The Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce report has produced a number of stale ideas that will do nothing to transform our education system, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“The proposed ‘Education Hubs’ will reduce the self-determination of individual schools by removing a number of their core responsibilities. This is an intrusion on the autonomy of schools and will undermine communities’ ability to develop their own property by removing it and placing it in the hands of a remote bureaucracy.

“Besides, what will this new layer of bureaucracy achieve that existing Ministry of Education regional offices haven’t been able to?

“ACT’s charter schools could have solved many of the issues the review seeks to address.

“Paying good teachers more, and the ability to hire teachers that weren’t registered with the Education Council, were attracting more and better people to the teaching profession.

“The report seeks smoother student transitions through the education system, much like Villa Education Trust’s schools and Te Kāpehu Whetū and Te Kāpehu Whetū (Teina) provided.

“School leadership is another pressing issue. Charter schools allowed for innovative management structures – Vanguard Military Academy, for example, split its leadership between a CEO and an academic leader.

“This Taskforce won’t transform education with new powers and additional bureaucracy.

“ACT’s solution is to provide educational choice to parents and students and allow schools to have the flexibility to respond to a diversity of needs."

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