Opinion: Are charter schools a stain on the Government’s claims to fiscal responsibility? – Shannon Walsh

Associate Education Minister David Seymour announcing the Christchurch-based Mastery Schools New Zealand – Arapaki as the first new charter school in November 2024. Photo / George Heard

THE FACTS

• David Seymour’s recent charter school changes include 20-year contracts and allowing multiple schools under one contract.
• Education Minister Erica Stanford opposes state school conversions, highlighting concerns over fiscal responsibility and educational impact.

It’s unlike David Seymour to let the opportunity for an announcement pass quietly, but that’s exactly what he did earlier this month.

Deeply invested in charter schools after bringing them back from the dead last year, the Associate Education Minister let the latest news on the schools go out buried deep in the Secretary for Education’s fortnightly School Leaders Bulletin.

The bulletin revealed potential charter school sponsors could now get 20-year contracts, as opposed to 10-year ones. There was more: After further legislative change later this year, school sponsors will be able to operate multiple charter schools with one contract.

But wait, there was still more: There will be a pathway created for public schools that convert to a charter school to later revert to state schools, something many had called for when the charter school legislation was at select committee last year.

So, why was the news so well buried? The changes are clearly attempts to sweeten the carrot for potential sponsors and they hint at a side of the charter schools story Seymour would rather not discuss: the scheme isn’t working as he hoped it would.

While the total number of new charter schools will hit 11 at the start of 2026 (just four shy of the minister’s goal of 15), the number of confirmed state-to-charter-school conversions sits stubbornly at zero. The minister had hoped – and budgeted for – 35.

There are good reasons why converting state schools to charter schools, rather than creating “new” schools would look better for the minister, and why he clearly hopes these changes will incentivise some to do so.

Firstly, in nearly every region of the country we are experiencing population decline for school age children. Adding new charter schools to the network invites inefficiencies by creating more capacity than we can use. The second reason is that these new charter schools are tiny. Most have student rolls no bigger than your average primary school classroom.

This, and the specialised nature of most of the current charter school cohort, paints the policy as marginal; a quirky side feature compared with the serious business of mainstream education, and something easily absorbed into the state system through special character school affordances.

This is quite clearly not what the minister wants, and his silence on changes to the system illustrates it.

One thing is for certain: the policy is a stain on the Government’s claims to fiscal responsibility. In its first year, the policy cost nearly $21.5 million according to Budget 2025 documents. With around 215 students enrolled at the time, that brings the bill close to $100,000 per student. Of course, that is a blunt calculation, but nuance is impossible when the Charter School Agency refuses to release detailed spending information or roll numbers. The agency itself has the fourth-highest average salary of any government department at $144,720, just behind the Ministry for Regulation. The policy is a fiscal black hole that we are pumping millions into with next to no transparency or accountability.

Seymour knows that the policy will be dead in the water unless he gets serious uptake from converting schools, and fast. This latest under-the-radar adjustment to the policy is a rearguard effort to bring school conversions to life. But it won’t work. Such a move is likely to have detrimental impacts on students’ learning and school leaders know this. Indeed, anyone who has been through an organisational restructure knows how disruptive major change can be. The effects are exaggerated in education. Children need continuity. Any parent knows that.

Charter school sponsors can now secure 20-year contracts instead of 10. Photo / 123RF

We could be more forgiving of politicians when policies don’t work out if they were based on sound evidence and advice. Failure is part of innovation. Punishing politicians who try something new, and fail, will only discourage innovative ideas. But charter schools are different. They don’t pass the sound evidence and advice test, and they have already failed once.

Taxpayers are paying for what is, ultimately, a libertarian fantasy. Meanwhile, funds are being diverted from an education system desperately in need of every cent. It is high time for National to be the adults in the room and intervene.

It is clear Education Minister Erica Stanford is frustrated, recently telling Q+A’s Jack Tame that she does not want state schools to convert to charter schools. In February, she rejected a Ministry of Education recommendation to allow the schools to participate in the School Onsite Teaching Programme – Stanford’s flagship teacher supply policy. “Need to be trained in NZC [New Zealand Curriculum]”, “too difficult”, Stanford scribbled in the margin of the recommendation before circling “disagree”.

There is a real opportunity here for National to differentiate itself and take charge. If this Government has the high standards of fiscal responsibility it claims to, then surely coalition partners shouldn’t be off wasting money.

If Luxon wants to shake off the tail-wags-the-dog reputation he has developed over the past two years, he would come out strongly and pull the plug on the failed charter school policy.

Dr Shannon Walsh is strategic researcher for NZEI Te Riu Roa and a former lecturer at the University of Auckland.

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