10. RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) to the Minister of Education: Does he agree that a scholarship for every child, as outlined in my speech to the ACT party conference on Saturday, would increase choice, allow greater diversity and flexibility, and improve educational achievement; if not, why not?

 Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Education) :No, but I do agree with the member’s opening statement in his speech that education is the key to our long-term prosperity. What I do not agree with is his plan to introduce an education voucher scheme under a new name. Such a scheme would just create winner schools and loser schools, and do nothing to improve overall educational outcomes. Although I disagree with ACT’s voucher plan, I congratulate the party on at least coming up with a policy. That is more than we can say about the National Party.

Rodney Hide: Does the Minister think it is right and fair that families that take responsibility for their children’s education and send their children to an independent school have to pay twice for that privilege, once through their taxes and again through their school fees; if so, why?

Hon CHRIS CARTER: I thought the ACT party stood for choice. Parents do have the choice to send their children to a quality State school or to a private school. The plan by ACT to have a voucher system would simply perpetuate the inequalities we had under bulk funding, which saw the development of winner schools and loser schools.

Dianne Yates: What reports has the Minister seen about the impact of voucher-style education systems?

Hon CHRIS CARTER: I am aware of research by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research entitled Can Vouchers Deliver Better Education?, which reviews international studies for their relevance to New Zealand. It concludes: “Competition for students by schools does not improve quality, achievement, or access. Such schemes favour a minority at the expense of the majority. Competition among schools is hardest on those serving lower socio-economic communities, and in fact depresses overall educational levels.” These outcomes would never be acceptable to a Labour-led Government, and I would welcome Roger Douglas’s, and, indeed, National’s education spokesperson, Anne Tolley’s, campaigning on just such a policy.

Rodney Hide: Does the Minister feel so strongly against giving parents a choice of school, including independent schools, that he would resign as Minister of Education if that were a condition of support from MMP parties for a future Government?

Hon CHRIS CARTER: I think the likelihood of Labour going into coalition with ACT is nil, especially with the addition of Roger Douglas to its party list.