Education Minister claims not in 'public interest' to reveal charter school closures

Labour Education Minister Chris Hipkins today refused to shed any light whatsoever on four charter schools being potentially scrapped before their intended opening in 2019.

Asked by ACT MP David Seymour in parliamentary question time whether he could indicate with "some confidence" that the charter schools contracted to open in 2019 will not go ahead, Mr Hipkins was tight lipped.

Mr Seymour was particularly interested in whether sponsors of the four schools will be notified within a reasonable time of their potential closure.

"Officials are currently in discussions with some partnership school sponsors and will soon be in discussions with all of the others," Mr Hipkins said.

"I don't believe it's in the public interest to release further information, legal or otherwise, on the implications of the removal of the charter school model could have while those discussions are taking place."  

The question from Mr Seymour comes after the Labour-led Government campaigned on closing New Zealand's 10 charter schools, and the uncertainty around four planed additional charter schools for 2019.

In a supplementary question, Mr Seymour appealed to the interests of the parents and children enrolled in charter schools to get some time-line on them potentially having to find an education somewhere else.

"That is a reasonable thing for them to ask and I've been very clear that we won't be rushing that discussion process, we won't be preempting it either, and we will certainly give plenty of notice before any change was made or implemented."

Charter schools are bulk funded by the government, which means they can do things like set their own rates for teacher pay, and they don't have to have registered teachers. 

However some of the schools themselves have made appeals to be considered "special character schools" instead, to stay open.

The problem with this is that they would no longer be bulk funded by the government, and would have to be funded like other state schools.

This they're not so keen on.