NZEI Te Riu Roa is committed to the continual improvement of our public education system in Aotearoa, which is why we are opposed to charter schools.
In May 2024 the National-led Government announced the reintroduction of charter schools, with the intention for schools to open from early 2025.
And in June legislation to re-establish charter schools had its first debate in Parliament.
These schools, as proposed in the bill, would undermine some of the core principles that have underpinned our public schooling system for decades.
The legislation would allow for tamariki to be taught by unqualified, unregistered teachers without professional accountability. The bill allows for funding for charter schools to be pocketed for profit by private interests instead of being spent on education.
And charter schools will not be required to give effect to Te Tiriti as our public schools are.
Unlike the last time the charter school experiment was rolled out, this model will not be limited to new schools.
The legislation allows for public schools to shift to the charter school model.
And the Minister has said that schools could be forced to do this. In England this approach has quickly led to half of all schools becoming charter schools.
Your teacher colleagues there have shared their experiences of waste, declining standards, scandal and disenfranchisement as a result.
Worryingly, the process of determining whether a public school should become a charter school can be initiated by any one individual in the school community.
The proposed legislation means teachers, support staff and principals employed in a school that is shifted to the charter model, a new entity and new employer, will not have the option of choosing redundancy.
They must accept the change or resign without compensation. And while pay and conditions of employment will be initially retained, this would initially be as an individual employment agreement.
How this funding could be better spent
NZEI Te Riu Roa members recently met to discuss how the $153 million establishment funding for charter schools could be better spent, with greater impact, on much needed changes such as teacher aides and learning support specialists.
$153 million is being invested over four years, covering up to 15 new charter schools and 35 State school conversions. This is roughly the equivalent cost of employing:
- 700 teacher aides full-time at step 4
- or 360 psychologists working in schools, full-time, step F8 – more than doubling the current Ministry of Education workforce (current FTE = 220)
- or 350 Speech Language Therapists, full-time, average salary – doubling the current workforce (current FTE = 334)
- or a combination of these.
Our teachers, principals and whānau are calling out for such support – but the Government has instead chosen to divert this funding into publicly funded private schools or charter schools, which could be run for profit by private companies and run without community connection.
There is little evidence here or overseas that charter schools make the differences to student achievement that the National-led Government claim they do.
The choice comes down to – do we want a successful public education system, or do we want to open the door to a reduction in educational standards to enable private profit?
More information about charter schools
- Charter schools fact sheet
- NZEI Te Riu Roa's submission against charter schools
- Draft charter schools legislation
- NZEI Te Riu Roa opposes expensive charter school experiment
- Budget 2024 Education: Charter schools funded at cost of much needed teacher aides, unions say
- Charter schools will fail again, here is why - Dr Shannon Walsh
- The deal with charter schools