Categories: News

Changes mooted for contentious charter schools

<h2>Most charter schools will be able to merge into the state system once their contracts end&comma; Minister for Education Chris Hipkins says&period;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The 11 existing schools will stay open while discussions on their future continues&comma; following a government bill to stop the creation of new charter schools in future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to Mr Hipkins&comma; the ministry would work on an individual basis with each school although all could potentially be closed by the end of the year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The privately-owned but publicly-funded schools had been an ideological experiment&comma; distracting from the wider publicly-funded education system&comma; Mr Hipkins said&period; Nevertheless&comma; closure was not the only option&comma; as some could become &&num;8216&semi;special character&&num;8217&semi; schools within the public education system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>PPTA president Jack Boyle said the removal of charter schools promised in the government’s Education Amendment Bill marked a great day for public schools and their communities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Public schools can and do reflect the diversity in their communities and are responsive and accountable to them&period; Many public schools are using the creativity of NCEA and the New Zealand Curriculum far better than any charters and it is no surprise well-supported and skilled professional teachers are more likely to be innovative&period; We don’t need charter schools for innovation&comma;” he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With the rest of the world turning against privatised&comma; for-profit&comma; education New Zealand can lead the world with real investment and support for public education&comma; Mr Boyle said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Charter school owners&comma; however&comma; have vowed to fight for the right to stay open&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking to Radio New Zealand&comma; charter school support organisation E Tipu E Rea spokesman Graeme Osborne said the government was jumping the gun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The decision seems a bit rushed&period; We would have preferred that there was an independent review of the effectiveness of the <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;schoolnews&period;co&period;nz&sol;2015&sol;11&sol;high-level-of-interest-in-partnership-schools-applications-welcomed&sol;" title&equals;"partnership schools" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank">partnership schools<&sol;a> to actually justify the government and the ministry&&num;8217&semi;s pathway forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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