Charter schools are bad schools

The government has announced the framework for its new charter - sorry, "partnership" - schools. The core details?

• No requirement to teach the national curriculum
• No requirement to hire trained staff
• No requirement to pay those staff the negotiated collective rate

The upshot: deunionised schools, employing poorly-paid, unregistered "teachers" to teach quack like creationism, all funded with taxpayer's money, of course. The students of such schools will get a second-rate eduction of little relevance to the modern world, while their "sponsors" make off with fat, taxpayer-guaranteed profits.

And naturally, these schools are being trialled in poor areas first. John Key and his fellow Cabinet cronies would never dream of sending their precious kids to such institutions. But then, this isn't about giving kids a good education; its about giving public money to National's cronies, while locking in the advantages of those at the top.

Nanaia Mahuta hits it on the head:

"You wouldn't let an untrained doctor treat your child, or let anyone design your house. So why do John Banks and Hekia Parata think it is okay to have untrained teachers in front of children in our school's classrooms?"

Its a fascinating question, and I'd love to see the answer to it.