Effects on families and the community:

These many ways of teacher exploitation are not the only worries within the education community. Families and local communities could also feel the potential backlash of Charter Schools. An example of this is that charter schools have the negative effect of removing funding from local state schools. In other words, creating charter schools will increase the total number of schools with the result that all New Zealand schools would get a smaller chunk of the education dollar. This could potentially harm the pockets of families that live in low decile areas. Fewer funds from the government means families would have to spend extra money they may not have and the schools would be forced to make cuts in order to stay within budget. The government has currently put aside $19 million for the first [five] charter schools and critics such as the New Zealand Educational Institute say that the funding is wasteful given the small roles in the five schools - 369 students in total at first and then rising to 800 within four years. One of the new [charter] schools has promised a teacher to student ratio of 1:15 - a better ratio than current state schools.

Many parents, especially those residing in low decile areas, may wonder why the government is setting aside $19 million of the education budget and putting it into these new charter schools; especially when that money could be used to better the schools we currently have. The money could be put to better use in current schools through expansion: Adding more classrooms with fewer students and hiring more qualified and trained teachers. The money could also be well spent on improving facilities within current schools and giving students a higher quality learning environment.