Anti-gay Peter Mortlock's City Impact Church is among the applicants A number of fundamentalist church groups have applied to run charter schools, something a Green MP describes as “scary”. Around half the applications in the latest round come from faith-based organisations. They include the education arm of the unabashedly anti-gay City Impact Church, which is led by American-style televangelist Peter Mortlock. The church was part of the ‘enough is enough’ rallies which protested civil unions and promoted "traditional family values". It already runs the private City Impact Church School, which it says “equips students to reach their God-given potential” and providing “high quality education within a Christian environment so that students can achieve academic excellence whilst growing in their faith”. The education wing of the ‘Jesus heals cancer’ Equippers Church, which spoke out against marriage equality, has applied, while Christian-based educator Alwyn Poole has applied to run further charter schools. Another application has come from the Davidic Centre Trust, a Christian organisation with global headquarters in Trinidad and Tobago. It would have a curriculum centring on the "values of the Kingdom of God" provided using a "biblical framework". Green Party education spokeswoman Catherine Delahunty says the prospect is scary, and she’s worried. “I don’t like the look of this,” she tells GayNZ.com Daily News. Delahunty believes public schools aren’t getting it right yet when it comes to protecting glbti students. “The education system has not grappled with it effectively yet. Some schools are doing a great job, they celebrate diversity in the fullest sense. But when it comes to less accountable schools, which is what charter schools are – less accountable – all they have to do is meet contracts.” The MP says there is no requirement for all teachers to be registered. “So they are paid for by the public of New Zealand, but they can stand outside New Zealand norms in curriculum. Delahunty continues “I would be really concerned about Christian fundamentalism and its attitude towards diversity. We need to question what’s happening now in schools in terms of the treatment of issues for students and also what could go on behind closed doors.” The Green MP says “a lot” of money is going into charter schools. “For example, up to $40,000 per student goes into the charters, whereas for most state schools it’s around $6,000 to $7,000, so that’s an awful lot of money for something unaccountable. “And especially if they’re reinforcing in any way the prejudices of, sadly, the still homophobic citizens that we have in this country. I think to teach children to not respect diversity is not only an immoral thing to do, it’s also a dangerous thing to do because of youth suicide - and we know that many youth suicides are associated with kids not being able to be who they are safely. That is a huge issue for us.” She says public money shouldn’t go into such schools. “This is not what we pay our taxes for,” she says. “We’re paying for them, but they’re outside what would normally be acceptable in a state system.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 17th June 2014 - 10:27am