Seymour says teacher unions protecting fees

Claudette Hauiti Seymour says teacher unions protecting fees

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ACT leader and Associate Education Minister David Seymour is pushing back at unions opposed to the coalition Government’s revival of his kura hourua charter schools experiment.

Mr Seymour is again pitching the publicly-funded private schools as a solution for Maori and Pasifika education, and he also wants to give existing state schools the option to switch to the model.

He rejects a claim from Post Primary Teachers’ Association president Chris Abercrombie that kura hourua are costly and start up costs will exceeds those for state schools.

“They do not cost more. They did not cost more. That is a red herring and it does not compare apples with apples,” Mr Seymour says..

He says the main gripe from unions is they will miss out of fees from teachers at the kura .

Seymour introduced partnership schools ‘Kura Hourua’ under a National Government in 2014 but had to standby and watch them be scrapped un Labour in 2018.

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