It is questions like these that politicians and teachers' unions often profess to know the answers to, but very rarely are we, the players of this game that is our education system, asked these questions directly.
Obviously, as one student, I could never portray the viewpoints that every individual youth might have, but I do feel that at least one student's thoughts might be a valuable factor when considering this debate.
Charter schools will dramatically alter the choices that we students face as we move from our intermediate school years through to secondary school.
In Wanganui we are unlikely to see charter schools very soon, as they are only being trialled initially in South Auckland and Christchurch.
But if these did make their way to Wanganui, how might we, as students, view our options?
Well first, it is likely that students who are denied access to Wanganui High School, can't afford to go to Collegiate and are unsatisfied with the alternatives in Wanganui, might start to wonder what they've got to lose by at least trying one of these charter schools. Schools which specialise in teaching trades, focusing on classes such as woodwork or mechanics, might crop up, appealing to students who already know they aren't suited to the textbook lifestyle.
Alternatively, a school rather similar to Wanganui High, with a mainstream curriculum, may establish itself, and take some of the spillover of students who want to go to Wanganui High School but are prevented from doing so by limits that the Ministry of Education has placed on Wanganui High's roll.
The salient point is that we students would have greater choice.
If we aren't satisfied with what is being offered to us at the moment, at the very least we are given one or two extra options.
The PPTA has been telling us, in response, that these will be schools run by private corporations with a hidden agenda.
In one case, we were told that we would be forced to sit in a school owned by the Ronald McDonald Foundation, with insidious maths questions designed to advance the interests of the McDonald's brand.
My friends and I have resorted to telling horror stories about maths exams with questions such as, "If you bought one Happy Meal for the low, low price of $6.50, and you decided to purchase an extra delicious and refreshing frozen Coke for just $3.10, how much would your scrumptious meal cost you in total?"
No, the reality is that the unions are right: many of these schools will face a profit motive. But the only way they will make a profit is if they appeal to us and our parents.
The only way they will attract students, and thus receive the funding for us from the government, is if they manage to provide a school, teachers, and classes that we actually like and get something out of.
I have asked my friends, "What's so wrong about that?"
Silence generally reigns.
So when we hear news of and debate over "government mandates" or "union antipathy" it would pay to consider the group of people in society that voting laws prevent from giving the government that very mandate: kids at school.
We will be affected by charter schools, and I tend to think that it is us the education system has been failing up until now.
Charter schools will give us more choice.
Why not let us be a part of that choice?
James Penn is a student at Wanganui High School and represented New Zealand in debating.
