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The Quality Public Education Coalition says if Education Minister Hekia Parata is demanding more transparency in Te Kohanga Reo National Trust, she needs to allow the same level of scrutiny of charter schools.
The coalition says the referral of the trust’s commercial subsidiary Te Pataka Ohanga to the Serious Fraud Office highlights the increasingly murky world of private operations run with public funding.
The SFO found that loans to staff and trustees were allowable under the company’s rules, and it also found that credit card use for private purchases was done in error rather than criminal intent.
The coalition says state and state-integrated schools have parent-elected boards of trustees that must hold open meetings and maintain open records, and they’re also subject to the Official Information Act, whereas charter schools are explicitly exempt from the OIA.
It wants to see the same apply to the charter or partnership school experiment.
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