Will charter schools face same restrictions as state schools?

The Minister of Education needs to clarify whether charter schools will face the same restrictions on class sizes that the state sector is facing, Green Party education spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said today.

Charter schools are to receive Government funding while being run by companies or non-profit organisations and can set teacher pay and their own school timetable. The terms of reference for how charter schools will operate in New Zealand have now been released.

"The terms of reference regarding how the charter school experiment will operate in New Zealand conditions fail to explain if class size limits will apply," said Ms Delahunty.

"The Minister of Education needs to clarify this omission immediately.

"The Government is planning on spending millions of dollars of the education budget setting up schools that will compete with those in the state sector.

"The conclusion the public will draw from this is that the state sector is being cut back to pay for National and ACT's ideological commitment to the charter school experiment.

"The money being spent on charter schools would be far better spent keeping teacher pupil rations as they are," Ms Delahunty said.