OPINION
This morning I wrote that the Charter Schools Bill had passed its final reading.
Jan Tinetti called it a “sad, sad day for New Zealand education”. And Green Party MP Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan said the move is “not about education, it’s about privatisation”.
$153mn for charter schools in what teachers and principals have called “tragic” [Erica Stanford would not fund their request for high needs learning support] - while David Seymour claims the “NZ government is [now] broke” when it comes to paying for our ferries
$153m could fund 3974 learning assistants working 30 hours a week, or support for 12,812 high-needs ORS children, or 1530 learning support coordinators to deal with the inequity of access that currently existed.
I have covered this topic before so will not belabour it.
Related Reading:
Instead, today I thought it would be useful to see where the money will go and who will be using it.
I think it will give you a better sense of the realities of what we’re facing with regards to this government’s playbook.
For this I bring you Exhibit A:
Alwyn Poole
Poole and Seymour go way back appearing in this charter school publicity campaign for ACT a number of years ago. Poole previously had three charter schools in Auckland.
Poole writes here on Substack.
His articles appear regularly in NZME’s NZ Herald. He is a frequent guest of Sean Plunkett’s The Platform (appearing at least 5 times over the last year), and also posts on one of Don Brash’s1 websites.
He has been rallying for charter schools for what seems forever.
With the election of David Seymour, Poole set up a “charitable company” this year with the sole purpose to set up and apply for charter school funding -
Yes. He is now in line to receive funding for 4 taxpayer funded private schools:
A Primary School in Auckland Central
Warkworth school: For Years 7 to 10.
Epsom school: “For Years 7 to 10 with high ability to cater for children not suited to cookie cutter education.”
“A Year 11-13 school in Auckland Central focused on students working towards and obtaining University Entrance”
Finally, Poole regularly writes and speaks about education standards on right wing platforms. For example:
Poole is leveraged as someone whose voice matters in the right wing government and platforms. But is he?*
Poole is also a true believer of the charter school concept.
And it turns out he might have good reasons to be.
In 2022, the PPTA confirmed the Auditor General had found significant deficiencies in charter schools the last time around.
And Alwyn Poole was singled out in that:
Despite receiving concerns about the way in which Mt Hobson Middle School was being managed and a lack of transparency and accountability, Mr Poole was given approval for two charter schools, South Auckland Middle School and Middle School West Auckland.
Both these schools and Mt Hobson Middle School were managed by Villa Education Trust, whose chief executive is Karen Poole, Alwyn’s wife.
… the report late last year of an inquiry by the Auditor-General into the payment of $450,000 by [his] school board to a trust on which its members were trustees [was finished].
The board, charged with overseeing the transition to the state system of two former charter schools, South Auckland Middle School and Middle School West Auckland, paid $450,000 in ‘management fees’ to the Villa Education Trust which was made up of exactly the same people as the transition board.
i.e. Alwyn Poole’s school board was paying the trust his wife ran $450,000 of our public money.
The AG noted:
"The board failed to recognise that a conflict of interest arose when they effectively decided to pay money to themselves”.
And it all became clearer to me - more than ever - about why David Seymour fights so hard every day.
They fight for people and systems like Alwyn Poole.
PS Seymour even rejected advice to implement appropriate financial transparency in charter schools this time round despite all the evidence!
EXTRA*
PS This is how Mr Poole writes and thinks - what do you think, the hallmarks of a good educator?
Yeah just do everything well and everything will be OK!!!!! Unions bad and evil. Ministry of Education bad and obstructive and incompetent - unlike me!! Grammar and construction optional.
I despair that this is the future of education in NZ, and on our taxpayers dime, while our public schools get robbed of resources and money. i.e. Those are our students and teachers being impacted.
Note: Don Brash planned to sue Matthew Hooton for his comments last month claiming Brash is supporting racist, white supremacist themes and is also dishonest about it. Turns out Brash doesn’t take issue with the word ‘racist’ but takes issue with any assertion that he is lying about it. In response, Hooton apologised -
This is how NZ goes backward. Siphoning off public money to private interests for no real performance or service to the public and it happens unashamedly and consistently under National. Stopping kiwi saver contribution's and selling generating companies are other misguided examples.
What's missing from the discussion is how brilliant NZ's education system was and still is in many areas. Yes, I can probably be accused of having on rosy-tinted specs but when I started primary teaching in 1967 (after comprehensive and inspiring times at Wellington Teachers College) I felt I was part of a world class movement. The Dept of Ed, for all its faults, had practical education at its core and the network of advisors, the active role of the NZEI in promoting good teaching, the quality of dedicated teachers in schools, and the willingness of teachers and schools to share ideas and success with others helped promote a world class schooling environment. That continued until Tomorrow's Schools turned it on its head - competition, managerialism, rivalry, the death of cooperation and sharing. I dont exaggerate. My point is, we can have it again if we are open-minded enough to ditch many if the hangover ideas of Picot and accept that sometimes the "old" ways, think cooperation, equitable funding, shared goals etc, are still the way forward for our kids.