Kaye Nikki: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKaye Nikki: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee[Sitting date: 29 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:10521. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NIKKI KAYE (Associate Minister of Education): I am very pleased to speak in this Committee stage of the Education Amendment Bill. The first thing that I want to say is I am actually quite saddened to hear this debate because I believe that every member in this Chamber believes in a vision for education where it does not matter where you grow up in New Zealand you get a good standard of education. I am actually incredibly sad to hear that when the Opposition says that it supports a flexible innovative and collaborative education system it will not support choice. What this bill is about is choice. It is actually about saying that there are children in New Zealand currently who do not grow up with a great education. It is about saying that we are not afraid to try something different. It is also about saying that when we do that we will actually put some accountability in place. We are doing that through the sponsor contracts.We have heard many myths today in this debate. Let us clear some of them up. The first is that in terms of funding this is not about parity. There has been a huge amount of work that has gone into the funding formula and I want to just correct in terms of some of Tracey Martin’s comments that although the modelling is based on decile 3 it will be actually on the students who are enrolled.The second myth that we have heard is that this is all about John Banks. Actually there are 59 members on this side of the Chamber who support this legislation because we want more for the children of New Zealand.The next myth that we hear is that profit is bad in education. I want members opposite to stand up and say to the licensed early childhood providers of this country the private tertiary institutions of this country and the private schools in New Zealand that they are somehow bad educational establishments. Members on this side of the Chamber support diversity in our education system. We recognise that it should not be about the educational structure it should actually be about the best environment for different children. We are not afraid to be supporting a piece of legislation that actually says that we want to try something different and that we want some more innovation in our education system.Let us actually put it in perspective. Let us actually acknowledge that after successive education budget increases under our Government to $9.7 billion with $1 billion going to Canterbury this is $19 million in a $9.7 billion education budget.The other myth that we have heard is that somehow—and I want to address Metiria Turei’s accusations—we will be closing a whole lot of State schools for these partnership schools. I am happy to say that we will not be going around closing a whole lot of State schools to set up these partnership schools in these State school properties. I am happy to give that assurance because what this debate has shown me is that actuallyin this Chamber when those members talk about flexibility and innovation it is only on their model. It is not acknowledging diversity. We are a nation of diverse people and we have a range of diverse educational establishments at tertiary and early childhood level. We are not afraid to say that there is a group of children in our country who are not doing as well. We are not afraid to say that with the right accountability and a piece of legislation for a small number of schools it is OK to try to do something better. We are very proud on this side of the Chamber to be supporting this bill.