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Where's the Accountability?
5 December 2013
Where's the Accountability?
Claims that a Northland charter school that has received $1.6 million of public money has bought 81 hectares of farmland need immediate investigation, NZEI Te Riu Roa said today. A second round of charter school applications, due to start shortly, should also be halted.
NZEI Te Riu Roa President Judith Nowotarski said charter schools had been trumpeted by the Government as offering more accountability than state schools because they were based on commercial contracts.
If claims by NZ First deputy leader Tracey Martin in Parliament today - that Te Kura Hauora ki Whangaruru, set up by the Nga Parirau Matauranga Trust, had spent a large proportion of their taxpayer funding buying land - were true, it showed that the charter school model was fatally flawed and had fallen at the first hurdle.
"Charter schools have been given public money to set up schools, not to speculate on property deals. The National-ACT coalition's blind commitment to the ideology of charter schools is wasting public money and diverting energy and resources from supporting state schools that desperately need more funding to support quality teaching and learning for all students," Judith Nowotarski said.
"The Government promised charter schools would deliver "new, innovative and dynamic" approach to students. Instead, it looks like we are getting abuse of taxpayer money and potentially more drain on the public purse, with students benefiting not one iota.
ENDS
NZEI Te Riu Roa
New Zealand Educational Institute
NZEI Te Riu Roa members work in every community in New Zealand, leading and advocating for quality public education.
We are the 50,000 principals, teachers and support staff who work in primary, area and secondary schools as well as early childhood centres, special education and school advisory services. We come together as NZEI Te Riu Roa - New Zealand's largest education union, a Treaty based organisation and a powerful advocate for quality public education.
We have the most important job in New Zealand - educating for the future.
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