12 April 2013
Charter school legislation deeply flawed
The Green Party opposes the legislation that will bring in charter schools.
Today the Education and Science select committee reported back on the Education Amendment Bill.
“The establishment of the charter school system in New Zealand will be to the detriment of a high-quality public
education system,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said today.
“Bringing in a new class of publicly funded schools that are unaccountable is a deliberate attempt to privatise the
public school system.
“New Zealand has a world class public education system that scores extremely well in OECD comparisons.
“Implementing the charter school system will be in direct conflict to this world class system.
“The Bill implementing charter schools provides these schools with a high level of discretion and control but fails to
provide an adequate level of oversight.
“At least through the select committee process there is now a new provision that allows for the application of the
Ombudsmen Act.
“Sadly this slight improvement is not enough to save some deeply flawed legislation,” Mrs Turei said.
ENDS