11. Question No. 11—Education (Partnership Schools)LAURA TRASK (ACT) to the Associate Minister of Education (Partnership Schools)Question No. 11—Education (Partnership Schools)11. LAURA TRASK (ACT) to the Associate Minister of Education (Partnership Schools): What recent announcements has he made about lifting educational outcomes?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Associate Minister of Education (Partnership Schools)): Charter schools are back. [Interruption] That's right. Once again New Zealand communities—be they business be they iwi be they community groups that have insight into how to engage children currently disengaged from education those educators and those innovators will have a vehicle where they can create schools where those disengaged students want to go. I'll tell you a story that I used in my maiden statement in this House 10 years ago of one student a child who was literally called Hope. She was at Vanguard Military School and she said I never knew I was smart till I came here."—I never knew I was smart till I came here.Hon Dr Duncan Webb: Point of order. The question was "What recent announcements has he made about lifting educational outcomes?" He said charter schools were back; that was the end of the answer. He's now giving a speech.SPEAKER: Well that would be similar to me saying that the simple word "yes" ends a question about "confidence in" statements and everything else. You wouldn't want that so we won't do that either. You can start your answer again.Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: Charter schools are back. Once again in this society there will be a policy where people in the community—community groups people from business people from iwi people from groups that may not have any ethnic base at all—will be able to create schools that engage those students who are not engaged. Now I want the Opposition to listen to this bit. For the people at home the thing about the Opposition—there's an old saying "They don't like it up 'em". But the facts are that a child called Hope this child said to me "I never knew I was smart until I came here." What she meant is that at a State school that she wasn't attending—that she wasn't attending—what she found is that she thought she was dumb. She thought she had no potential. She thought she couldn't learn. At a charter school she started learning and those skills turned into qualifications. Those qualifications eventually turned into a job and a future and feeling good about herself. That's what recent announcement I've made about education and raising achievement.SPEAKER: And I hope that subsequent answers will be considerably briefer than the—Hon David Seymour: We all have hope Mr Speaker. It's what it's about.SPEAKER: And I've got very high hopes for the member. After ten years I'd have thought he'd have been pretty sharp.Laura Trask: What success have charter schools had?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: You know it's interesting to look at what the data and evidence from around the world said. For example the gold standards of studying charter school success comes out of Stanford University the Center for Research on Educational Outcomes—Rawiri Waititi: Oh following the Americans.Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: —where they create—I heard Rawiri Waititi in the cowboy hat say "Oh you're following the Americans."Rawiri Waititi: I'm listening to David Seymour in the pink tie.Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: Yes you know all about it. In the United States of America there's a university called Stanford and it has a Center for Research on Educational Outcomes. They've done the most comprehensive study of charter school success where they create statistically identical virtual twins for kids in charter schools and kids in State schools. What they find is that a kid in a charter school in America at the end of each year has learnt 16 days more reading—imagine if Rawiri Waititi had been there—16 days more reading than in a State school. That's what the data and evidence says about charters and the people that say otherwise are flat-earthers.SPEAKER: That answer's sort of completely obliterating any hope I might have had of concise answers.Laura Trask: Why is there a need for charter schools in New Zealand?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: The sad reality is that nothing determines our future more than how much knowledge we transfer from one generation to the next for every kid and we're failing. We're failing to get kids to school and we're failing to have them learn valuable knowledge for their future when they're there—that is the truth. After years of denial where the Labour Minister of Education for example was absolved from responsibility for misleading the House because she didn't know where the educational data on attendance was we are now fronting up we're publishing the data and we're creating new options so that kids can be engaged by people with insights in their community about what will get them to school and get them engaged. That's why we need them.SPEAKER: Sorry was there another supplementary to come?Laura Trask: There is. What reports has he seen in support for charter schools?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: One commentator said "When you look at the success this alternative-style educational model has had for Māori then it gets an A every day." and "Our staff tell us they have seen the change in our tamariki especially those who have been failed by mainstream schooling." Another commentator has said "I support that particular charter school and the reason I do so is that I've seen kaupapa grow from the fetal stages all the way that they have today and I've seen the outcomes they've achieved and that's why I support that particular kaupapa." I would like to thank Willie Jackson and Peeni Henare for those quotes."