Labour concedes the charter school debate

Labour has essentially conceded the charter school debate, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Labour’s opposition to charter schools was once strident. In fact, just last year Chris Hipkins had his bill to abolish the schools drawn, and said ‘This bill, which we hope will be agreed to and passed, will absolutely get rid of charter schools’.

“Now their position has dissolved into semantics as they suggest they’ll rename the schools instead of closing them.

“Kelvin Davis said he’d rather resign than see his local Partnerships Schools close, and then clarified that Labour would simply change their status to ‘special character’ – a change in name only.

“‘Those schools will definitely still exist under the next Labour Government. . .students and whanau will not notice any difference,’ said Davis.

“Labour’s chief of staff now confirms this is the party’s official position.

“No doubt Labour’s u-turn has been helped by MPs like Davis who have Partnership Schools in their electorates, and have witnessed the fantastic results these schools deliver for students underserved by the mainstream system.

“It’s the flexibility of the current Partnership School model that allows this, so Davis ought to hold Labour to their word that there will be zero noticeable difference under Labour.

“Now that there is cross-party agreement on the value of these innovative schools, we should open more. With more MPs after the election, ACT will allow state schools to opt into the partnership model. I look forward to Labour supporting this, whatever name they want to use for the policy.”

ENDS

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