May 25, 2016
Kura hourua experiment overhyped
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says kura hourua are an experiment on Maori children that needs to end.
The Greens are backing a Labour MP's bill to end charter schools, but it's likely to fail with National, ACT and the Maori Party voting against it.
The Maori Party's Te Ururoa Flavell says charter schools are doing far better than state schools.
But Ms Turei says it's still to early to say that, as overseas experience shows charter schools don't make things better for disadvantaged groups, despite the hype.
"The state schooling system doesn't work for all our kids and it needs to be more flexible and there needs to be more control and decision making by iwi and hapu and communities over how education is delivered to our kids but that doesn't justify the whole privatisation model where so much of the public money you would use to actually build a decent state system is going in to private coffers," she says.
The Greens would work with kura hourua to bring them back into the state system, and it would also change the Education Act to create more flexibility.
Copyright © 2016, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com