The Government has set aside more than $150 million in funding to establish up to 50 charter schools. Fifteen of these will be new and 35 will be converted state or state-funded schools.
Seymour says charter schools – which are government-funded and do not have to teach the national curriculum – provided educators with greater autonomy and raised overall educational achievement, especially among underachieving and disengaged students.
However, unions have pushed back, saying funding is desperately needed in other parts of the public school sector, such as for teacher aides.
The Post Primary School Teachers Union (PPTA) is currently holding meetings with members to discuss charter schools, which it has described as “a hugely expensive and unproven experiment”.
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said earlier this month there had been a “glaring lack of consultation and information” from the Ministry of Education and the Education Ministers on how charter schools would work.
Today, Seymour said the PPTA’s meetings on charter schools were pushing out “misinformation” and the union needed to “put ideology to the side”.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour, pictured during a visit to Co Kids in Wellington on April 16, says the PPTA's opposition to charter schools stems from self-interest. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“The PPTA is disrupting schools up and down the country over the next two weeks by holding 38 lengthy meetings with teachers so they can push out misinformation about charter schools,” Seymour said.
“The PPTA should just be honest. Their opposition to charter schools is because of fear they will lose their membership fees and their grip on the sector. Charter schools will not be state schools and therefore will not be bound by current union contracts.”
The New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa has also criticised the policy, calling charter schools an “expensive distraction and diversion of funds” and saying the $153m in funding was “desperately needed” elsewhere in the sector.
“Most teachers will tell you stronger learning support and smaller class sizes, so teachers can have more time with students, is the priority,” NZEI president Mark Potter said.
However, they were abolished in 2018 under Labour. Charter schools at the time could transition into “character” schools, which are entirely government-funded for Years 0-13 and teach the national curriculum that aligns with their “character”, such as an iwi or educational philosophy.
By definition, state schools are entirely government-funded and teach the national curriculum. A state-integrated school is partly government-funded and teaches the national curriculum based on specific principles, such as a religion or philosophy.
Meanwhile, a charter school is government-funded and can set its own curriculum, hours and days of operation. Seymour said they have greater flexibility in how they spend their funding, as long as they reach agreed performance outcomes.
