Labour in charter schools compromise

Labour plans to make changes to special character schools, which will throw a lifeline to the charter schools they promise to shut down.

Under a Labour-led government charter schools will be repealed and the party’s education spokesman, Chris Hipkins, said the options on the table for those schools would be anything from ‘‘closure to integration into the state school system’’.

Labour’s Te Tai Tokerau MP Kelvin Davis has promised he would resign before the two charter schools in his Northland electorate are closed. He said it was an easy promise to make because the schools would only change in name.

A commitment to keep charter schools open was also made in May by Labour list candidate Willie Jackson, who was heavily involved with Te Kura Maori o Waatea, a charter school based in South Auckland.

At the time Labour leader Andrew Little made it clear those schools would close under Labour and there was no hint of changes to the special character school model – nor was it mentioned in the party’s education manifesto released on Friday.

Yesterday, responding to Davis’ pledge to resign over them, Hipkins said ‘‘tweaks’’ would be made so there weren’t any ‘‘unnecessary barriers’’ for new special character schools.

That could include allowing schools to have more than one special character, which would make it easier for some Maori and Pasifika-targeted schools, Hipkins said.

Asked whether those changes were needed for some charter schools to be able to stay open, Hipkins said: ‘‘quite possibly, but that wouldn’t be the driver of the change’’.

Work on changing the special character schools legislation has been going on separate to any decision to close charter schools, he said.

‘‘But it would be fair to say discussions with some of the charter school operators has highlighted the problems with the special character model as it stands now.’’

He said that under the special character changes it was ‘‘quite possible’’ the charter schools operating in Davis’ electorate would meet the criteria to transition.

Davis said ‘‘all you’re doing is changing the status and that will iron out the funding and staffing issues’’.

‘‘National standards won’t be a problem because we’re going to ditch national standards anyway.’’

Labour has long criticised charter schools for receiving more funding per student than state schools but Davis says the charter schools he’s dealt with say that’s not the case.

‘‘What I am saying is making them become special character schools will iron that out and you’ll soon see with their operations grants whether they get more or less.’’

‘‘All this is going to do is level the playing field,’’ he said.

Charter schools have been a bone of contention in the party for years.

In 2015 Little labelled a decision by MPs Peeni Henare and Davis to attend a $250-a-seat charter school fundraiser in Whangarei as a ‘‘misjudgment’’.

He told the MPs it was his preference they didn’t attend, despite both having family connections to the school, but they attended against Little’s advice.

Charter schools were introduced as part of a supply and confidence deal between National and ACT, and ACT leader David Seymour said Davis ‘‘might be in for a bit of a surprise’’ as the transition wouldn’t be so simple.

’’I think if they became a special character school and were being sent a certain number of teachers based on their roll return on July 1 every year, they might suddenly think that being a charter school is a pretty cool thing,’’ he said.