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Morphis: New Zealand School Reform Elizabeth A. Morphis Abstract: Beginning in 1987, New Zealand radically overhauled its system of education. Before this time, New Zealand operated a more traditional and centralized system, which was controlled by the Department of Education. In 1989, Tomorrow’s Schools Reform was established and the Department of Education was disbanded. By 1991, New Zealand had moved to a market-based system of education, where parents could choose their child’s school, encouraging competition between schools for students. A smaller Ministry of Education was established to set National Guidelines and distribute funds to the schools. However, each primary and secondary school was controlled by a locally elected board of trustees, who are responsible for managing the school. This research is based on past and current literature regarding Tomorrow’s Schools Reform. The first section describes the background and history, which led to the formation of a new education system. The second section analyses how New Zealand finances and regulates the schools, as well as the support services needed for the schools to function. The final part of the paper applies the previously mentioned framework and evaluates the system based on choice, social cohesion, equity and productive efficiency. Morphis: New Zealand School Reform The Shift to School Choice in New Zealand Introduction New Zealand is the size of a medium-sized American state, with approximately 4.1 million people. It is similar to the United States in terms of its social, cultural and political contexts. There is a wealthier population of Pakeha1, while the native Maori population has struggled to keep up. In addition, Pacific Islanders have settled in the poorer sections of South Auckland.2 The educational system in New Zealand is considered by many to be an example of a large-scale introduction of school choice and competition amongst schools because since 1991, children have had the option to go to any school that accepts them. Proponents of school choice believe that the school reforms in New Zealand have led to higher school achievements and lower operating costs. However, those who oppose the reforms argue that the changes in New Zealand have led to further separation between the rich and poor, Europeans and indigenous Maori and Pacific Islanders. New Zealand: History of School Choice New Zealand, is a relatively young country, only gaining full independence from Great Britain in 1947. The two countries maintained a close economic relationship following independence that led to prosperity in New Zealand. Gradually, beginning in 1 In New Zealand, the Pakeha are of European decent. They make up approximately 80% of the population. 2 Otara and Mangere are the two cities in particular. 1 Morphis: New Zealand School Reform the 1970s, as Britain’s focus turned toward the European Economic Community, New Zealand’s economy, which had relied on Great Britain began to suffer (Fisk and Ladd, 2000a, p. 16-17). Prior to the formation of the European Union, the Commonwealth countries were given economic preference in trade with Great Britain. Up until that time, New Zealand had been a strong proponent of developing the welfare state with programs run out of the government in Wellington. The loss of income from Great Britain, combined with the global economic difficulties in the late 1970s, and the stock market crash in 1987 further exasperated the financial situation in New Zealand (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p. 26-27). The government was now required to change how it funded its social programs, such as education and healthcare. In 1987, under the leadership of Prime Minister David Lange and the Labour Party, a businessman named Brian Picot3 was hired to review the way schools were administered (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p. 40 & Harrison, p. 2). After their review, the Picot Task Force found numerous problems with the state of the education system. The major concern of the Task Force was that decisions were not made by the individual schools, but by the Department of Education. Schools were not responding to parents’ needs and concerns, and the overall system was inadequately managed (Harrison, p. 2). Mr. Picot and his task force came to the conclusion that simply reforming the educational system in New Zealand would only create new problems, so instead the group decided that more of a radical change and restructuring was necessary (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p. 41). 3 Prior to being named to the Task Force, Picot was known as a successful businessman who had a chain of supermarkets throughout New Zealand. 2 Morphis: New Zealand School Reform As a result of the Picot Report, the Education Act 1989 was implemented. New Zealand made distinct changes to the structure of its educational system. The Department of Education, which was the central authority for the New Zealand schools, was virtually disbanded (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p.35). Educational responsibility was then transferred to what is known as Tomorrow’s Schools reform. The initial changes called for a smaller Ministry of Education (Fiske and Ladd, 2003, p. 100). Each primary and secondary school was turned over to a locally elected board of trustees. Parents of students and community representatives constituted the board of trustees. The goal of this change was to get feedback from the community, promote community interest in the local schools and provide additional support to the principal (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p. 37 & Fiske and Ladd, 2000b, p. 1). The boards were also responsible for working with the principal, teachers and staff and members of the community to write a school charter for each school (Harrison, p. 2). The school charter outlines the goals for the students and the mission of the school. It also acts as a contract between school, state and community (Harrison, p. 2). In 1990, a new government led by the center-right, National Party, came into power. Within a year, the new Prime Minister, James Bolger and his minister of education, Lockwood Smith introduced the Education Amendment Act of 1991 which abolished enrollment zones for schools. Parents now had the right to choose the school for their children. Schools no longer had guaranteed enrollments; instead they had to compete for students. Admissions policies were also changed. If the school had an open slot, it had to accept the student. In the case that a school had more applicants than places, however, it had the right to design their own plan 3 Morphis: New Zealand School Reform for accepting students – also known as an “enrollment schemes”. Schools had few limitations when designing their enrollment schemes. One being, that they could not violate the Human Rights Act4 or discriminate against students. This legislation changed the structure of education in New Zealand. For the first time, students were not guaranteed admission into their local school (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p. 57-58). Another reform that came with the new Education Act, and is still an issue today, is the teacher salaries. Each school was to receive bulk funding for teachers’ salaries, as well as, for operating grants (Harrison, p.2). The salary structure remained controlled by the central government. State Integrated Schools State integrated schools are privately owned schools that have since become a part of the state system. The integrated schools joined the state system in 1975, at a time when the Catholic school system was having financial difficulties (LaRocque, p.2). The government and the church leaders came to an agreement that the state would fully fund these schools and the schools would continue to own their school buildings. These schools are allowed, by the ministry to keep their unique character, which usually tends to be a religious commitment. Integrated schools, however, must follow the national curriculum set by the Ministry and are held under many of the same regulations as the state schools. In 2003, it was estimated that roughly ten percent of New Zealand’s students attend integrated schools (LaRocque, p. 2). Decile Ranking System 4 The Human Rights Act is an act of the Parliament to provide better protection of human rights in New Zealand. It specifically prohibits discrimination. 4 Morphis: New Zealand School Reform In 1995, the Ministry of Education set up a system that classifies schools by deciles. The original reason for this was to easily identify the schools that needed more money due to the number of disadvantaged students in the school. The decile ranking system was created to help the ministry distribute money to these schools by ranking them based on six criteria (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p. 80-81). The first was the ethnic mix of students in a school. The schools were given a ranking based on the proportion of students who were either Maori or Pacific Islander. Schools are also ranked based on five socioeconomic factors. These include, the number of households in the bottom portion of the income distribution, the percentage of parents who did not pass a school certification exam, the percentage of parents who receive financial support, the percentage of parents who hold lower-waged occupations and the average number of people per bedroom (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p. 80–83). Each criterion was given a ranking from one to ten. In addition, each of the 2,700 schools in New Zealand was given an overall decile ranking (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p.81). A ranking of one was the lowest and ten, the highest. Surprisingly, there are more decile ten schools than decile one schools. Decile ten schools tend to be located in urban areas, instead of rural areas. When looking at the decile one schools in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, 85% of students in these schools are either Maori or Pacific Islander (Fiske and Ladd, 2000a, p.81).
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