ACE Campbell

The opinion by Philippa Branthwaite (Beacon November 21) left me scratching my head. I read it as an irrational rant, that was ill informed.

Charter schools are not new internationally and first appeared in New Zealand in 2014 to provide parents with a wider option/choice for students that were failing the public system.

These were immediately shut down by Chris Hipkins in 2018 who said  they were “driven by ideology rather than evidence” (RNZ, 14 05 25) Mr Hipkins is noted for his laughable “pot calling the kettle black” statements, taking into consideration the current fiasco with school boards of trustees aligning with Labour Party political

policy.

Te Kapehu Whetu principal Raewyn Tipene lamented that having their charter contract cancelled and a return to mainstream was

horrendous.

She spoke generously about the freedom of her partnership school to meet the achievement levels laid down; these were met with over-achievement and the winners were the students.

Branthwaite’s substantial inuendo included Crimson Education, a multinational university admissions consultancy that parents can pay mega dollars to have their kids aligned to international university entrance.

It has nothing to do with our charter/partnership school system nor does our government pay for students to belong to it, as intimated by Branthwaite.

The information contributed by the writer on Kelston Boys High was out of date, and skewed.  

The application for this school to become a charter model was declined by the community at large.  

Kelston is historically a low-achieving school and there were members of the community that could see a change was needed for the benefit of their underachieving kids, however, it felt the applicants weren’t a good fit.

I note David Seymour’s comments that, “There will be some state schools, which frankly, would be better off if they did convert.

“And this is my point: defending failing schools on ideological grounds at all costs has damaged generations of children.” (TVNZ+ InDepth Story on the Bangerz Trust).

It appears that Northland College has followed his words, it has partnered with Ngapuhi for a charter school plan and is the first state school to publicly reveal it is doing so.

The Kaikohe school says it desperately needs to do something to lift achievement for its predominantly Māori students and has the backing of Northland iwi.  

This appears to cancel out Branthwaite’s accusation of “another attack on Māori and the Treaty by this government”.

There are some great things happening via a hard-working coalition, that are not covered by our press. New Zealand is caught in the crosshairs of leftist distortion, and I would urge New Zealand to watch or listen to “Question Time” of New Zealand Parliament to inform themselves of our reality.

The Teachers Unions do not own our education system, its affiliations to NZ Labour Party aims to produce citizens that can be controlled by communism dressed with Hipkins words, “I am comfortable being called a socialist and reminiscent of big Government thinking” (RNZs30 with Guyon Espiner)