Goff Phil: Education (Charter Schools Curriculum) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoff Phil: Education (Charter Schools Curriculum) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 14 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7233. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill): Where do I start? Well let us start with: “Let’s not get all ideological.” There is one reason why we are before this House debating charter schools. It is that that party over there the ACT Party with its 0.4 percent support in the polls according to the last Colmar Brunton poll made that a condition of its supply and confidence agreement with National. It is ideological.Now let us pick up the other point that the National members have made. You would think listening to those National members that charter schools were the best thing since sliced bread. How many National parents over there intend to send their children to a charter school? Come on let us have a show of hands. You know the answer—not one. Not one because what National MP in their right mind would send their kids to a school that did not have to have qualified teachers that did not have to teach to the New Zealand Curriculum that did not have to follow the National Education Guidelines in terms of the administration of the school and that did not have any role for the parents in the way that the school was run? That is why they will not send their precious children to a charter school but they are happy to see kids from disadvantaged backgrounds go to those schools.Then Judith Collins said—my very good friend Judith Collins—“What on earth are we trying to fix?”. Well let us start with the Middle School West Auckland. The Middle School West Auckland has had three reports from the Ministry of Education and three reports from the Education Review Office saying that the school is failing—saying that the school is failing. Then we have got Whangaruru School which had 49 students last year. How many of them gained a national qualification? Let me ask Judith Collins. How many of those 49 at the Whangaruru charter school got a qualification last year? Do you know the answer? One—one out of 49. That is not even 2 percent of the kids. These schools are failing and that is why we are having this debate.Paul Foster-Bell said that he turned up at the Conservative Party conference and that the delegates thought charter schools were absolutely wonderful and that there would be more of them. What he did not tell us was that 8 years ago the Government of the United Kingdom at that time actually said retrospectively: “We made a mistake. All charter schools now have to follow the national curriculum.” So there is Paul Foster-Bell saying: “Look at the example of Britain.” Well look at the example of Britain. It said: “We got it wrong. Of course those schools should follow the national curriculum.”Why should kids learn the New Zealand Curriculum? Because New Zealanders as a whole agree that that document gives kids the skills and the areas of knowledge that they need in order to go out and succeed in the community. So why would we have a situation where the law says that kids who go to charter schools—the disadvantaged kids—do not have to learn what every other kid in our country needs to know? It is a shocker.It is a shocker and I waited and waited for Mr Seymour or Mr Williamson to give us the justification. What I heard from Mr Seymour was that this was all a plot by the education unions and that we were their stool pigeons. Well let me read from the Treasury paper. The New Zealand Treasury—hardly a radical or a left-wing institution—said that teacher registration is an indication of a minimum level of quality. It should have been in for the charter schools. It said that it was opposed to allowing the charter schools to hire unregistered teachers. It said that the benefits of introducing these schools would not outweigh the costs and the risks. It was not in favour. The Maxim Institute which is hardly a radical left-wing organisation said that all the charter schools would do is rob the kids and the funding off the public schools that they were competing with.This bill remedies one outstanding flaw. What we should really be doing in this House is scrapping the charter schools and that is what we will do when we get the chance.