ACT's Record

ACT has driven changes that give families more choice, treat attendance seriously and put learning back at the centre of education. They include:

• Bringing back charter schools: ACT restored publicly funded, independently run charter schools, including the option for a state school to convert. As at 1 March 2026, 1,471 students were enrolled across 16 charter schools. The schools have greater freedom over how they teach and use their funding, in return for clear performance requirements.

• Getting more children back in class: Every school is now required to have an attendance management plan with escalating responses as absences mount. In Term 2 of 2026, 64.2 per cent of students attended more than 90 per cent of the term, the best Term 2 result since 2016 and up from 58.4 per cent a year earlier.

• Making achievement the main job: ACT backed changes to the Education and Training Act that make educational achievement the paramount objective of schooling. The same law introduced attendance management plans and removed the requirement for school boards to give effect to the Treaty of Waitangi.

• Feeding students for less: The redesigned school lunch programme will provide meals to around 242,000 students each school day in 2027. Its weighted average meal cost is $3.58, compared with up to $8.68 under the previous programme. The 2027 extension is expected to save taxpayers another $122 million, with part of the savings funding meals for up to 10,000 children in early learning services.

• Making ECE regulation clearer: ACT passed a law putting child safety first in early childhood education regulation while requiring rules to be risk-based, proportionate and mindful of unnecessary costs for parents and providers. A Director of Regulation now has clear responsibility for licensing, monitoring and enforcement.

• Protecting free speech at universities: Universities must adopt freedom of expression policies and report on how they uphold academic freedom. Students, staff and invited speakers should be able to test unpopular ideas instead of having them kept off campus.

The coalition Government has not gone as far as ACT would like, but it has gone further than it would have without ACT.