The Government has agreed to review its interventions after complaints about the high cost of the system but the Green Party's Catherine Delahunty says it should go further.
School commissioners charge about $100 an hour, plus expenses, and the Ministry of Education only sometimes picks up the bill.
Catherine Delahunty. Photo: GREEN PARTY
In one instance, a principal says she has emptied the school's bank accounts, another has run up debts, and several say they have cut budgets for children's learning resources to pay for commissioners.
Principals also believe that some commissioners are making work for themselves because of a lack of government oversight.
The Government has agreed to review its interventions in struggling schools after complaints about the high cost of the system.
But the Greens' education spokesperson, Catherine Delahunty, says that's not enough.
"There's two things that the Greens would like to see. One is, we would like to see the ministry and the minister consider refunding schools where costs can be shown to have been a negative; and the other is freezing contracts where there is actually doubt that they've added value to the improvement of those schools."
Ms Delahunty says some schools have been disadvantaged by the cost of commissioners and other intervention measures.
