Hipkins Chris: Education Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hipkins Chris: Education Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 18 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5991. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 If the National Party is so proud of this charter schools model why did National not put it in its manifesto before the last election? Why did not National members tell New Zealanders before the last election that this was what they wanted to do if they are so proud of it? We know that National was working on it before the last election. Even though after the election National tried to deny it the paper trail is clear. This process of charter schools started well before the election and well before the famous cup of tea that did not turn out quite so well in the end. This whole charter schools idea was National’s idea and its members did not tell New Zealanders about it before the election. If National members are so proud of it why is it that they do not want these schools to be subject to the Official Information Act? If they are so confident that these schools are going to be the model exemplars for how education should be delivered in the future why is it that they do not want the public to understand how they are operating? Why is it that they do not want to have the same level of scrutiny applied to those schools as does currently apply to public schools? 
There is an absolute double standard operating here. On the one hand we have got the Government saying: “Well we want to focus on the quality of teaching.” I support it in that. I also think we need to focus on the quality of teaching. I do not think we should have unregistered teachers in classrooms. So on the one hand the State schools are all told: “Focus on the quality of teaching. That is the thing that matters. But you charter schools do not worry do whatever you like. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got registered qualified teachers or not. We’re going to have a different standard for the charter schools.” 
Then it says: “Oh and we want national standards. We want every school to be doing the same thing. But you charter schools don’t worry about that. We’re not going to apply the national standards to charter schools. Oh no they are going to have something entirely different.” Then it says that “Every State school in the country needs to be reporting to parents based on the national standards. Oh no but not you charter schools. You charter schools can do whatever you like and we’re not going to make you subject to the Official Information Act.” So even if charter schools did test their kids under the national standards requirements they would not be subject to the same standards. If charter schools did test kids under national standards they would not be subject to the same transparency requirements of State schools. 
In this very same piece of legislation the Education Amendment Bill the Government is telling boards of trustees that they should have student achievement as their primary focus. Name a school board of trustees that does not. Name a school board of trustees that is made up of parents who go into it with a view not to improve the student achievement of their own kids. Name one school board of trustees that does not have that. Why is it that the Government wants to apply that standard to public schools and yet private schools these new charter private schools will be able to do whatever they like? They will not have that requirement. In fact they will be able to focus on making a profit. There is nothing to stop a charter school from taking taxpayer money that was destined for education and turning a profit out of it. 
What is the single biggest cost in delivering State education? What is the single biggest cost? Teachers—teachers are the single biggest cost. So if they want to make a profit out of it where are they going to get their money from? Unqualified unregistered teachers is where they are going to get their money from. That is where they will extract their profit from. Funnily enough this bill allows them to employ unregistered and unqualified teachers. There is a total and utter double standard here. On the one hand this Government is willing to go into every public school in the country and apply all of these extra bureaucratic requirements to them. Then on the other hand it is saying to charter schools “Go off and do whatever you like.” That is what it says to charter schools and they are not going to be monitored. 
We could have the “Exxon Mobil School for Climate Studies”. We could have the “McDonald’s School for Nutritional Studies” the “Monsanto School for Genetic Engineering” or the “Destiny Church School of Scientific Discovery” because they would not have to teach to the curriculum. Charter schools do not have to teach the New Zealand curriculum. If the Destiny Church wanted to set up a charter school to teach creationism with unregistered unqualified teachers that is OK. Under this legislation—[ 
Interruption 
] There is nothing wrong with it I heard one of the National members say. Under this legislation that is exactly what would be allowed to happen. They would not have to teach to the New Zealand curriculum which is a fantastic curriculum. It is recognised as one of the best curricula in the world. Other people come from around the world to New Zealand and say: “You guys have got an absolutely fantastic curriculum. We wish we had something like that one in New Zealand.” Now the Government is saying: “You charter schools do not have to worry about that. Do not worry about teaching the same thing the public schools are teaching—teach whatever you like.” There is an absolute double standard here. 
But let us go back to a really big concern that I have and that is that the Government is going to use the earthquake recovery process in Christchurch as an excuse to impose these charter schools on the people of Christchurch. I think that is absolutely disgraceful. I think the public schools in Christchurch have done an absolutely amazing job over the last 2 years of providing stability consistency and vital support to those kids who have been affected by the earthquakes. When the earthquakes happened some of those kids were at school for an extended period of time and the schools did not even know whether the parents were going to be coming to collect them because they did not know what had happened to the parents. Those schools went out of their way to look after those kids and to provide those kids with stability and consistency and they do not deserve to be the subject of this disgraceful process that the Government is currently undertaking in Christchurch. There is no other description for it than disgraceful. 
What we are going to see now is the Government turning round and saying “Why not have some charter schools in here as well?”. The Government is going to force these Christchurch schools into merger and closure proposals but in the same areas and in the same sites where it is proposing to close or merge public schools there is absolutely nothing that says that one of these private operators could not go and set up a charter school in exactly the same place. The Government could close a public school and then a charter school could open in exactly the same place. They could even potentially take over the same buildings if the Government hocks them off and this Government says that is OK. 
So how is that process in Christchurch that it is undertaking now supposedly around genuine consultation—“We have not made up our minds yet; we are just going to go out and announce a whole lot of concrete proposals.”—supposed to have any integrity or credibility when public schools could be closed to make way for charter schools? I think that is disgraceful. I do not think that the kids of Christchurch deserve that. I do not think that they should be made the guinea pigs for this Government’s charter schools experiment one that it has been working on for some time and that it did not tell the New Zealand public about before the last election. 
I want to turn to the comments that the Prime Minister John Key has made. He said earlier this year: “It’s not the class sizes that matter; it’s the quality of teaching that we’re getting in our schools.” John Key said that. He said “It’s not the class sizes that matter; it’s the quality of teaching that we’re getting in our schools.” But that is OK. We will not have any requirements on class sizes in charter schools. We will not have any requirements on teacher quality in charter schools. That is all OK. Then he said “Don’t get too hung-up about it.” That is what the Prime Minister said. He said to people who are worried about having unqualified teachers: “Don’t get too hung up about it.” I am sure he is relaxed about it. I am sure he is very very relaxed about it. 
The Government’s education agenda is all at sea. The one idea that National has managed to come up with to improve teacher quality in the time that it has been in Government is to increase class sizes. That is the one thing that it has come up with so far to increase the quality of teaching. All of its other major education initiatives have been about testing form-filling and bureaucratic exercises. The only thing it could come up with to improve teacher quality was to increase the size of classes. It is no wonder that the New Zealand public—parents in particular—are getting concerned about the National Government. Its own officials—the experts who provided National with advice on this—have said the “potential for a negative impact on students’ education from teachers who do not meet the minimum standards for the profession is high.” That was advice that the Government received. It received further advice that says that these proposals around unqualified and unregistered teachers could “significantly damage the credibility of the Crown.” That was the advice the Government got before it brought this bill to Parliament and yet it went ahead anyway. 
We know what this Government’s modus operandi is around consultation. It is to tell people what you want to do go out and ask them what they think about it and then just go ahead and do it anyway—forget about what people think. There is no such thing as meaningful consultation under this National Government. It just does whatever it likes anyway. This charter schools experiment is totally unjust it is totally unnecessary and it will not improve the quality of education in this country.