Mahuta Nanaia: Education Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMahuta Nanaia: Education Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 14 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9861. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato):I would like to extend my appreciation to the scores of passionate submitters—mums dads teachers and educators throughout the country—who submitted on this bill the Education Amendment Bill and who are passionate about public education in New Zealand. What today marks is a deliberate darkening a dimming of the public education light by the National-ACT Government.How will this be done under this bill? Charter schools will not be a welcome addition to our public education system. If we look overseas at the models and look at the research we can see that charter schools have not made a significant and systemic difference to educational achievement for the most vulnerable groups. If we look at some of the models from overseas charter schools will start to erode public funding going into your local school and will set up a competitive funding model. If we look at what the Government is proposing with charter schools kura hourua it will create a tiered system within the New Zealand context that will not benefit the great majority of Kiwi kids who do have the luxury right now of going to their local school and expecting that their local school will deliver a quality public education.We should be concerned about that as parliamentarians. We should not accept the rhetoric about charter schools without understanding the research and the evidence that was presented to the Education and Science Committee and that was presented to education spokespeople on this side of the House which obviously the Government is choosing to ignore. Why? Because our children are just too important to be experiments. Our children in Christchurch our children in South Auckland—those young people deserve a lot more from parliamentarians in this House when it comes to education policy.All the evidence that has been presented certainly to Opposition spokespeople which I am sure members of the Government are aware of shows that charter schools do not make a structurally significant difference to improving the learning outcomes for the most vulnerable learners. We should reflect on that because we have heard a lot of rhetoric from members on that side of the House. I would like to ask this question: why are we following failed examples from overseas and promoting them within the New Zealand context? You see we have choices here in New Zealand that other countries do not have. We have public schools boys schools girls schools integrated schools private schools—all manner of options—kura kaupapa wharekura kōhanga reo early childhood centres playcentres. We have enough scope within our public education system to do things well but there has to be a common strand and intent of education policy that drive quality and expectation to deliver widespread systemic benefits to the most vulnerable students.I do not accept what the previous speaker John Banks has spoken about that this bill will transform outcomes for Māori and Pacific students. In fact I find it intolerable that Māori and Pacific students are being used as guinea pigs for this type of initiative. I find it intolerable. If for example priority learners and Māori and Pacific learning outcomes were so important to the Government why are they not specifically mentioned within the bill? No answer from the Government. Why are those targets not set in the bill and specifically targeted to ensure that those outcomes will be delivered on? No answer. They cannot answer because they are being disingenuous with the rhetoric that they are providing on this particular matter.So what is the Government proposing with charter schools and how does this fundamentally challenge what is currently happening within our public education system curriculum? Every other school has to deliver a national curriculum but charter schools have choice—unbelievable. In relation to the entry criteria models from overseas show that through entry criteria charter schools will cherry-pick the best students. In the proposal here for New Zealand there will be no enrolment zone. You can just bet your bottom dollar that charter schools will be cherry-picking the best students. There will be the potential for charter schools in New Zealand under this Government and this model to manage those schools for profit—for profit. Every dollar that a public school gets must be spent on its children and on public education but that is not so for charter schools oh no. We will not know how they will be spending that dollar and it is highly likely that they can manage the income coming from the Government to deliver education in order to deliver a profit not a quality education.The fact that they are exempt from the Official Information Act is I think a real farce. If we want to ensure that the outcomes delivered are going to be publicly transparent to those who matter most the students and the parents then the Official Information Act must apply—must apply. But the Government continues to omit that really important amendment from the bill.The other point concerns the management of charter schools. The Government proposes that a board can oversee the management of a charter school. Board members do not have to come from the local community; they could be business people. Parents’ voices are lost. We challenge communities and parents to get actively involved in their local school within the next week so they can have a say about what is happening at their local school how the curriculum can be delivered and how it can be delivered for the best outcomes of the students at their school. But not charter schools oh no. Business people will be leading those charter schools and there will be no parent voice. In some of the overseas examples it is evident—it is evident—that this is a fundamental disconnect with the delivery of education where the parent does not have an active role in saying what happens at their local charter school.What else is happening? Well there has been a lot of discussion around teachers not being registered but being able to teach at charter schools. We have heard the previous speaker giving some justification for that but if we are really concerned about quality teaching and effective teaching practices in New Zealand we have to have a uniform standard across the board. There cannot be ins and outs. Everybody is all in or it is all over the show. It is as simple as that—everybody is all in or it is all over the show. If you want to ensure that there is quality teaching and effective teaching practices teacher registration is one way of achieving that. The Minister of Education is shaking her head disagreeing with that. I do not see her hurrying to disestablish the Teachers Council at all. I do not see her promoting in our public schools that the same standards that apply to charter schools should apply to our public schools. In fact what the Minister continues to perpetuate is that there are two standards that can be delivered in education: one through charter schools and one through our public education system. Our children deserve better. They deserve quality public education that is not infringed or compromised by dual standards set up by the Government.I am really concerned because I know that some of the best learning outcomes for Māori students have come through kura kaupapa and wharekura. David Bennett would know very well that the wharekura that has delivered the highest-performing outcomes of National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 qualifications is in our backyard: Te Wharekura o Ngā Taiātea a wharekura under the public education system.What needs to happen is for us to take the innovations from those schools that are currently delivering them and extend them across the public education system. John Banks shakes his head and says: “No no no. My mates aren’t going to benefit from that model because it’s in the public education system. Let’s give these charter schools some public funds and let them make a profit. Who cares what the outcomes are?”. If the Government really did care why are the targets for Māori and Pacific achievement not clearly set out in the legislation? Will he take a question in the House to answer that? He bends his head low because he knows very well that the Trojan Horse for this bill sadly was that it was done under the guise of Māori and Pacific achievement with the support of the Māori Party.This is a woeful step in the disintegration of the public education system and the Government should be ashamed.