This bill aims to put the interests of children and a quality public education ahead of private profits for partnership schools kura hourua (“charter schools”) sponsors. We believe that charter schools should not be allowed to operate as private, profit-making enterprises. Schools should be run for the benefit of children, not a private company and every dollar skimmed off in profits is a dollar less for students learning.

At present charter school sponsors are allowed to run charter schools at a profit, creaming off taxpayer funding for their own benefit. When private companies profit from our state-funded schools, children lose out. They have less money for books, for quality teachers, for school visits and computers. This bill will help ensure that New Zealand children get the best quality teaching and learning resources possible by removing the ability of for-profit organisations to operate state-funded charter schools. A charter school sponsor previously approved may continue to operate a school for up to one year after this amendment comes into force before they must either close the school or transfer sponsor status to a not for profit entity such as a Trust.

Ostensibly charter schools are aimed at raising the achievement of underperforming students in New Zealand. Yet the evidence to suggest that charter schools will in fact improve educational outcomes does not take into account the high results that New Zealand is already achieving for its students through the public education system. The charter school scheme overlooks the widely accepted understanding that educational underachievement is inextricably linked to poverty and increasing income inequality.

Charter schools therefore represent the privatisation and commercialisation of an important public good. We do not support a system that puts profit before kids and the interests of the community. And we are not alone. Allowing charter school sponsors to profit from the public funds provided for the education of our young people is not supported by the majority of New Zealanders.