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Speaker 1: It's my uplifting story that week involves charter schools. Now,

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Speaker 1: charter schools are the little idea that could, or maybe

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Speaker 1: they're the big, game changing idea that could. We heard

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Speaker 1: this week of the first public school wanting to explore

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Speaker 1: the charter route. It's in Northland. It has been driven

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Speaker 1: by the realization that what they currently do doesn't work

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Speaker 1: for their kids, and that is the genesis of the

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Speaker 1: charter school thinking at the start of it all. And

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Speaker 1: remember charter schools go back to the previous government before

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Speaker 1: Labour took to them in twenty seventeen, so this isn't new.

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Speaker 1: But the basic premise was one size does not fit all,

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Speaker 1: and a lot of kids may well benefit from different

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Speaker 1: styles and approaches to learning. I've been a fan from

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Speaker 1: day one, not because charter schools are magic bullets, but

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Speaker 1: rather the simple premise that what we have demonstrably doesn't

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Speaker 1: work for everybody. You can't hide from the facts and

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Speaker 1: the truth, and our pass rates and our success rates

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Speaker 1: are shocking, and the Union simply bleeding for more resources,

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Speaker 1: even if it's a partial answer, isn't close to being

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Speaker 1: the whole answer, and their myopic view that there can

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Speaker 1: only be one way is a very large part of

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Speaker 1: the overall handbreak that has prevented real change in advancement.

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Speaker 1: The Northland School and I thought gave their excellent insight.

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Speaker 1: They said they have good people and they work hard,

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Speaker 1: but they're simply not getting the cut through, so they

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Speaker 1: need to try something different. They didn't even used to

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Speaker 1: be four charter schools, but just their ability to accept

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Speaker 1: change needs to be admired and encouraged. Chris Hopkins's Education

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Speaker 1: minister in twenty seventeen killed them, not because they weren't working,

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Speaker 1: but because he's beholden to the unions and there was

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Speaker 1: no way those schools were ever going to get a

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Speaker 1: chance to prove them wrong. So what we have seen

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Speaker 1: this time around is no shortage of demand for these schools.

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Speaker 1: In fact, more schools than there is money allocated. We

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Speaker 1: see the first public school, or at least the first

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Speaker 1: public school prepared to admit they want to look at change,

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Speaker 1: which leads surely to a growing sense charter schools might

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Speaker 1: have at last have their time. Some may well turn

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Speaker 1: out to be brilliant, lives may well be changed, and

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Speaker 1: the recognition of a decent idea may well be widely accepted,

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Speaker 1: it seems the momentum is on. For more from the

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Speaker 1: mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to News Talks at B

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Speaker 1: from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio