Research debunks government’s charter schools arguments

16th April 2012

Research debunks government’s charter schools arguments

The education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa is welcoming New Zealand-based research which clearly debunks government claims that charter schools will help disadvantaged students and raise achievement levels.

As part of its coalition deal with the ACT Party, the government is setting up charter schools in south Auckland and Christchurch. It says charter schools will help raise student achievement, especially in areas where it claims underachievement is entrenched.

The Education Policy Response Group – made up of 12 Massey University experts has been studying charter and free schools in Sweden, Britain and the United States. It has concluded that charter schools can actually cause more harm to the students they are designed to help and damage local communities.

“This just proves that the government’s push to introduce charter schools is ideological and is not based on any hard evidence,” says NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter.

The Education Policy Response Group’s research shows that the only people who benefit from charter schools are a few highly motivated individuals and families. For others, it says charter schools do not provide more choice, they often promote greater inequality for disadvantaged students, and they fail to eliminate underachievement.

Paul Goulter says New Zealanders need to keep asking why we need charter schools, and start demanding some real answers from the government.

“New Zealand students and schools do better than those in any of the countries where charter schools have been established. We need to be asking why we want public money going into privately-run charter schools when the balance of overseas evidence so clearly shows they won’t add value or benefit New Zealand’s education system or local communities”.

“It’s refreshing to see some solid New Zealand based research coming out on charter schools but it’s a shame that all the thinking on New Zealand’s charter school experiment is being outsourced to a government-appointed Charter Schools Working Group, which is largely made up of people who have a vested interest in the idea,” Mr Goulter says.

ENDS

© Scoop Media