Free to Learn : School Choice

Earlier today Sir Roger Douglas and I released the report ‘Free to Learn’. This report is the ACT minority view on ‘Step Change’, the report of the Inter-Party Working Group for School Choice launched at Parliament yesterday. While ACT is fully supportive of the recommendations put forward in ‘Step Change’, as usual, ACT would like to take things further.

The report ‘Free to Learn’ makes recommendations that would affect the entire school system and every student, not just the 20% of bottom performers and the top 5%. If real education reform is to occur then every student must benefit. Our recommendations cover several areas in the education system including, teachers and training, information, property, and funding.

‘Free to Learn’ puts forward a case for enabling a range of providers to enter the market, for schools to have the independence to innovate and meet student needs, and for funding to be available to every family to take to the school of their choice. These changes would inevitably create a diverse, competitive, innovative, and accountable education system.

Most importantly, it creates an equitable education system. School choice in New Zealand is currently only truly available for those who have the capacity to pay for tuition fees or who are willing and able to make enormous sacrifices to do so. Creating a system where choice is available from among a range of options and where money follows the student ensures that every family, regardless of income, can select the best education for their child.

ACT has long campaigned for school choice in New Zealand. ‘Free to Learn’ builds and expand on our existing policies. With one in five students currently failing, our education system is clearly in need of change. ‘Free to Learn’ proposes a system where schools have real incentives to raise student achievement. This is the only way we can ensure that every student in New Zealand is well-educated and can leave school with the necessary skills to make a meaningful contribution to our society.

You can download a copy of 'Free to Learn' from the right-hand column of the www.roy.org.nz homepage. Simply click on the image of the report cover.