June 05, 2013
Māori Party ticks charter school experiment
It's full speed ahead for charter schools, with the Māori Party giving the Government the numbers to pass the Education Amendment Act last night.
Leading Māori educationalists and academics spoke out against the creation of publicly-funded private schools and warned they will undermine more effective initiatives to lift Māori achievement.
The Māori Party says the idea has support from whānau and kura Māori, who believe the so-called Kura Hourua model will enable tangata whenua to exercise rangatiratanga or maximum responsibility and maximum accountability.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says they are buying into a model that has not worked internationally.
"It's a brainchild of right wing ideologues and given the success of our education system in the past, why would we want to change now for something that is unproven in our country and in the countries from whence it comes," he says.
Mr Peters says ACT leader and Associate Education Minister John Banks, who made charter schools a condition for his support of the National-led government, is probably the least-educated Member of Parliament.
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