A stark comparison

Radio NZ reports:

The principal of Te Kāpehu Whetu in Whangārei. Raewyn Tipene. said the school – which included a primary school and a secondary school – moved to the state system when charter contracts were cancelled. She said it involved a lot more bureaucracy.

“We came back to mainstream and it was horrendous. Largely it’s a different environment working in the public sector,” she said.

“It’s bureaucratic, the bureaucracy [is] amazing. The thing about partnership schools… it is one of the first times I have experienced what freedom felt like. You were given resources, you were told, ‘Here’s what you need to achieve, how you do that’s your business,’ and we overachieved.”

Tipene said the school’s enrolments and performance had dropped since it became a state school.

“Coming back to mainstream is just a nightmare, that’s probably the nicest way of putting it. An example of that would be that I get emails constantly about little bits and pieces of nothingness. Largely I ignore them because I think they’re just keeping people busy and are of no relevance to what we’re doing.”

She said an example was that the school had been talking to the ministry for five years about suitable buildings, and only recently received two buildings that were late by 12 months.

What a stark difference. My hope is that many existing state schools convert to be charter schools also and free themselves.