A summary of the issues around charter schools in relation to students with special needs.

1. Charter Schools

2. Why?
Where was the mandate?
The “1%” policy
Where’s the need?
NZ schools are world-beating
Where’s the evidence?
Overseas evidence shows
charters do worse or no better
than public schools

3. New Zealand’s ‘ranking’
• NZ students rank 3rd in reading in the
OECD
• NZ students 6th in maths in the OECD
• NZ students rank 2nd in the OECD for
science
(PISA 2009)

4. How charters compare with public
schools in America
17% better
46% no better
37%
significantly
worse

5. It’s all about competition…
• The proposed charter school system is targeted
at “lifting educational achievement in low decile
areas and disadvantaged communities where
educational underperformance has become the
norm” (South Auckland/Christchurch)
• “Iwi, private and community (including Pacific
Island) groups and existing educational
providers would compete to operate a local
school or start up a new one”.

6. How do they run?
• Modelled on US KIPP schools and to some
extent UK ‘free’ schools – bootcamp-style, long
hours, “traditional” curriculum
• Boards of Trustees would operate the school
themselves or contract out management to not-
for-profit or for-profit education providers. Free to
set the length of the school day and year, set
their own teaching practices, raise their own
revenues, pay their teachers according to
performance, and use any approved curriculum/
qualification.

7. What about special needs
students? US evidence
Charters:
• Enrol fewer students
• Enrol children with milder disabilities
• Expel or “counsel out” children with
special needs
• Are more likely to be non-compliant
with special needs law (access,
facilities, health and safety, student
support)
•
http://www.copaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Charter-Schools-and-Students-with-DisabilitiesFINAL.pdf

8. Why are charter schools and
special needs students not a
good fit?
Culture and legal framework of charters vs
special needs
Special needs children treated as an after-
thought in the charter authorising and review
process
Incentives to “counsel out”/exclude: cost and
“accountability” (student achievement
results = threaten performance goals)

9. Evidence from New Orleans
“Choice and outcome accountability
create perverse incentives for charters
to counsel out all disabled students or
cherry pick the least disabled
students”

10. Legal or moral?
“It is not legally or morally acceptable
that these so-called “schools of
choice” that are concentrated in urban
communities and supported with public
funds, should be permitted to operate
as segregated learning environments
where students are more isolated by
race, socioeconomic class, disability,
and language than the public school
district from which they were drawn. “

11. Opportunities and threats
“Special education is a hidden
landmine for the charter school
movement”
Professor Robert Garda, Loyola University of New Orleans School of
Law, involved in current class action suit alleging discrimination in
New Orleans charter schools

12. Questions we can ask
Why have charter schools?
Do they work? Can they perform well for
special education students?
Will charter schools be subject to the same
laws protecting the rights of special needs
students?
How will the authorisation process for charter
schools include the rights of disabled
students? Does the charter outcomes
include not just academic achievement but
compliance with the civil rights of special
needs kids?

13. What’s the mood of parents?
• No mandate from voters
• Focus groups show parents sceptical – concerned that
charters would open the door to privatisation, remove
local control of schools and focus on profit not kids
• Parents agreed most strongly with the statements: “Why
doesn’t the Government invest in our local schools,
rather than send in private businesses to make a
profit out of our most vulnerable kids?” and “The
Government should address child poverty and
disadvantage, not experiment with charter schools
in our most disadvantaged communities”

14. What can we do?
• Get informed - join the Facebook group
“We Don’t Need Your Charter Schools”
• Write or talk to your MP
• Write to your local paper or comment on
online media sites and polls
• Talk to other people who you think have
an interest or influence on this issue