Charter schools: Seymour rejects advice to increase financial scrutiny

The Government has rejected advice from Ministry of Education staff to make it a legal requirement that charter schools provide financial statements every quarter.

"There's a danger that you dig up the kūmara so often it never gets to grow," Associate Education Minister David Seymour said. "Yes, we want frequent and rigorous financial checks because it's taxpayer money but not much happens in a quarter.

"I think having them report financially every half year and audited every year is actually about right for most businesses."

Charter schools are publicly funded but unlike public schools, they're privately run and can be for profit.

The model provides freedom of choice for curriculum, staffing, school hours, and governance in a bid to give schools more flexibility to lift achievement. Charter schools are run by sponsors who have to report on performance measures to the Authorisation Board.

The previous charter school model saw $89 million set aside by previous governments to establish and operate 17 charter schools between 2013 and 2018.

In the new iteration, the Government allocated $153 million over four years to set up and operate up to 15 charter schools, and convert up to 35 state schools to become charter schools from next year.

A report from February, now proactively released by the Education Ministry, outlines where Seymour disagreed with advice from officials.

On financial probity – which means acting fairly and with honesty – being included as a performance outcome in charter school contracts, Seymour wrote in the education report that "they cannot become overregulated".

On requiring quarterly financial statements from charter schools to be part of the proposed law changes, Seymour disagreed and wrote, "What other org has this obligation?"

The report shows Seymour chose a charter school's performance reporting raising a concern as a trigger for external intervention to be written into the law change, but didn't include the trigger options of the Education Review Office recommending the need for intervention or there being reasonable grounds to believe a charter school had breached their legal or contractual requirements.

Seymour disagreed that the Ministry of Education can issue an intervention action, requiring these to be carried out only by the Authorisation Board.

The new model is a reduction in previous financial reporting for charter schools, when financial statements were provided quarterly.

The Government has been warned by education staff that last time, "soft approaches to monitoring and management meant that sponsors may not have been held accountable sufficiently".

Last time charter schools existed, the ministry commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to review annual reports and audited accounts.

"In general, PwC was not able to gain full confidence..." the evaluation stated.

One of the groups which has applied to become a charter school is Nathan Durie and Yvette McCausland-Durie, tumuaki (principals) for Tipene St Stephen's School which is due to open south of Auckland next year.

"Charter schools will allow us a level of flexibility and autonomy to deliver and help transform education applicable for our young people," Durie said.

"Key in the mix of that is to stop continuing to identify the problems of our kids, but rather identify the real potential that this cohort would have and allow them to excel."

McCausland-Durie said she was confident the school could deliver the results required in their contract.

"We've got people who have more importantly experience across a range of areas whether it be finances, political, legal, and that gives us real confidence that we'll be well managed..."

Post Primary Teachers' Association vice president Kieran Gainsford said financial accountability is just one of the areas the secondary teachers' union has concerns about with the reintroduction of charter schools.

"We saw last time with charter schools there were issues with some sponsors underperforming or issues with their use of taxpayer money," he said.

"I think it's obvious to any member of the public that self-reporting is unlikely to lead to good outcomes and good use of taxpayer money for education."

On the Government injecting $153 million into the charter school model, Gainsford said the money could have been spent addressing urgent issues in the state sector.

"On learning support, on smaller class sizes, on better support for teachers to deliver the curriculum, and also on more school buildings so that our students can actually learn in proper environments."

"We think we can do better with $153 million of taxpayer money than allowing schools to drop safeguards, like having registered teachers or having to teach a national curriculum," he said.

This week there were further additions to the Education and Training Amendment Bill including stopping unions initiating combined bargaining for teachers across different charter schools, like what occurs with teachers in the public school system.

To allow for submissions on these new amendments, the submission window has been extended to close on Monday at 5pm.

The other change was a state school employer may require a staff member to provide services to a charter school or student from a charter school.

"It is very vague in the legislation... it may be requiring teachers in state schools to go and teach classes of students in charter schools if the charter school sponsor isn't able to provide the whole curriculum," Gainsford said.

He said it could also look like charter school students attending a public school for a purpose like specialist technology education.

Compared to the last charter school model, this time contracts will run for 10 years rather than six, and teachers must have a limited authority to teach at a minimum.

This means unqualified teachers will still be subject to the Teaching Council's disciplinary processes but, unlike at public schools, not the competency processes.

This time state or state-integrated schools can choose to convert to charter schools if their applications are successful, and the minister can direct a state school to convert.

"The Minister would have absolute discretion to make this decision, having considered if the direction is appropriate in the circumstances," Seymour wrote in an April paper seeking approval from other Cabinet ministers.

Gainsford from the PPTA said while some schools may be "winner schools", concerns have been raised around "what happens to students in those schools that aren't performing well; charter schools that aren't performing; and where do parents send their students, send their young people to go to school if they don't agree with the direction of their local charter school?"

"The consultation process has been really rushed and there hasn't been a lot of dialogue with the community about what could happen to their local school."

Seymour told 1News the new model has sparked "massive interest" with "huge numbers of people who want to run charters".

Charter schools were introduced in New Zealand in 2013 to lift the achievement of Māori, Pasifika, students from low socio-economic households, and students with "special education needs".

An evaluation at the end of the five years charter schools were in operation found the model was overall successful in enrolling these student groups.

However, the report said it wasn't clear if the model had worked as data wasn't broken down to show the achievement of these student groups.

The Advisory Board set up to report to the former education minister on charter school performance concluded: "We were unable to be confident about the performance of a school and what material difference the school was making to student outcomes."

A briefing for Education Minister Erica Stanford from last December states that in 2017, student achievement was 'satisfactory' in four schools, 'almost satisfactory' in three schools, and 'not satisfactory' in three schools.

The Education Review Office reported schools struggled to provide robust achievement information.

The evaluation found there were some examples of schools using the flexibility of the model to meet the needs of the student groups the model was based on.

But evaluator Martin Jenkins did not find "substantial innovation in terms of pedagogy or curricula design" compared to what was occurring in some public schools.

A briefing for the Government read, "International evidence on the success of innovative schooling models is mixed, but some sources indicate positive outcomes for student achievement in recent years."

The briefing said that in the United States, a 2023 Stanford University study found charter schools deliver positive student achievement outcomes compared to public schools. In previous years, public school students performed better.

The results of English charter schools are mixed, according to the briefing.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.