Labour will repeal charter schools, consider reform if re-elected

Charter schools will be scrapped if Labour regains office in the next election, said Labour education spokesperson and previous Education Minister Jan Tinetti.

“Labour has got rid of these before and we will get rid of them again because they are bad for young people and bad for their learning,” said Tinetti.  

Read the latest print edition of School News HERE

Tinetti said the party is against charter schools as they lead toward privatising education.  

Labour’s stance goes against the views of the party’s Māori development spokesperson Willie Jackson, who helped to open a charter school as chief executive of the Manukau Urban Māori Authority in 2015.  

Tinetti said that despite Jackson’s stance, Labour had a “very, very strong position” on charter schools and said she had spoken to him about his views.  

“I absolutely understand why Māori are attracted to charter schools because the education system, as we all know, has let Māori down… but there are better ways that it can work. 

The case for charters

Charter schools are currently making their way through the parliamentary process under ACT and National. They were campaigned on as a way to improve school choice for whānau and improve outcomes, especially for marginalised students or those that the mainstream system has otherwise not worked for. 

Over four years, $153 million has been set aside for their operation. The are expected to be running by Term One of 2025. 

Associate Education Minister David Seymour who is championing their reintroduction, said that “they can, with some restrictions, set their own curriculum, hours and days of operation, and governance structure. They also have greater flexibility in how they spend their funding as long as they reach the agreed performance outcomes.”

Advocates for charter schools have noted that they will be performance driven, and 10-year fixed term periods of operation are contingent on the school meeting agreed terms. 

Proponents of charter schools include Maryanne Spurdle, a researcher at Maxim Institute. 

She said that in their previous iteration, charter schools only reached a small scale and evaluations were limited. However, there was some evidence of their positive impact. Spurdle points to schools like Vanguard Military School, which achieved positive results especially for Māori students. Although ACT and National are championing the reintroduction of charter schools, Te Pāti Māori have also been fans of the charter school legislation, citing positive impacts for ākonga Māori. 

Revisiting Tomorrow’s Schools 

Tinetti also said that Labour would also consider the Tomorrow’s Schools review if re-elected.  

The Tomorrow’s Schools review was first commissioned by then Education Minister Chris Hipkins at the beginning of the previous Labour government. However, he chose not to implement some of the more radical recommendations for reform. Tinetti says that Labour would revisit those recommendations.  

“We’re not going to make the biggest difference until we look at the structure of what’s happening in New Zealand’s schooling system overall,” said Tinetti. 

“Teaching and learning is about coming together and collaborating. We’ve got to look at that before we look at programmes off the shelf.”  

However, Tinetti said she was “not going to put a stake in the sand,” as she would need to have a closer look at some of the recommendations, including the “education hubs” proposed by the 2018 review.