Charter schools in New Zealand

Charter schools in New Zealand, labelled as 'Partnership Schools' or Kura Hourua were legalized after an agreement between the National Party and the ACT Party following the 2011 general election. The controversial legislation passed with a five-vote majority. The Charter School model was heavily criticized by a wide range of educational authorities,teacher organizations, the general public and political parties who vowed to overturn it.

In 1989, the Fourth Labour Government reformed the state (public) school system in what was known as the "Tomorrow's Schools" reforms. Blaming the amount of centralised bureaucracy for slipping school standards, the government disestablished the Department of Education, replacing it with the smaller Ministry of Education and moving the governance of state schools to their individual school communities. State schools are crown entities, meaning they are government-owned and retain the strong governmental and parliamentary oversight and control in common with other New Zealand crown entities. State schools are the most common in New Zealand. Charter schools were introduced to New Zealand by Educational Secretary Lesley Longstone under the National government. She had considerable experience with these schools in the UK where they are known as Free Schools or Academies.

Apart from the numerous State schools there are several variations on the Tomorrow's Schools model, the largest of which is state-integrated schools. State-integrated schools are parochial schools or private schools that have been "integrated" into the state school system under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975, usually because they have run into financial difficulty. These schools are run the same as state schools, but they are allowed to retain their special character. Proprietors of the school (e.g. the Catholic Church in the case of a Catholic school) own the integrated school facilities and sit on the school's board of trustees, but they do not receive government funds to maintain separation of church and state, and subsequently require parents to pay "attendance dues" for upkeep of the facilities. Kura Kaupapa schools are state run schools with heavy emphasis on learning Maori language and culture but having most of the features of normal state schools.

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