minister Little suggested that Charter Schools arose from the previous Government ‘Pulling things out of mid-air, like Charter Schools’. In fact, the Partnership School | Kura Hourua (Charter School) model in New Zealand incorporated key elements of the Charter School system in the United States and the Free School movement in the United Kingdom, both of which are continuing to grow.

The Minister’s claim that ‘… we’re engaging with people’ is simply not true in the Charter School context. There has been no engagement, as in zero engagement, not with Charter Schools and not with their communities.

Osborne is concerned that the educational success of at-risk young New Zealanders has become a ‘political football’ and suggests that the fact Charter Schools are successfully serving a desperate need by providing choice, hope and a second chance at educational success for those ‘priority learners’ (Maori, Pasifika, Decile 1-3, Special Needs students) that attend them supported the case for them being retained.

Osborne considers that ‘Charter Schools are serving such a desperate need, both educationally and socially, that the Charter School model should be grown, not closed down on a political whim, that the Charter School legislation and policy should be further developed, not repealed on a political whim.’

The reality is that our very good state education system cannot possibly serve all students equally well and Charter Schools have shown a way to address the under-achievement’ of Maori and Pasifika students that has persisted since the great urban migration of Maori since World War Two.

Osborne believes ‘a tragedy is unfolding. By forcing the hand of Charter Schools to close, this Government is acting against the best interests of 1500 students and their parents, it is removing choice, it is removing a second chance option for at-risk students, and it is removing hope for those vulnerable families and their children who have turned to Charter Schools.’

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