$90,000 per student: Charter schools bleeding taxpayers dry
Newly released documents have exposed the staggering price tag of the Government’s charter school experiment, with the cost to taxpayers reaching nearly $90,000 per student – more than eight times the cost of educating a child in a state school.
Despite explicit advice from Treasury against further investment, data from the Charter School Agency shows that as of December 2025, $37.4 million has been poured into these privately operated but publicly funded schools.
When averaged across the 427 students currently enrolled, the costs equate to $87,808 per student for the delivery of one year of education. In contrast, the average annual cost to the public for a student in a state school is just $14,780.
NZEI Te Riu Roa President Ripeka Lessels said the figures make New Zealand’s charter school model a global outlier. Data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that even Luxembourg, the world’s highest education spender, averages only $48,224 per student.
“This is likely the most expensive public education offering in the world,” Mrs Lessels said.
“While our state schools struggle for basic maintenance and staffing, the Government is pouring tens of millions of dollars into a parallel private system that serves fewer than 500 children.”
The spending comes despite explicit warnings from officials. In its advice for Budget 2025, Treasury recommended against further investment, citing “uncertain costs and outcomes.”
“New Zealand taxpayers are funding an educational experiment that costs more than any other system in the world,” Mrs Lessels said.
“The Government has ignored its own financial experts to revive this failed experiment. Every dollar spent on these private schools is a dollar taken away from the tamariki in our local state schools.
“This isn’t innovation; it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Mrs Lessels added.
Dr Shannon Walsh, NZEI Te Riu Roa Senior Strategic Researcher, said that while start-ups often incur higher initial costs, there is no evidence that the per-student cost of running charter schools decreases over time.
“During the previous National Government’s experiment from 2014 to 2018, costs dropped after the first two years only to begin rising again,” Dr Walsh said.
“In their final year of operation, one charter school’s costs blew out to over $48,000 – which is more than $62,000 in today’s money.”
Dr Walsh said charter schools will never achieve economies of scale unless a significant portion of public schools convert. “That level of privatisation would signal the demise of the NZ public education system. Twenty schools educating 400 or so students cannot deliver the same value for money as over 2000 schools educating more than 850,000 students.”
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has confirmed there are currently 20 charter schools, with more openings and state school conversions expected before the end of the year.
ENDS
Note to editors
Information sources:
Charter School Agency, Budget 2024 Decision: Charter Schools | Kura Hourua, updated Janurary 2026: https://www.charterschools.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/1157-Charter-School-Budget-2024_V13.pdf
Based on Treasury figures released as part of the 2025 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update, NZEI Te Riu Roa calculated the cost to the taxpayer of that Primary and Secondary schooling to be approximately $14,780. This figure includes all spending on primary and secondary schooling as well as departmental costs.
Source: Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (Budget Update), Core Crown Expense Tables,
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/efu/budget-economic-and-fiscal-update-2025
Treasury Report: Budget 2025 Early Bilateral on Vote Education (Minister Seymour):
https://budget.govt.nz/information-release/2025/pdf/b25-t2024-3243-5049871.pdf
OECD Education at a Glance 2025, Government Spending Per Student:
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-at-a-glance-2025_1c0d9c79-en/full-report/key-system-level-indicators-of-education-finance_178e2c40.html#tablegrp-d1e2666-708bc5c1ef