Hughes Gareth: Education (Charter Schools Curriculum) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Education (Charter Schools Curriculum) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 14 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7231. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to vote and speak in support of the Hon Phil Goff’s member’s bill. We think it is a good bill and that is why the Green Party is supporting it but let me just respond to the member speaking previously Mr Foster-Bell.Talk about jumping the shark talk about exaggerating and talk about someone being out of touch to describe a bill that is literally two pages and an explanatory statement as an administrative rigmarole. To describe it as Marxist State control—I do not know what planet that member lives on or what schools he has ever visited but the fact is that all this bill requires is that those schools teach the New Zealand Curriculum. Is the member saying that the current curriculum is State control and is Soviet-planned economy? Is that member calling the current curriculum which has the values of excellence innovation inquiry diversity equality community ecological sustainability integrity and respect—is that member seriously saying that is Marxist and that is communist? He looks completely out of touch. I feel and I believe it is entirely appropriate entirely legitimate and in fact good for our country for every New Zealand student to have access to the New Zealand Curriculum. Calling the curriculum Marxist I think does a disservice to the educators and the world-renowned curricula that we teach our kids.It is hackneyed phrase in politics “Won’t someone think of the children?” but in this case Parliament has an opportunity to think of those children. What the Hon Phil Goff’s bill is is a simple effective bill trying to bring public trust and accountability to what the Government has foisted upon the New Zealand education system which is a failed experiment when it comes to charter schools.The background for anyone listening to the debate is that charter schools which receive 100 percent public funding—some of them receiving five times the amount of funding that an equivalent student would receive in a State school—are not required to teach the New Zealand Curriculum. I believe that it is entirely appropriate and legitimate when public money is being spent on these students that the curriculum—which is world renowned which is non-controversial—is provided to these kids. We have heard in the debate of the fears around it. I would also point out that it was not just the Labour Party the Green Party or New Zealand First; it was Treasury that came out opposed to not allowing the curriculum to be provided to charter school students. What this debate should be around is our kids getting a quality education because the risk is that—and we have seen it in some of the failed examples—the reason to bypass the curriculum is to teach a different view of scientific reality.I was a failed teacher trainee. I got a job to sail on the Rainbow Warrior so I got only halfway through my teacher-training course but I got to learn about the curriculum. I was actually shocked when I met a bunch of biology teachers from fundamentalist Christian backgrounds who were studying only biology hoping to teach only biology so that they could propagate their creationist beliefs. As someone who believes in science—believes in the scientific method—I was deeply shocked when I learnt this. This background of allowing charter schools not to teach the curricula risks this which is one of the risks identified by the member Phil Goff.What we fear are a narrow curricula described by these corporate entities that are teaching for profit that are teaching to a certain ideology or philosophical background—an area where corporations or non-profits are teaching with limited accountabilities in terms of the Office of the Ombudsmen and in terms of the Official Information Act and are teaching with untrained and unqualified teachers. It is a failed experiment. We have seen that at the Whangaruru school where only one out of 49 kids received a formal qualification. We have seen incredibly tragic outcomes from that school. I think we should also learn perhaps the lesson of the United Kingdom. I note that in the first speech on this debate Phil Goff described that the UK Government which had gone down this path subsequently changed it in 2007.So let us not have a debate just around the politics. Sure it is a failed political deal that we saw with the charter schools but let us not jump the shark and describe it as Marxist to simply be giving those kids who are in charter schools the New Zealand Curriculum—absolutely ridiculous. This should be a common-sense reasonable vote and I urge other parties to support it.