May 10, 2017 12:00pm by David Farrar

Labour all over the place on charter schools

The Labour Party remains opposed to charter schools and supporters like Willie Jackson don’t have the ability to “change party policy”.

For five years Labour has been against charter schools, introduced by the National government under a confidence and supply agreement with the ACT party.

Jackson, who announced he was running for the Labour Party in February, is heavily involved with Te Kura Maori o Waatea, a charter school based at Nga Whare Waatea Marae in South Auckland.

Jackson’s organisation, The Manukau Urban Maori Authority, sponsored the school that opened in 2015.

On TVNZ’s Q+A on Sunday Jackson said it would be merely the “name” Labour would “get rid of”.

“…they’ll get rid of the concept but the principle of turning kids’ lives around is something that…all of Labour believe in.

“So call the school whatever you like,” Jackson said.

So Willie Jackson is saying they will just be renamed, while Little says they may or may not close and Hipkins says they must close or integrate.

On Tuesday Little said state schools have to meet minimum expectations of having trained registered teachers and teaching the national curriculum.

“If (a charter school) meets those conditions then we’ll have a look at what happens with that particular school but we’re not a party of charter schools,” he said.

This is a red herring. The key thing about charter schools is they have full funding flexibility. Is Little saying he’ll allow charter schools to continue with full funding flexibility?