Education (Charter Schools Abolition) Amendment Bill

When we were last discussing this bill, Stuart Smith had the call, and he has 4 minutes and 45 seconds remaining.

I was cut down part-way through, and I was really just getting going last time, so it is great to be able to have an opportunity to come back into the House and have my say. I thought that today I would not make it back in time, but I have. I would like to start by acknowledging Chris Hipkins, who has a new addition to his family, and I think that is fantastic. Unfortunately, he is not here tonight—but good on Chris; I think it is fantastic. I know, as does anyone who has been through that, that it is a fantastic, momentous occasion. However, I cannot say that I support this bill in any way. I think it is really rather sad.

One of the things I found most surprising when I came into Parliament—and it was completely contrary to my views, before I came in—was the conservatism of the members opposite. I really thought that would not be the case. But it is quite obvious that the home of progressive thinking is on this side of the House. This bill aims to stop what is a really good opportunity for people to make choices in their education. I think that is what partnership schools offer—an opportunity for people to have a choice. If they do not work, people will not go there—I think that, quite clearly, they do.

Children have a myriad of styles of learning. Some schools, and particularly partnership schools, are set up to meet a target group of people—and to teach them in a particular style. All power to them. It will not suit everyone—of course it will not. It is not meant to be for everyone. We are meant to have a choice, and that is the one thing that I think has been missing. Why would you oppose that? Conservatism, as I have laid out, may be one reason. The other one, of course, is supporting major donors to political parties, perhaps. [Interruption]

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I do want to make it clear that the comments the member has made, if he looks back through the Speakers’ Rulings, are regarded as grossly disorderly. I suggest he does not continue with them.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker, for that direction. We have 2,500 schools in New Zealand, and yet only eight of them are partnership schools. So really, what is the threat? Why are they so threatened? I really find that conservatism is quite surprising—and rather disappointing, I have to say.

In New Zealand at the moment—particularly in Marlborough—we have only 2.8 percent unemployment, and it is 4.9 percent across New Zealand. The big issue for employers is that people are coming out of schools not able to be work-ready. They have not progressed through the school in the way that makes them work-ready. Having partnership schools gives a very good opportunity for people to get to a work-ready status, and to be able to participate fully in the workplace. Certainly, I know in Marlborough with 2.8 percent unemployment—I think 3 percent is considered worldwide as full employment, so we are actually below that—it is a significant challenge for employers to meet. So anything that can help in that area will be fantastic.

We set up Better Public Services targets of 85 percent of 18-year-olds having achieved NCEA level 2. In 2011 there were only 74.3 percent who had attained that level. We are now at 83.3 percent, as of 2015, so we are well on the way to that target of 85 percent. Partnership schools are a part of that. They are helping us to achieve those targets.

I think there have been a number of concerns around not meeting the curriculum, but under section 158G(b) of the Education Act 1989 the curriculum has to meet the standards laid out under section 60A(1)(aa). Quite clearly, the curriculum will be a part—and has to be a part—of partnership schools. So that does not really meet the test. Targets are set, and they have to be set. They have to be measured against national standards, which is a fantastic initiative—anyone who cares about education would really care about national standards and NCEA—and they have to report it. I think it is absolutely vital that this bill does not pass. It would be a real impost on the choice of New Zealanders. I think it would be quite shameful if it passes. I quite clearly stand against the bill. Thank you.

I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to take a call after that member, Stuart Smith, has just resumed his seat. This is what happens, unfortunately, when you have members of the National backbench who get a few notes with some statistics in them and a couple of actual clauses, and who know nothing about what they are talking about. That is what is really unfortunate about discussions like this.

New Zealand First not only will be supporting this bill but will commit at the next election to exactly what this bill does, if it does not pass tonight. That is because—for the education of the member who has just resumed his seat—there was absolutely no need for charter schools inside the New Zealand system. If there is madness going on today in America, this is madness that came out of America. Failing charter schools in America have shown the way that this is not necessary in the New Zealand system.

💬 David Bennett: Madness.

The lovely David Bennett, a seat-warmer from way back, has decided to join an education debate that, again, he knows nothing about. New Zealand First, which actually speaks to the current education system, which knows that charter schools have had no higher outcomes than any other State school across the nation when you take them on—

💬 David Seymour: Rubbish.

Mr Seymour, given half a chance, will rise and say: “Charter schools—Vanguard Military School has had 100 percent NCEA level 2.”—yes he will. I will ask him to go and have a look at the number of State schools—Mahurangi College, for example, which in the last academic year had a 100 percent pass rate for Pasifika students. Will Mr Seymour stand up and acknowledge any of the State schools? No, he will not, because Mr Seymour and the ACT Party hang their hat on single privatisation of the education system, which is charter schools.

The reason why charter schools must be disestablished is—I refer to a conversation with Alwyn Poole, before charter schools even entered the market place. Mr Seymour and other members of the ACT Party went to meet with Mr Poole, and said: “We guarantee you”—we guarantee you—“between $12,000 and $15,000 a student so that what you’re making in a private school, we can guarantee you that from the taxpayers’ pocket.” This is a waste of money. This is a waste of education dollars. We do not have enough precious education dollars in the current system.

I notice that Marama Fox is in the House. I note that Ms Fox, in the last few days, has asked for every Māori MP to stand up for Māori students, 95 percent of whom are in mainstream English-medium schools. Yet she supports the same Government that strips out the funding for Te Kotahitanga. She supports the same Government that strips out the other supports for those Māori students inside mainstream schools—to do what? Te Pūmanawa o te Wairua was closed. The Whangarei kura could have been a special character school. Alwyn Poole should be a private school. Vanguard Military School should be an alternative school. I do not—[Interruption] Do not come near me, Mr Seymour. Do not come near me, Mr Seymour, unless you are crossing the floor for a vote—then, come on over. Come on over and see the error of your ways, Mr Seymour. Vote on the side that knows education. Vote on the side that stands up for education in the public system of New Zealand. Here is a young man who spent 6 months in a thinktank and, unfortunately, it has gone to his head. This Government has allowed that party, ACT, to dictate and waste New Zealand taxpayers’ dollars on this system.

I compliment Mr Hipkins. He is a wise man. He is a lucky man to get this bill out of the ballot. It is a shame he cannot be here, although he has bigger things to do with his life—I understand it. But I stand with Mr Hipkins. I stand with the Opposition parties.

💬 David Bennett: Go stand with them, then. Go join the Labour Party.

I stand with those who care about public education, Mr Bennett. I stand with those who believe in public education, who believe the Government should not say to parents: “You just vote with your feet, have at it. And if it fails, too bad for your children.”

We believe in standards. We believe in The New Zealand Curriculum. We believe in the teaching profession, not like that party. Not like that party, which says: “Anybody can teach. Just have at it, and let our children be the losers.” New Zealand First will support this bill because the bill should be supported, and charter schools should close.

Kia ora, tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou, my colleagues in this House. The Green Party will absolutely be supporting Chris Hipkins’ Education (Charter Schools Abolition) Amendment Bill, which will abolish charter schools. I want to remember the New Zealand Educational Institute Te Riu Roa and what it has said: “All New Zealand children deserve to be taught in a properly funded public education system by qualified teachers.” That is a fantastic starting point.

I want to completely tautoko all the words of the previous speaker, my colleague Tracey Martin. I am going to focus somewhat on Māori children, because, absolutely, the evidence is thin for whether charter schools will lift Māori achievement levels. Thin is not good enough. Thin evidence is not good enough for tamariki and mokopuna Māori. There should be far more support and endorsement of the movement of kōhanga and kura kaupapa Māori in supporting Māori tamariki and mana Motuhake in Māori education. The privatisation of education undermines public education. I totally do not agree with the direction of privatising education, especially when it is going to undermine public education. The research into charter schools and partnership schools, relating to minorities around the world, is inconclusive—that is the same as thin, and that is not good enough. That is not good enough as an experiment or as giving something a go. It is not good enough that the evidence is inconclusive around the world, relating to minorities and partnership and/or charter schools. So we have to think collectively and understand that the benefit to Māori is likely to be minimal.

I also want to acknowledge that my colleague Tracey Martin referenced South Auckland Middle School. I went there, I visited there, and I understand what is going on at that school. I was very clear with Mr Poole, right from the get-go. I explained to him that I was coming to see the school and I was coming to get an understanding of how it operates, but that I am very clear in my opposition to charter schools. I was very clear that all of our children deserve publicly funded and fully qualified teachers.

💬 David Seymour: Ideology trumps anything the member—

No, it was not at all about ideology, because ideology is charter schools, Mr Seymour. So I was very clear that, absolutely, we need a strong, publicly funded education system to benefit all of our children. We need qualified teachers. We need accountability to ombudsmen and so forth. That is what our communities deserve; that is what our parents and whānau of our children deserve.

I want to talk about special character schools, which can happen within the public system, such as Kia Aroha College in Ōtara, which was previously led by principal Dr Ann Milne. It is an amazing school that really does model innovation and raises warrior scholars within their special character school. That we are able to initiate and allow for public schools to come up with schools—Kia Aroha College has a particular focus on social justice, on upholding the identity and the learning ways of every individual student and the collective group as well, heralding students who are critically conscious from a school that is culturally responsive. It is able to do things differently without undermining the public education system, which in our country needs to be better supported, especially for Māori tamariki and Māori students. We can do things differently. Independent thinkers and collaborators can happen, but not at the expense of public schools.

So, just to sum up, we also need to focus back on the societal drivers and issues, such as poverty, housing, health, and employment, instead of making education for business. Kia ora.

I rise to take a call on this bill tonight because I find it absolutely remarkable that we are even discussing the claim that our young people, Māori people specifically, cannot get an improved educational outcome by going to a charter school—of course they do. If public schools could have done what charter schools are doing or what Māori-medium schools are doing then, shucks, they would all still be there. But they are not, and unless we put the screws on to improve Māori education—we ignore Ka Hikitia, because it is gathering dust on the shelves of all sorts of people. We ignore cultural standards—Tātaiako—which are, again, gathering dust on the shelves with many things.

In fact, there was a study that came out just this week that compared the success—or the institutional racism—within our schooling system with that of the United States. I am not going to say whether that is correct or not, but hello, let us have a look at the results, shall we? Let us have a look at the results. We have charter schools in this country, in Whangarei, and this is why we have called out the Māori members of the Opposition—because, actually, their families attend those schools. Their family members teach in those schools, and they make those choices because they see that that is beneficial to the educational values of their children. That is the choice they made.

Iwi have come to us and said: “Marama, we would like you to support charter schools because we want to have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our tamariki.” That is why we do it. I have been to Whangarei, to the kura there—the kura hourua—and I have seen the work that it is doing with its tamariki. They are so proud, and they are so strong. They are members of their community. The school has become an integral part of their community. Shall we scrap that—shall we scrap that? I was a child in a school where I felt like an alien because nothing in that classroom reflected anything of my culture. I have taught in schools where that continues to be the case today. I can tell you a million examples where, actually, students in schools who are not benefiting from Ka Hikitia, cultural standards, and cultural practices want to have options.

💬 Tracey Martin: What are you doing for the 95 percent, then? What about the 95 percent?

They want to have options, Tracey Martin, because the schooling system that they are currently in is not providing for their needs. So we have options, and I absolutely oppose the bill to take away those options.

I would think that the Māori members and the Pasifika members who know that these schools are working for their students should be standing up to support them—they should be standing up to support them.

💬 Hon Member: Who’s voting for the RMA changes? You guys.

That is a bit rich from the party that wants to take away the rights of Māori out of all pieces of legislation.

💬 Hon Member: Who supported the RMA changes? You two.

That is a bit rich from the group that will not even let its members vote the way they want to. Ask your own members—they want to vote against this bill, but they are not being allowed to. [Interruption] Well, you know what? Stand up for your people, stand up for your families, and cross the floor. That is what you do. Stand up for your people—that is what we call a mana whakahono arrangement, where you must, by law now, have an agreement with your iwi.

What we do is we support iwi—iwi who have come to us and said: “Marama, we want you to support charter schools.” We do the bidding of our people who ask us to stand up for them. That is why we are here. That is a value added to this nation, that we have choice. You know what the difference is? If there is a poorly performing charter school, it gets closed. How many poorly performing mainstream schools have been closed because they are not meeting the needs of their students? Over and over again, I can go to schools where the pass rate for Māori is 40 to 50 percent. Do they stand up in front of those children at the beginning of the year and say: “Half of you are going to fail.”?

💬 Tracey Martin: What are you doing about it? What are you doing about the 95 percent? Nothing.

What we are doing about it are many things, Ms Martin—the member, Tracey Martin; I am just trying to get the rules right. We have supported schools through cultural standards, and all we need them to do is wipe the dust off it, teach real Māori history, New Zealand history, and acknowledge the place of choice in this country. Thank you.

I call Chris Bishop.

💬 Chris Bishop: Mr Assistant Speaker?

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I did call you.

Sorry, I could not hear you over the applause. “The Government’s objective, broadly expressed, is that all persons, whatever their ability, rich or poor, whether they live in town or country, have a right as citizens to a free education of the kind for which they are best fitted and to the fullest extent of their powers.” This is not a quote from the National Government; the quote I just read out is from Peter Fraser and Clarence Beeby in 1939. That quote summarises exactly what partnership schools are all about: giving all persons, whatever their ability, rich or poor, whether they live in town or country, the right to a free education for which they are best fitted.

The progressive case for partnership schools is one that is easy to make—it is easy to make—but Labour members opposite, and Tracey Martin and New Zealand First, are so blinded by their hostility to innovation and by their hostility to agility, to nimbleness, and to new ways of thinking about schools that they are opposed.

The biggest progressive proponent of partnership schools or charter schools in the Western World is none other than, sadly, outgoing President Barack Obama. He declared a special week in the United States for charter schools in the United States, saying: “Our Nation has always been guided by the belief that all young people should be free to dream as big and boldly as they want, and that with hard work and determination, they can turn their dreams into realities.” The few partnership schools we have in New Zealand are different from what they have in the United States—and Tracey Martin always makes this point—but the principle is the same, and that is the principle of allowing communities to take control of their destiny, of allowing communities to shape local priorities, and of allowing innovation within the schooling system.

There is a progressive case for partnership schools if members opposite would just open their minds to the ideas—if they just looked, and went and actually visited partnership schools. Well done, Marama Davidson, for actually going to South Auckland Middle School. So often we hear from members opposite absolute blather and rubbish about partnership schools when they have never actually been bothered to go to one. It is a real shame that Marama Davidson decided to go to the partnership school with blinkers on—that she was going to tell the people who actually ran the partnership school that she was opposed to it. You sort of wonder why you would go in the first place if you are so closed-minded that you would never actually change your mind. But OK, fair enough, good on you for going—so often members do not.

Partnership schools target underachievement. They target people who have traditionally missed out on a good education. They target that long tail of underachievement. There is a progressive case for partnership schools, and members opposite should get on board with it. What are the three objections we have heard so far? The first is that partnership schools use unregistered teachers, or they have the ability to use unregistered teachers, and yet we have unregistered teachers throughout the New Zealand education system. We have them in early childhood education. We have volunteers. We have teachers under limited authority to teach. We have them in the tertiary education system, we have them in trade courses, and we have them at private training establishments. So the litmus test cannot be: “You must be a registered teacher in order to pass on knowledge to students.”

💬 Tracey Martin: Why do you hate teachers? Why do you hate teachers?

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I do not hate teachers.

The second objection is that this is about privatisation, and we heard Marama Davidson say it over and over again. She said partnership schools should not be about education for profit, for business—except that all bar one are charitable trusts. They are not for business; they are charitable trusts—all bar one are charitable trusts. The second point is that we already have private schools in the New Zealand education system. Is it now the Green Party policy to immediately close every private school around the country? We look forward to hearing that. The third point to say is that this is public money we are talking about. This is charitable trusts using public money in the provision of public education. Partnership schools are public education—it is public money teaching New Zealand students, as members of the public, in a slightly more innovative way than had otherwise been delivered.

So the first two objections are that we have got unregistered teachers and that we are privatising the education system. The third objection—and this is the classic; this is the doozy—is that they say “Oh, but we’ve got special character schools.”, as if that is the answer, and “Actually, we are in favour of innovation in the education system, we are in favour of flexibility, we have got special character schools.” My point is if special character schools are fine, what is wrong with partnership schools? They are just the next step in innovation targeting underachievement.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

I welcome this bill on behalf of my colleague Chris Hipkins. This bill would abolish the charter school model in New Zealand. Charter schools are a blight on our educational system, they bring nothing to the table, and they should not be something that we would continue. Labour has been clear: when we are in Government we will repeal the charter school model.

Charter schools undermine teacher quality and they threaten student safety by permitting unregistered and unqualified teachers to teach our children. Our parents and the public deserve the right to expect their children to be taught by teachers who have undergone rigorous professional training and a robust registration process. Charter schools therefore should be abolished entirely.

Charter schools are an ideological experiment that was cooked up by the Prime Minister, John Key, and the ACT Party during the election campaign of 2011. Labour has been very clear, right from the beginning, that we will get rid of them.

Charter schools, as of October 2015, had a total of only 680 students in nine charter schools across New Zealand. That is an average of 76 students per schools. Charter schools, however, get funding that is up to five times more than the funding that State schools receive. They also get a guaranteed minimum roll, which means that they keep getting money even if students do not enrol. In terms of student achievement, charter schools’ student achievement varies considerably, to the point that one of the charter schools, as we know, in Whangaruru, up north, has been closed.

Charter schools have been a failed model. They are a failed model from overseas, and we see here in Aotearoa New Zealand that they have also failed here, to the point that we have actually closed a school down.

There is a lack of accountability at charter schools but they get bonus payments. In addition to the very generous base funding that they get, in 2015 four out of the five charter schools received bonuses of over $60,000, despite only one of them meeting all of their contractual obligations. This is something, as I say, that Labour will abolish. Charter schools are a thing of the past. Thank you very much.